Two years after receiving federal grant money to speed up shipping and passenger travel on the railways along the West Coast, things are finally starting to happen. But don't worry--you can still ride your bike to Portland, if you'd rather. more ›

John is renting a cabin a few miles outside of Leavenworth that he found on the internet. If it isn't filled with spiders or a meth lab he will probably consider the experience a success. more ›

We can vouch for this because we've been IMing with a friend of ours who is on the Amtrak Cascades train to Portland, and other than getting false disconnection notices, it's working like a charm. We filled him on the Seattle Metblogs story about Seattle atheists buying ads on Metro. That seemed like a good use of WiFi. Tell Portland! The atheists are coming! more ›

We just ripped this off the teletype: FLOOD WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT...FOR MUCH OF WESTERN WASHINGTON...FROM THIS EVENING THROUGH FRIDAY AFTERNOON STOP. Naturally we ran straight to Cliff Mass's house and pounded on the door. Turns out he was out back building an ark. "The high resolution WRF atmospheric model we run in the department (which I show you quite frequently) indicates the potential for 10-20 inches of rain over the next two days on the windward mountain slopes. We also couple the high resolution weather prediction models and hydrological models of stream flow. The results of the latest simulations are scary, with major flooding on several rivers," Cliff told us in that wry way he has. He was still hammering and sawing when we left. more ›

Via WSDOT's Twitter, we hear that a winter storm watch predicts two feet of new snow for the Cascades by tomorrow evening. Not coincidentally, Stevens Pass will be closed for 20 minutes Wednesday "sometime between 8 a.m. and noon"--sounds like they're sending Comcast out--for avalanche preparedness work. It's always good to be prepared for avalanches, because otherwise people die. Alpental is reporting a 74-inch base up top--that's crazy. Two weeks ago they didn't have a base. more ›

So be careful! We're looking at high winds tomorrow, and by Saturday there should be a couple feet of snow in the mountains "followed by frigid temperatures." Thus far, Chinook, Cayuse, and the North Cascades Highway passes are all to be closed. We still haven't seen anything saying there will be snow within the Seattle city limits, but if you live up north, it might be time to stock up on salt for your driveway. more ›

After three and a half years of eruptions, Mt. St. Helens has had five months of silence and the St. Helens eruption of 2004-2008 has officially been declared over. The U.S. Geological Survey's Cascades Volcano Observatory has removed an elevated warning of eruption from their classification of the volcano, downgrading its status from advisory ("elevated unrest") to normal. more ›

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There’s no point suffering through all the rain out here if you can’t enjoy the scenery when the weather doesn’t suck. One of the best places to witness one of the Cascade range’s nearest and most beautiful namesakes is just a short drive east on I-90. It's ideal for this time of year when the mountains are purging themselves of the winter snow, yet the weather is agreeable enough to be out in the woods. more ›

Seattlest keeps waiting and waiting for the right weekend to head out for our inaugural hike of 2008. There are few things we love more than hiking through the cool misty forests of Cedars and Doug Firs; the monotony of one-foot-in-front-of-the-other up a mountain brings us a zen calm. After driving through the mountains for Memorial Day weekend, we were feeling especially itchy to head out on the trail. But we are going to have to wait, just like every other eager would-be hiker. more ›

So much for feeling all wonderful and relaxed after getting out of the city and off the computer for the three-day weekend. This is what greeted Seattlest at the 93 mile marker when we left The Gorge early "to miss concert traffic:" more ›