Today I started my fun officially. Mt Cabot the fittest north 4000 foot peak lay under my feet.  It was a great hike.  A bit under used perhaps I only saw two groups on the way up.  My legs started screaming at me at 3560 feet so I slowed and counted the feet til I arrived.  The little cabin is nice and cozy against the cold wind from the west.  Might actually get a frost up here at the cabin.  Sharing the cabin with a couple that were going to camp except for the crazy wind.  My timelapse camera is set for the south sky to record the Milky Way as it spins around the night sky.  So clear and open with a great view of the valley below.  I hope to get up in time to change the camera over to shoot the shadow of the mountain roll across the valley below.  

While the wind blew and blew during the night, it blew itself out, and the morning was nice and clear and cold with a beautiful sunrise in the east.  I got up in time to change the camera over to the valley below, and captured the sunrise and the change of color and the fog in the valley moving around in the valley.  Both quality is a bit eeh.  A shorter lens for the sky would have been nice, and longer for the valley.  But that is what I had.  Ill do  more again next trip.  The Panoramas however I love.  The evening sun from the porch of the cabin is my favorite.  The sky is amazing. and the valley below the trees is cleanly detailed.  The porch and the setting of the cabin is well placed and I even like my reflection in the window, and I LOVE the color.  I am glad I shot at the right time to record the range of tones perfectly.  any earlier and the sky would have been too bright to do without doing HDR work as well and that never looks quite right.  I am impressed with the smaller L bracket and rotating indexer for the panoramas, They work perfect and weigh almost nothing.  Time to sell my Giant Manfrotto set up :-)

The morning warmed up quickly and after some photography at the summit in the warm morning light I took off, pausing a couple times to capture the trail.  There are few good trail shots.  But my leggs hurt, and I was happy to see my car at the end.    Check out the photos and time lapse in the online album!

mt cabot exterior

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