Accelerated Autumn

It’s almost end of the November and definitely feels like the typical winter out here in the Pacific Northwest. It’s time again to post about what I’ve up to during the last season. My major outing was a 2.5-week trip to Japan. Other than the trip, I didn’t do too much else, just two fall foliage hikes. Here are the video/photo highlights.

The brilliant gold of the subalpine larches on the trail to Cutthroat Pass. Larch Madness up there.
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Summer Shimmers

Meteorological fall has arrived on queue in the PNW with rain and cooler weather. This is means it’s time to look back at all the (mis-)adventures I’ve been up to in the summer. Actually I didn’t do too much compared to previous years in terms of recreation, since I was dealing with a few other things. Here are the photo and video highlights.

Hiking Ptarmigan Ridge in the North Cascades. Big views of Mount Baker and Mount Shuksan, plus some fall foliage up high.
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TonyJiang.com Year 17!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Another year at TJ Online has passed. I’m supposed to make this anniversary celebration post in August, but forgot until now, like in several of the previous years. My websites are still alive. I make the odd post on this blog here and there, but no plans to do anything more. Maybe instead of drawing the background images myself, I’ll get GenAI to do it. I’ll write my own posts instead of using ChatGPT. I don’t really even check the traffic to my websites anymore, and Google Adsense revenues are non-existent for the most part. Onwards to Year 18!

Spring-Time Sessions

It’s mid June, so it’s time again for my spring time activity update on this blog. During this time, I transitioned from winter activities to summer activities. I skied in April, and started hiking in June, and collected and ate more shellfish in between. Here are the photo and video highlights.

Skiing down from the summit of Mount Bachelor. Volcano skiing!!
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New GPS Watch: Garmin Fenix 6X Sapphire

I recently upgraded my fitness tracker. I’ve used my Garmin Vivosmart HR for 5+ years. It works fine for tracking heartrate, steps, sleeps etc., but it doesn’t have a GPS and do activity tracking that well. So I ended up ponying up the cash for a Garmin Fenix 6X Sapphire GPS watch, and here’s what I think about it so far.

Garmin Fenix 6X Sapphire edition with diamond-like carbon (DLC) finish
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Winter Wanders

Spring is finally here although sometimes the weather still doesn’t quite feel like it. It’s been a while since my last update post, so here is a summary of what I’ve been up to during the winter. Like the last couple of winters, I mostly just skied during my time off. Also went razor clamming for the first time. Here are the photo (and video) highlights.

Skiing in Snowbasin, Utah with a buddy
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New Network Attached Storage: Synology DiskStation DS220+

Another tech item I purchased this year during Black Friday sales is a network attached storage (NAS). I want to setup a personal cloud where I can back up data over the internet and share photos and music, but don’t want to store my data with an online cloud provider like AWS or Google Cloud. I ended up getting a Synology DS220+, and here are my impressions unboxing and setting up my new NAS.

No fancy packaging for the DS220+
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New WiFi Router: TP-Link Deco X55 Mesh System

I bought a bunch of stuff for myself this Black Friday. One of these is a new wireless router system. I’ve been using a Netgear Wireless N150 router from more grad school days, and I get spotty connections from my bedroom and bathroom in a small 620 sqft apartment, so it’s time to upgrade. I decided to get the TP-Link Deco X55 Mesh WiFi two unit kit, and here are my first impressions.

Deco X55 two unit mesh Wi-Fi kit
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Fast Fall Follow-up

It’s almost US Thanksgiving, and it feels like winter in the Pacific Northwest, so it’s time to do my seasonal out-and-about update. My main outing during autumn was the family road trip down to Southern California, and that was a lot of fun. Other than that, didn’t do much during the fall other than some late season foliage hikes. Here are the photo highlights.

View of Lake Ann from the Maple Pass Loop. This is probably the most popular fall foliage hike in the area.
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Oregon-California Road Trip 2022

I recently went on a family road trip through Oregon and California, all the way down to San Diego. It’s been a long time since we have been in Southern California. We saw some friends and family, and visited a number of national parks along the way. It was a fun trip and here are the highlights:

Crater Lake Watchman Overlook
Crater Lake from the Watchman Overlook. Seeing that beautiful radiant deep blue that the lake is known for
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