Dick Young was another one of those silent contributors to the world of craft beer. This past Sunday we learned Dick left us, and with it, a large hole in the hearts. He remains in the thoughts of those that knew him and his labors.
Dick Young Brews No More
Someone Left the Snoqualmie Falls Tap Turned on All the Way
This is video from yesterday at the Falls. Snoqualmie Pass is closed all day as crews try to dig out and repair after avalanches and slides. WSDOT closed I-5 down by Chehalis, from milepost 68 to milepost 88, yesterday evening. The word today is that they won't have a firm ETA on reopening until after the river crests there tonight. Cliff Mass has the rainfall recap for you, broken out in radar images and chart form. After the jump, a Centralian looks at her flooding streets last night, just a year and a month since the last major flood, and even more Snoqualmie falling.
We Get All Our Flood News From Twitter and Facebook
Seattle is being followed by a rain shadow, rain shadow, rain shadow, but most of the rest of the state is not so lucky. A friend of ours just snapped this picture of the Cowlitz River down in southwestern Washington--"Yes, that's an 80-foot tree heading downstream," he added in the caption. Meanwhile, exit 72 from I-5 (that's the Napavine offramp--go Tigers!) was closed earlier today because of water over the roadway. On Twitter [#waflood] the talk is that I-5 at Centralia/Chehalis *coughfloodplain* will close around midnight (check here). [UPDATE: I-5 is closed--Amtrak is also not running from Seattle to Portland.] Not for the first or last time, of course--the twin cities got drowned in December of 2007.
Who Steals an Ambulance?!?
A future firefighter, of course. Or rather, someone who had hoped to become a firefighter, because this guy can pretty much kiss his firefighting and law enforcement career goodbye. An 18-year-old trainee with the Bucoda Fire Department stole and totaled the small town's only ambulance early Saturday morning.
Seattle to Portland: Centralia & Its Massacre
It was nearly 11 a.m. when we arrived in Centralia for the half-way point on the STP, to have lunch with David, our friend who was taking the whole course in one day. We parked in a free public lot and hurried into a little cafe called "Centralia Perk," in homage to , which was also an ice cream parlor and antique store. The temperature was already in the eighties at least, and we left a few minutes later with ice cream cones firmly in hand, to walk the half-dozen or so blocks to Centralia College, where the STP riders were coming in.
Seattle to Portland: Tenino & the Story of Ezra Meeker
At the intersection of Sussex Avenue and Sheridan Street in Tenino, a small stone stands erect on the edge of a vacant lot, with the words "Old Oregon Trail 1845–53" etched in it. Many Oregon Trail markers exist, of course, many laid at the time the trail was blazed, others—like this one—laid later to commemorate the pioneers. But this one in Tenino happens to be special: This was the first one laid by Ezra Meeker.
Seattle to Portland: The Starting Line
At 4:45 a.m. Saturday morning, July 12th, 2,427 bicyclists set out from the Husky Stadium parking lot to make the 204.5-mile Group Health Seattle to Portland Classic in one day. Fifteen minutes before that, we were drowsily slumped over the steering wheel of our car, stuck in the traffic jam on NE 45th St. headed towards University Village. Around us, cyclists with enough foresight to their bikes to the event were zooming downhill, past the poor suckers who drove.
Flooding News From Centralia
As an alumnus of Centralia Community College (out of boredom, we took a Latin class there one fall) and former southwest Washington resident, we've been following the flooding thataway with interest. A friend of ours just passed along two emails from K. in Centralia, and they can't be beat for a you-are-there feel that balances some of the apocalyptic news coverage -- let's face it, if nothing terrible happened to you, you aren't news. On...

