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New Years at Mt Rainier

2012-01-19T19:53:00.000-08:00

I have been pretty slack on the blog lately. Certainly not due to lack of time out. It has been a great season so far with lots of playing in the snow and exploring our city. Natalie and I made another attempt to get out into the Baker backcountry again and once again failed. The weather was crystal clear when we got up to the parking lot and then as soon as we skied out of the parking lot a huge cloud bank came over Shuksan and we were soon socked in. One day I will get her out there but it might be a while after that last failure. I have been up to Baker a few more time helping out with a Mountaineers Level 1 Avalanche class and that has been a lot of fun.
But more recently Natalie and I headed out of town for new years. This year we decided to do something nice and peaceful. A good friend of ours has a family cabin just inside Mt Rainier National Park. The cabin is out of cell coverage, has no running water, but does have a great fireplace and electricity. We headed out right after work on Friday.

Fondue Time

We got there Friday night about 10pm, and would have been there earlier, but we were stopped on Snoqualmie Pass for about an hour while road crews cleared a wreck. There was so much snow they were turning you around (after an hour wait) if you did not have 4wd or chains. Luckily we had both so we motored on past. Had no trouble finding the house (we both sort of remembered its whereabouts from a previous trip) and began the weekend with cold beer we picked up from UBER on our way out of town. Had two beers each and headed to bed. The heated blanket on the bed was amazing!!!! All weekend, it was a lifesaver as it was pretty chilly.

Saturday we slept late, drank coffee, had a late breakfast and got in an afternoon snowshoe. Came back about 4:30pm, chopped firewood, stoked up the Kerosene heater, built a fire and settled in. Natalie made cheese fondue, a fun treat, and cracked open a bottle (maybe two?!?) of wine. We ended up drinking, talking and talking; next thing we knew the new year was upon us. We rang in the New Year and were asleep before 12:30pm. Perfect.

Sunday, we got up earlier, had breakfast (bagels and eggs), and packed up for our cross country ski adventure. We drove about 15 miles to Chinook Pass, where the road was closed, and hopped on the closed road. It was a great, gradual climb and there was sunshine (for those of you who live in Seattle that is a large bright object in the sky that even shines in the winter)! We went about 2 miles, had a snack of apples, raisins, chocolate and hot tea(!), and skiied down. About 4 miles total and a great break with some fresh air and sun. The snow was really soft up there. Came back, and snacked the rest of the evening as we sat in front of the fireplace for, literally, six hours reading books, chatting and eating. So relaxing.

Monday, we slept until 9am, got up, lazily made coffee and breakfast, then proceeded to wash a weekends worth of dishes, pack the car and clean up. We left about 1:30pm and arrived home 4:45pm. A great weekend and we cannot wait to get back up there.

The road to Chinook pass

View off of the side of the road

On a roll getting to the mountains this winter

2011-12-05T19:15:00.001-08:00

Happy Dog

Sunday I was once again up at 5:30 (aarrgghh) and moving in the car by 6. Baker was supposed to have sun, perfect visibility, and low avalanche danger according to the forecast and it did not disappoint. We had a full house this trip with Ross and I in my car and Stephanie and their friend Tony in a car following with his two dogs as well as Ross and Stephanie's dog.

We pulled into the Baker parking lot about 9 and were shortly on the mountain. We did a great loop that I have wanted to do for a long time which is a circumnavigation of Table mountain. It was a beautiful loop and the mountains were out in all their glory the whole time.

We have not gotten any snow in the last week so I expected the conditions to be terrible but figured it would be worth it for the sun. The snow was great! Most of the slopes had about 8 inches of powder on top of a firm crust.

We were sidetracked a bit when Ross's front straps on both bindings decided to blow out. We had spare parts but one of the screws stripped out which made for an exciting hour of swearing mixed with actual fixing of bindings. In the end we got him back up and running and we finished the loop.

The final climb up the backside of table was pretty steep which made things a little tough but the hardest thing was that the snow condition were so mixed on the face that it was tough to get your skis to stick on the climb. In the end I took off my skis and boot packed it to the top which was completely exhausting.

We were out for seven and a half hours which included a bunch of down time for exploring, fixing bindings and being awed by the view. A great day! Can't wait to get back up there. Might make it this weekend but most likely this coming weekend will be one of staying in the city and letting the car take a breather. I might even sleep past 5:30am on Sunday.

It has been a great run so far this winter. I have been out in the back country every weekend for the last month.

Happy dog with Mt Shuksan
in the Background

View down the valley from Atist Point

Ross on the backside of table mtn with
shuksan in the background

view from the binding repair spot

Looking at the end of Table Mtn.

Looking back at Mt Baker across the lake before climbing
the saddle up to Herman
Saddle

View of Herman Saddle a.k.a. the
devil hill of mixed conditions

4 Day Thanksgiving Weekend

2011-11-28T21:31:00.000-08:00

What a great 4 days! We managed to work in a little bit of everything.

Thursday started with our annual visit to Walter and Courtney's pumpkin waffle breakfast. We visited for a while and then bundled up for our yearly walk around Greenlake.

The first half of the walk was a calm stroll in the misty cool fall weather we know and love around here. The second half of the walk the weather turned on us and we ended up using our umbrella as a shield against the blasting wind and rain. Wow it was nasty. That will be a walk we will think back to every Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving afternoon we headed down to Dan and Laura's house. We cooked, ate, drank and visited and before we knew it the clock said midnight. I have no idea where that 10 hours went. It was a great time and as always such a blast to chat and take it easy with those guys.

Friday the plan was to not leave the house. I was pretty excited to sit on the couch all day and read. I now know that i am not very good at not doing anything as I was pacing the house by 2pm. I managed to calm myself down and got in a bunch of reading which was excellent. Looking back on the weekend I am very glad that I had Friday to just take it easy as things ramped up from there.

Me mid conversation about something

Saturday I was up at 5:30am, had all the ski gear in the car, and was on the road with Ross and his dad by 6am. Ross's dad was coming up with us for a day of back country skiing. His dad is a good downhill skier but had never had to work for those turns. We got to the closed resort at about 7:30 and were on the slopes shortly after that. We headed back up to Alpental where Natalie and I had gone last week.

Well the great snow that Natalie and I had was still there but it was hiding under about an inch of ice. We started in the rain and started up to try to find the snowline. It had to be up there somewhere. Well I am sure it was up there but we certainly could not find it. We turned around at about 4500 feet and headed down.

Ross's dad at the top of the climb

It is days like that when I am so happy I snowboard. Ross and I were able to make the best of the terrible conditions and wring a few great turns out of the descent but Ross's poor dad had an awful time. The snowboards let us float enough that we acted like ice breakers and were able to make turns and descend. Skis proved a lot more challenging though and pretty much took all the fun out of the descent.

We all arrived at the car smiling though and it was a great workout. Amazing how much conditions can change in a week. We will see what next week has to bring.

After I got home saturday I put up all my ski gear and got out my running gear so I would be ready Sunday morning for the Seattle 1/2 marathon. As I was getting my things together Natalie decided she felt like running it too. Our friend Jake had a packet that he had picked up for a friend who was not doing the race so on the spot the decision was made and Natalie was in. I love that she can just jump off of the couch and run 13.1 miles.

Everyone at the finish line!

Sunday morning we were up at 5:30am and out the door by 6:30 headed down to the race. We had 4 people running. Natalie, myself, and our neighbors Jake and Stephanie. This was Stephanie's first 1/2 ever which was exciting. When we were walking to the start it was cloudy but dry and about 50 degrees, pretty much perfect. Just as we started the rain started. It poured the entire race. That might sound terrible but it was actually great. It felt so good to have the rain in your face, made me feel alive.

Everyone had a great run! Natalie ran a sub 2 hour race (with no training), Jake hit his goal of just over two hours, Steph came in at her goal and checked off her first 1/2 marathon. I was psyched to come away with my personal record of 1:52. After not really training that much and skiing the day before I could not be happier. We spent the rest of the day watching three movies as it poured outside. Great finish to an excellent 4 day weekend.

Quick trip to Alpental

2011-11-22T21:56:00.000-08:00

Sunday Natalie and I got out into the snow for a really nice back country ski tour. I recently finished a back country setup for Natalie and wanted to find somewhere close to test everything out with her before we made a real road trip somewhere. Luckily for us Alpental ski resort, which is only an hour from the house, has not opened for the season yet. There is pretty good snow cover everywhere but the weeds are still sticking up.

Natalie was not feeling so hot but she was a trooper and headed up anyway. At the house the sun was shining and the sky was blue. We were a little sad that when we made it up to the mountain the blue skies were replaced with clouds but there was very little wind and the snow was in great shape.

This was my first trip up to Alpental so we wandered around for a little while trying to find the easiest way up. After a long traverse across the resort we headed up. We were out for about 3 hours and got fairly high on the mountain before taking one nice long run back to the car.

It was great being out with Natalie on such a nice day. I love that my wife is game for getting out in the cold and skiing around for the day. I am hoping that the resort does not open for a few more weeks so maybe we can get another trip or two in up there. Nice only driving a hour from the house rather than the normal two and a half or three to Mt Baker.

First backcountry snowboarding day of the season

2011-11-14T11:43:00.001-08:00

Ok, I really will get the Italy posts up soon. Until then I thought I would put up a quick post about this past weekend.

The snow has started coming down up in the mountains and it was time to go visit it. The plan was pretty simple. Ross and I headed out of Seattle at 6:30 Sunday morning headed to Mt Baker. We headed up to Heliotrope ridge. This is the same approach I used a few months ago when a group of us climbed to the top of Baker.

There was a lot more snow than I expected. I had to not only be in 4wd to get to the trailhead but I also had to put on chains. In November?

We hiked the first little bit and started with a sketchy river crossing but past that we split the boards and skinned up. It took about two and a half hours to get to the toe of the glacier and we climbed for about two hours past that. It was slow going due to the wind moving around the snow. Some places were were knee deep super soft snow and then we would round a bend to a wind scoured face that we had to be very careful to keep an edge on.

After two hours of climbing the day was getting late and the weather started to turn on us so we put the splitboards back together and pointed them downhill. What a blast! We dropped 1000ft of elevation gain in no time. The snow was fantastic and neither of us could wipe the smile off of our face at the bottom.

Only a few pictures due to the weather and high winds. Hopefully this is another start to a great season.

Still working on the post for Italy but until then...

2011-10-24T14:57:00.000-07:00

I am way behind in my posting. Still working on going through the 2000 photos we took in Italy and getting posts together. Stay tuned for those and a few other trips but just to hold you over I just ran across a video a long lost friend of mine from Boone made. Amazing stuff. Will catch up with you one of these days Brad.....

Shoot the Trails 2011, Brad W on pinkbike.com

Amazing hike up Mt Tenariffe last weekend

2011-08-30T21:22:00.000-07:00

Click for more pictures

This summer has been a blur so far. We have been visiting family in Denver, hiking a bit, went to see Phish at the Gorge Amphitheater, I had a great weekend with the guys up in Vancouver for my buddy Dan's bachelor party, and so much more. Summers in Seattle are pretty nuts because we try to pack a whole year into 4 months of summer. It has been a blast but has gone by so fast. Natalie and I are just about to head out to Italy for a belated honeymoon so stay tuned for pictures from that amazing trip. We cannot wait.

Getting back on topic for this post though we checked off a hike recently that we have been wanting to do for quite a while. We made a few wrong turns but in the end we made it to the top of Mt Teneriffe. This is right next to Mt Si and Mailbox peak which we have done numerous times but I have to say this was much better. There are far less people and the view is amazing. All in all a great day to be out hiking.

Mt Baker via Coleman Route

2011-07-12T19:30:00.000-07:00

View all the pictures from the trip by clicking on the image above

This past weekend Natalie and I headed up to climb Mt Baker with a group of 4 other folks. We headed out with Dan, Laura, Matt (we climbed Adams with him before) and Kent (a buddy of Matt's).
We arrived at the trailhead at 9:00am and were shortly on the trail. We wandered through the forest for a few miles and eventually popped out onto a snowfield at the edge of the tree line. Rather than take the real trail we just started heading up the snowfield.

Around 6000 feet we took a break to rope up into our teams. We setup as two teams of three so that one team could help the other if something were to happen. The snow was soft from the sunny weather so we kept the crampons in the pack.

The climb was beautiful, with Baker looming over us. It was amazing, and messed with our minds a bit, to see the summit we were headed to off in the distance.

It was a tough climb but before we knew it we reached camp at 7500 feet. We stopped with an amazing view of Baker. Everyone was getting pretty hungry so the first order of business was melting snow for water and getting some food going.

The plan was to wake up at midnight and start hiking at 1:00am so it was an early night. It is tough getting to bed at 6pm with the sun still blazing away. We had eye masks I had picked up but it still took a few hours before I was able to wind down from the hike and fall asleep.

Beep! Beep! Beep! 12:00am showed up before we knew it. I cannot remember falling asleep at all but the alarm beeping away woke me right up. Well I did lay around questioning my sanity for a few minutes but manged to get myself moving. We had put all of our summit day gear to the side the day before so Natalie and I quietly gathered our stuff and geared up.

We were roped up and moving at 1:30am. A little late but better than Mt Adams where we slept through 4 people's alarm clocks and woke up 2 hours late. So I call it a success. We were the first group awake, the stars were out, and it was completely silent. You could barely make out the darker darkness that was Mt Baker in the dim starlight. Wow, that is a long way up.

The morning was filled with crunching ice under my crampons and the zip zip zip of the rope on the snow as we ascended. It is amazing how we just fell into a rhythm of step step breathe, step step breathe, and gradually ticked off the feet to the top. I think Natalie and I started to feel the climb at about the same time. I don't know if it was the exertion, altitude, or just being a little loopy from getting up at midnight but we hit a mini wall at about 10,000 feet on, ironically, an area called The Roman Wall. This was a 30-45 degree slope of about 1000 feet and is the final push to the summit. We pushed on though and gradually worked our way up. As we crested the top of the wall the sun began to rise over the north cascades and was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. We were surrounded by jagged peaks turned pink by the sun peaking over the horizon. Just incredible....

We hit the top at about 5am, sat down and took in the show as the sun came up.

We were on top for a bit before the cold winds drove us to pack up our gear, tie back in to the ropes, and head down.

The hike down was pretty cool because we got to see everything we had come up in the dark. There were a few sections where we were pretty happy we did not see what we had been climbing. Mostly though it was hard to not take in the sights on the way down. We could see the San Juan Islands out in the middle of the sound. Rainier was peaking out to the south, and all around us the glaciers were lit up.

It took us a few hours to get back to camp. We all fell into our tents for a quick 45 minute nap, then packed up and headed out. It was about 3pm when arrived back into the parking lot and all groaned with satisfaction as we dropped our packs that seemed to have gotten heavier throughout the day.

It was an incredible trip, and I have to say I am hooked. Today I actually feel pretty good, my legs burn but are not any worse than after a 1/2 marathon. It was certainly one of the hardest things I have ever done but was worth every step. Rainier next year guys? I hope so. Hopefully I will get the chance to do Mt Adams in a day sometime in early August as well. Can't put up the crampons just yet.

Quinault Lodge Weekend

2011-07-11T18:00:00.000-07:00

A few weekends ago my parents came into town. We have hit most of the Seattle sights so this trip we decided to get out of the city. We headed to the Quinault Lodge.

We left town a little later than we would have liked and after stopping over in Olympia for a little dinner we rolled into the lodge at about 11:30pm. This was a very cool place. I felt like I had walked onto the set for The Shining. If I kid on a bigwheel had come around the corner it would have been extra spooky.

This lodge was built in 1926. Franklin D Roosevelt visited in 1937 and 9 months later signed the bill creating Olympic National Park (inspiration?). Other than the dining room addition the lodge appeared to be all original. The fireplaces were huge and had a fire burning in them throughout our visit. We spent quite a bit of time on the couches in front of the fire visiting and catching up.

This was the rain gauge
showing 13.5 feet for the year

We made one side trip out to the coast. We stopped at a few roadside areas to check out the "large cedar" as the sign put it. After a while I picked a random spot overlooking the pacific and we setup our picnic we had brought along. As we were setting up I noticed a whale rolling along off the coast. He went back and forth in front of where we were for almost the whole time we there. About the time the whale show ended a peregrine falcon cruised by very slowly not caring about us at all. All in all we could not have timed the wildlife any better.

All too quickly Sunday rolled around and we headed back to Seattle. It was a great weekend and very nice to see my parents.

Riding mountain bikes again!

2011-06-29T22:22:00.000-07:00

A few weekends ago Natalie and I headed over to Whidbey Island for the weekend by ourselves. We have been doing tons of weekend trips lately with groups and decided it was time to get away by ourselves. We packed up the condotron (our huge car camping tent), bikes, and headed to a campsite at Fort Ebey State Park that Natalie had reserved.

We stopped along the way for a great dinner looking out over the water. We took our time and just enjoyed being by ourselves with nowhere to be.

We actually took our time a little too much because by the time we got to the campground it was 10:45pm and the gates were closed. Hmm, well guess we are sleeping on the side of the road. We put all of our gear into the front seat and inflated our mattress in the back and promptly fell asleep.

About 6am we were woken up to a ranger knocking on the window. I opened the door and said I was sorry we were sleeping on the side of the road but we had gotten in late. He said not to worry and to come on in at our convenience. Just as he was about to walk away he added as though it were an afterthought, "just for future reference in Washington State we close the gates at night but don't lock them". Ha! Well at least we were comfortable in the car all night even if we didn't have to be. We laughed and then went back to sleep until about 9.

I had brought the bikes thinking we could ride along the coastal road but when we checked in the guard mentioned that all of the trails (and there were tons of them) were legit to ride bikes on. Hmm.

We setup camp and decided to go for a ride. Before moving out to Washington I use to go out and ride huge loops in the Wilsons Creek Area with a great group of guys. If I was not working I was out biking. Then I moved to the mountain bike mecca and hung up my bike. I guess I got a little burned out and rediscovered backpacking. It has been a great switch but getting back on the bike the other weekend certainly reminded me why I love riding so much. These trails were not hard at all but they were right above Puget Sound and were fast and fun. We had a blast riding for about 3 hours and then headed back to camp to get cleaned up for dinner.

We had a great dinner at the Oyster Catcher before heading back to the silence of the condotron. It was a great weekend of hanging out with each other. I hope we can get in a few more before the end of summer.

A Sunday of Practice for Baker

2011-06-10T19:19:00.000-07:00

Click the image above for all the pictures

Our climbing date for Mt Baker is rapidly approaching and seeing how our snow travel knowledge is limited our climbing group had scheduled a day to go over these techniques. Matt and Kent have lots of experience and it was great to get out for the day and learn some new things.

We headed up to Alpental resort which is just little over an hour east of Seattle. I could not believe how much snow was up there in June. We had no problems getting on snow right out of the parking lot.

The weather was not quite what we had hoped but the clouds did keep the snow from getting too slushy so that was good for self arrest practice.

We were out there for about 5 hours and practiced snow travel while roped up as well as various ways to self arrest. My favorite was to arrest and catch yourself as well as a person roped from you that had fallen. Amazing how much weight you can catch. Check out the pictures from the link above. I am pretty psyched with how a few of the action shots came out.

Memorial Day Hike Down Chelan Lakeshore Trail

2011-06-09T22:05:00.000-07:00

Click Image For All The Pictures

I have been a little slow posting this because work has been crazy. But finally the true story will get out! Well that was dramatic.

Anyhoo, this was an amazing trip. The plan was to leave Seattle Friday afternoon and make the three and a half hour drive to Chelan to car camp the first night, then catch a boat to our trail (lakeshore trail), have another overnight hiking up to the town to Stehekin where we would stay for one more night and then head back into Seattle.

As has been the theme of my life lately work ran late Friday and it was 7:00pm before I even made it to Laura and Dan's house. Luckily Natalie had the brilliant idea the night before that even though I was planning to come home first I should still put all of my clothes in the 4runner so that I could just meet her at Dan and Laura's house if time ran short. So, I pulled up to their house, changed, and we hit the road.

Our ferry getting ready to depart

The positive side of getting out of town late was we missed most of the traffic. We were up and over the pass before we saw the slightest backup. We headed up and over the pass, into the dry side, passed the fields of wind turbines, and cruised into Chelan well after dark. We pulled up to the campground after a few exciting moments of driving and arrived at a sign saying the campground was full. Not surprised, as we had called ahead and were told it would be full, we thought we would ask the helpful attendant wrapping up her shift in the booth (11:30pm). We pulled up nicely and said, "we know the sign says you are full but we thought it was worth asking, if you are full do you know somewhere else we could camp?" The response from the booth was "seriously?!?" Apparently she thought that we meant we needed a campsite for the weekend which is just a little crazier than asking for the night (on memorial day weekend). Turned out there was a spot and a great one at that. We setup the condotron (our huge car camping tent), had some wine and snacks and headed to sleep.

Just a few backpackers on this boat

We woke up Saturday to sunshine. Sweet sweet sunshine..... We headed over to the ferry which took us 45 minutes up the lake to the Prince Creek trailhead. The lake was crystal clear like Tahoe or Lake Como. Just beautiful with huge cliffs in places and rolling hills in others. We moved through pockets of sunshine and into dark black ominous clouds promising to drench our backpacks riding on the front of the boat.

The boat was filled with backpackers and we could hardly get a seat. I was secretly pretty worried that this was going to be like hiking at Disneyland. At one point we heard several people remarking that they had never seen so many backpackers on the boat. Uhh oh....

We pulled up to our stop. I say pulled up, we actually just ran into the shore of rocks which I found odd. All these years and they have not constructed any dock? We offloaded from the front of the boat and started getting our gear together.

There were what felt like a thousand boy scouts on the boat and they all offloaded and acted as obnoxious as young boys with too much energy do. Again, I was worried, are we going to be hiking in a traveling carnival?

The first few miles were pretty crazy where we it felt like hiking in a mall but after about mile 3 everyone spread out and we had the trail more or less to ourselves. We took in the silence and marveled at the snowy peaks and the clear water. What an amazing place. We went through pockets that felt like Utah, Colorado, California, and a few sections that reminded me of hiking in Linville Gorge back in NC.

Home sweet home

Our first day was supposed to be 7 miles but the campground was pretty full so we pushed on until we found a spot around mile 8 that was one of the best campsites I have ever had. We were perched above the lake, and could see peaks popping out of the clouds in front of us, with the the lake to our left and right. Not too shabby. We got camp all setup, Dan and I did a cross country trip down the mountain to filter water from the lake, and then we all took it easy.

Sunday we woke up to clearing skies and birds chirping away. We took our time getting packed up and having breakfast and I think it was getting toward noon before we headed out of camp. The hiking was just as amazing. We headed through several areas that had burned and the wildflowers were in full bloom. For some reason I got home with only one flower picture.

We went over some crazy creek crossings, took in the sun that had decided to show up and enjoyed being outside.

Throughout the day we would pass some lucky folks cabins that were tucked away in the woods. There was not any power or water so many were very basic. Water piped in from a stream and power was either a solar array or maybe a generator. It was neat to check out the different styles.

Float plane waiting to load up

About 5pm, after 11 miles of hiking, we rolled into Stehekin. I was expecting memorial day busyness and too much commotion in too small a space. I was wrong. We came into town and it was dead silent, almost spooky because of my expectations. We walked up to the ranger station and were given our campsite number and permit. The girls headed off to claim our spot while Dan and I went down to "Store" to pickup beer. I say "Store" because that was actually the name of it. This great town had Restaurant and Store. Store turned out to have quite the beer selection and the prices were surprisingly good considering this town is so remote the only way to get things to it are to:

1. Walk
2. Fly a floatplane
3. Take the ferry

We stocked up on beer and snacks and headed back to camp where the girls were getting our site setup. Oh yea, we took a side trip to Restaurant to make a reservation for the night since as the ranger had advised.

After having a celebratory beer and getting camp setup we ate a great dinner at Restaurant and took in the peace and quiet of Stehekin. I instantly fell in love with the town. Quick fact, there are a total of 85 year round residents of Stehekin.

We spent the night setup by the lake singing hip hop songs and having a great time.

Monday arrived too quickly and we all rolled out of bed excited to grab some breakfast. This meal would not be at Restaurant, we instead headed out to a place with a name that is too long for this town, the Stehekin Pastry Company. We were told we had to check it out before we even got into town. We decided not to rent bikes to get out there (rented by the hour, how cool is that) and instead stretched our legs and walked the two miles to the bakery. It was worth every step. The food was great. We got more than we could ever eat and left fat and happy.

Too quickly it was time to pack up and catch the ferry back to the car. I cannot wait to get back to Stehekin. We were planning trips to return on our boat ride back to the car.

Mailbox and Si in 1 Day / Walking like Frankenstein today

2011-05-24T21:01:00.000-07:00

Mailbox peak last summer

So in preparation for various mountain climbing plans this summer (Mike and Katy are doing Rainier and the usual gang of four are doing Baker) the stupid idea was hatched to do Mailbox peak followed by Mt Si this past saturday. It sure sounded like a great idea at the bar and truth be told it really was a great day of hiking.

Mailbox peak this past weekend
(the mailbox is under our hands)

So just to recap this brilliant plan. Mailbox peak climbs 4000 feet in 2.5 miles, easily the steepest trail I have ever hiked. It is an out and back so the downhill might be worse as you beat your knees into the ground. Then it is a quick drive to Mt Si which climbs 4000+ feet over 4 miles.

We got up Saturday at 6:15 and were on the road by 6:45 with coffee in hand. We all met up and headed to the Mailbox peak trailhead. The weather was cool and threatening to rain but held off the whole day. The clouds rolled in and out letting us look back down to the lush green valley off and on. At one point I just kind of got in the zone and hiked up ahead by myself enjoying the snow, mist, and clouds. Mike and Katy were testing out boots to hike Mt Rainier in (which weight about 19lbs each) so they were really weighted down. The gang of four (Natalie, Dan, Laura, and myself) made it up to the top in a time that surprised us all, checked out the top and headed down before our body temps could drop too much. We passed Mike and Katy on the way down not too far from the top and were happy to see they were in good spirits despite the torture devices strapped to their feet.

Back at the parking lot we all agreed that the first leg of the trip had gone well. We ate, and rested until the whole group was back together and then headed off for mountain #2.

The hike up Si went really well, we just chatted away and before we knew it we were near the top. The last 100 yards I was pretty much ready to be finished but overall we all felt great the whole hike. We all ended up running down the first half of the downhill just to save our knees a little. I ended up running nearly the entire 4 miles back down. It felt great to tear past the mile markers. 4, 3.5, 3, 2, wow I am almost at the parking lot, 1, well I will keep running now, and bam I was done. Peeling off boots has never felt so good. We had a celebratory beer in the parking lot and then headed out for food.

What a great hike. I can certainly say we are all ready for our respective climbs. Next weekend is a long weekend of backpacking. Heres hoping the weather will cooperate.

Back in Georgia for a few great days!

2011-05-02T21:32:00.000-07:00

More Pictures Here (click me)

Our Cabin

Since a little before I was born my parents have been visiting Vogel State Park in north Georgia. When I was born the tradition somehow shifted over to going up there at Easter. When I think back over the years if I had to identify one place where my love of the outdoors started I would say it is this park. Before my memory begins my dad was carrying me around in a backpack (sometimes getting lost) through the trails surrounding this park. I learned to fish, hike, and enjoy being out of the city, in this place. So you can imagine how excited that I was heading back to a place that holds so many memories for me.

I missed the last few years since Natalie and I moved out to Seattle but this year I headed back. This year Natalie was not able to because she was covered up with work and it did not line up with any of her holiday time but I hope next year that will be different. I caught a red eye flight into Atlanta, leaving Seattle at 11pm Wednesday night. This put me on the ground in Atlanta at around 7am. I took the train down to near my parents house where they met up with me and we headed back to the house. I pounded a coffee when I landed so I was feeling pretty good. I think at that point I was powered 1/2 by coffee and 1/2 by excitement to be back in Atlanta. My parents put me right to work re-hanging a bird feeder that had been knocked off the house. Always a good idea to be climbing 30 feet up in the air after 4 hours of sleep. :)

We grabbed some lunch and headed up to the mountains. After a few hours we arrived and it was exactly as it was 4 years ago when I had been there last. Barely any cell service, no tv, no phone.... perfect!!

Family Picture

My brother got in later that night and we had a great time catching up. The four of us spent the next 4 days just like we always did each Easter. We hiked, lounged around, visited with each other and were not bothered by the real world at all. Palmer and I even got in a full day of fishing on the Toccoa river with a guide (best Christmas present ever). The fish did not want to cooperate but we managed to get 7 in the day and it was a beautiful day. It was great being back out with my brother who I do not get to see enough. The day came to a close way too soon and we headed back to the cabin.

The whole trip actually went way to fast but that just means it was a lot of fun I suppose. It is pretty cool being in a spot where some of your earliest childhood memories are from. The place is still exactly the same and it is just as hard to leave each year.

Hopefully Palmer and I will work out a fishing trip on this coast soon and I think my parents will be out in the next few months as well so it will be good to see everyone again.

Looking forward to being back at Vogel again next year.

Lady Slipper

MTTA featured on CNN

2011-04-19T13:44:00.001-07:00

Funny timing but I was browsing around CNN today and ran across this article

http://www.cnn.com/2011/TRAVEL/04/19/remote.vacation.hike/index.html?hpt=Sbin

Look familiar?

Great weekend at the MTTA high hut

2011-04-18T19:21:00.000-07:00

This past weekend a group of us (Laura, Dan, Mike, Natalie, and myself) headed out to a place we have been eying for 3 years. The MTTA (Mt Tahoma Trails Association) maintains a small network of huts near Mt Rainier. For $18 a person per night you can rent these spots. I say spots because there are a few cabins and a yurt.

Muddy parking lot

We were originally scheduled for the yurt, with plans to rent out the whole thing. Well at the last minute Laura got an email saying that the heat at the Yurt was broken and we had been moved to High Hut. This cabin sleeps 10 so we expected company.

We arrived at the trail head around 2pm, and started getting our gear together to head up. It was sprinkling but we were all confident, or trying to be confident, that it would turn to snow up higher. I did forget to mention we had a 4 mile snowshoe ahead of us. All of the cabins are ski/snowshoe/hike in. Even better they are all off the grid and away from cell coverage. Yep, paradise....

Drying Out

It took us a few hours but we made pretty good time getting to the cabin. We were thrilled to walk in the door and not only see the cabin was better than we had expected but also that we were the only ones there.

We started flipping on the LED lights around the cabin after turning on the main power to the house (powered by a solar array). Next we tracked down the thermostat for the gas fireplace since it was 35f inside. Then we started changing into dry clothes. It had not stopped raining the whole time but was pretty moderate so we were all just damp.

After the heat kicked on and everyone was in dry clothes we all agreed this was what life should always be like. We spent the evening having a great time chatting about anything and everything. I felt like I was 10 years old hanging out in a fort I had built with buddies. Great friends and an amazing spot.

We were only there for the night as this was a scouting trip but after our experience we will be back for sure.

View of the cabin as you walk up, you can see the solar panels

Bit of snow coming over the porch railing

group shot

picture of the back door

Been in Seattle for 3 years and finally hiked the most popular hike around

2011-04-03T20:39:00.000-07:00

Camp robber Jay at the top

Had a great day in the mountains today with Mike. We headed up to Mt Si which is probably the most popular hike in Seattle. It is only about an hour out of town and is used as a training hike for Rainier and other large mountains because of its steady grade for 4 miles. You climb about 1000ft a mile for 4 solid miles.

This hike was not as hard as I was thinking it would be even though we hit snow 2 miles in and had to put on yak tracks and crampons a little after that due to the icy trail.

I have to say I have never seen such a variety of hikers on a single trail. We saw everything from guys obviously training for big mountains, with their full packs with multiple ice axes hanging off the sides, to people in jeans with duffel bags (what do you use a duffel bag for hiking?) headed to the top. There were even quite a few people in shorts. ? Do you know it is icy and really cold out here? It was great people watching.

Round trip it is 8 miles and 4000 ft of climbing. A great day to be out in the mountains.

Thanks Mike!

Jeans are the new technical hiking clothing

Catching up

2011-03-29T18:23:00.000-07:00

Time just keeps on flying. I just looked back and my last post was at the end of February. It has been a busy winter of playing.

You just don't see that every day.

The first weekend of the month we headed down to Denver for Monica's baby shower. We all got a chance to catch up a little Thursday night then Friday morning Dave and I headed for Vail. It was my first time riding with Dave and we had a blast. We found plenty of tight tree runs and he some great video that I still need to get a hold of. I ended up ripping a giant hole in my jacket from a close call with one tree. At the end of the day we retired for beer and pizza and were joined at the house by Slick Lettuce. I have not gotten to see Slick since the wedding so it was great to catch up. You know good friends when you just pickup right where you left off.

Dave, Slick and I were back out at Vail Saturday morning and had to search a little for untouched snow but found plenty. It was a great day of getting out in the snow with the guys. The day ended way too quickly and we all agreed we would meet back up in Denver later that night.

Dave and I hit the road and after 2 coffee breaks we had him back in Denver in time to catch the tail end of the baby shower. We wrapped up the festivities and then all adjourned to the Berkshire Restaurant (Dave's brothers restaurant) where we got to see all the baby shower attendees as well as have a special visit from Slick Lettuce and Amanda (old friends from NC). We were so psyched that they made it out. It really was crazy because we just picked up like we had just seen each other yesterday. We really miss those guys and were so happy to catch up.

Too quickly we were back on a plane to Seattle.

The second weekend of the month we had our annual gathering up in Baker. We ended up with 6 great friends. The group was Natalie, myself, Dan, Laura, Ross, and Stephanie. The plan was to get out and snowshoe/ski and play outside. Unfortunately the weather was a bit of a bust and Dan had managed to stick a cheese knife through his foot a few days before so our outdoor adventures changed over to hanging in the hot tub and drinking a few growlers of beer from the brew pub down the street. Not a bad weekend at all.

Again too quickly we were in the car and headed back to Seattle.

In the spirit of not being home at all for the month Natalie headed out to a friends wedding the weekend before last and I headed up to the mountains to splitboard with a few friends. It was a great day in the snow. Perfect powder in the trees and a great group of people. We ended up getting about 6000 feet of climbing in over 11.2 miles. A great day!

And last but not least last weekend Natalie and I had our first weekend together in a month last weekend. It was great to not be in a hurry all day or feel like we needed to be anywhere. We got up Saturday morning and headed out to a cool breakfast place in Freemont, then headed over to the Burke Museum to catch a photography exhibit called The Owl and the Woodpecker. Amazing photos!!

This weekend is looking like we will be in town again and we are not sure what to do with ourselves. I am going to try to get out skiing but the conditions are looking a little dicey right now. Hopefully mother nature will get her act together.

Snow Caves and Back Country Skiing

2011-02-09T20:03:00.000-08:00

A few more pics (here) and (here)

This past weekend was the second field trip with the back country ski class I am taking. The plan was to get in some skiing, dig snow caves and sleep in them. It was a success...

At 4:30am Saturday morning much to the delight of Natalie my alarm started going off. Ross and I were scheduled to be on the road headed to Mt Baker by 5am. Anyone who knows me knows I was less than excited to be up so early but after a Red Bull and some cereal (breakfast of champions) I was feeling better.

Skinning up

We pulled into the Baker parking lot at 7:45, got dressed and met up with the rest of the class. There were about 20ish people total on the trip including instructors. After breaking up into two groups we headed for Artist Point which was about a mile and a half away.

After a few hours of skiing we rolled into camp and chose our sites to dig our cave for the night. Ross and I lucked out and got a primo spot in a large berm of snow. This cave was going to be awesome!

It took just under two hours and lots of sweat but we built a sweet cave. We had room to fit all of our gear and lay down comfortably. The pictures make the ceiling look low but we could easily sit up with room to spare. The only tight spot was getting in and out of the cave as you had to go down under the wall through a narrow cave area. You can see Ross digging out that part in the picture down below.

About 3pm everyone was wrapping up their construction so we decided to get in a quick ski down the Swift Creek drainage right behind camp. The snow was pretty nasty and had a crust on top that kept even the best skiers on their toes. It was nice to be out and good to warm up on the climb back to camp.

Digging in

The night was spent melting snow for our water the next day, cooking dinner, and then a good group get together to go over the plan for the next day. In the end due to the weather report not being great for the next day the plan was that there was no plan. We all headed back to our caves and tucked in for the night hoping to wake up to powder on the ground and no rain falling from the sky.

Cozy in the cave

Sunday morning brought clouds and snow. The visability was terrible so we did a little navigation practice to deal with whiteout conditions and then called it a trip. It was sad to not get in the tour I was hoping for but it was the right call given the weather. We all had an interesting ski back to the car with full
backpacks. Once you get 30+ pounds of camping equipment moving it does not want to stop. We did a quick debrief at the parking lot and headed back to Seattle.

The next trip is at the end of the month and I have my fingers crossed for better weather that time around. All in all sleeping in a snow cave was a complete success!

Wedding Photo Video

2011-01-31T20:01:00.000-08:00

I have been meaning to post this for a long time. This is a video that our photographer put together for us. This version is pretty lo resolution. If you would like something higher quality you can download it from here (click me). Enjoy!

Video Clip from the Other Weekend

2011-01-26T22:12:00.000-08:00

The other weekend when we were up on Baker we saw some lines coming off of Goat mountain. Turns out it was these guys. What a ride!

Two Days in a row in the mountains!

2011-01-24T19:08:00.000-08:00

Saturday (all pictures here)

Saturday was the first field trip for my back country ski class. Ross and I were up at 5am (ughhh) and on the road by 5:30 with coffee in hand. We met up with the whole class up at the Stevens Pass parking lot about 8:00 and after breaking into groups we headed out. The day started really cloudy and snowy so I did not have high hopes but the group was great and we were on the snow so I was psyched. Well about 30 minutes out of the parking lot the sky cleared and soon the sun was shining. It turned into an amazing blue-bird day!

Our group consisted mainly of splitboarders which was pretty cool. We spent most of the day going over basics and exploring the back country. It was not anything with amazing runs or huge vertical drops but it was a good tour and gave me a great base knowledge of the area so I would feel comfortable getting back out with with one or two other people and getting some good turns in.

We met some great people and I am really looking forward to the next trip we have scheduled the first weekend of February up at Baker. I will have my fingers and toes crossed that the weather cooperates.

Sunday

Sunday we met up with the recently expanded couples hiking group of Mike, Katy, Dan, Laura, Natalie, and myself for a little snowshoe exploratory mission. I have been reading a bit about people skiing and snowshoeing in the commonwealth basin just past Snoqualmie Pass and thought it would be a fun trip for everyone to wander around a bit. We arrived to a very full parking lot and had a great hike up the PCT (Pacific Crest Trail). We did not get any real views because it was pretty foggy but it was great getting together with everyone. We all caught up and got some exercise. What more could you want? We ended up hiking about 6 miles which was about perfect. After the snowshoe we all loaded up and headed for Snoqualmie Brewery to gorge ourselves on beer and pizza. Always one of the best parts of the trip. Thanks guys it was a great time!!

Amazing Weekend in Mt Baker Back Country

2011-01-10T20:38:00.000-08:00

All the pics here

Well my neighbor Ross and I have been taking an AIARE Level 1 Avalanche Training Course for the last few months and this weekend was the final round of training. Up until now everything has been in the classroom but this weekend we headed up to Mt Baker to see the terrain first hand.

Saturday we stayed pretty close in to the parking lot and did work searching for beacons of "buried victims" to help us learn how to use our avalanche beacons and feel confident that we could find and dig someone out if we had to. I hope I never have to use those skills but it sure is nice to have them. So Saturday was spent digging pits to observe snow layers and playing hid and go seek with buried beacons. It was pretty chilly since we were not moving too much but a great day to be outside.

Saturday after spending the day in the field we went back to the cabin and met as a group to plan our travel plan for the next day. We chose to head up to the artist point area which I have been to before and is the place I tried to take Natalie a few weeks ago.

Working our way up

Sunday we woke up at 6:00am to clear skies and cold temps. The whole day ended up being blue skies and cold. Perfect!! We left the parking lot at 9:00am and returned at 4:00pm. The day flew buy. We moved around a bunch, made a lot of observations about the snow conditions and even got in a few amazing powder turns.

The pictures say it all I think. Beautiful weekend and I can't wait to get out again. Hopefully the weekend will be nice so a group of us can get out into the snow again.

Some days mother nature just cannot be beaten.

2010-12-27T20:00:00.000-08:00

Natalie and I had a great Christmas weekend. We spent Friday and Saturday laying around watching movies and just being lazy. It is so nice to not have anything that we need to do.

Sunday we were getting a little stir crazy so we headed up to Mt Baker. Before we left I knew that a big front was supposed to come in Sunday night and drop a bunch of snow but the weather was clear as we headed up the mountain. As soon as we pulled into the parking lot the snow started really flying. We geared up and headed out and the weather just kept getting worse. As we left the resort gates and headed out of bounds we knew the storm had showed up early and it was going to be a short trip.

We made it 300 yards outside of the ski area boundary before the wind and snow cranked it up the final notch. So we tucked our tails between our legs, admitted we had been beaten and headed back to the car. It was a rough ride back but we made it after not too long.

Days like that make the sunny ones so nice. You win some and you lose some. The beer at Boundary Bay Brewery coming back home was tasty as always though.

Great day in the mountains Sunday

2010-12-21T22:03:00.000-08:00

This past weekend Natalie, Ross, and I headed up into the mountains for a little splitboard/AT adventure. Ross just got a new splitboard (snowboard that turns into skis for the trip up), and I had rented Natalie some AT ski gear from the shop just down the street. I had never really seen an AT (alpine telemark) ski setup so I had no idea what to expect but Natalie clicked in her boots and off we went.

It was a beautiful day and the snow was great. By the end of the day we had skied 8 miles. It was Natalie's first taste of back country skiing and I think I have her hooked. We already have plans to go out to Mt Baker next weekend and head up to the Artist point area (I camped up there last year http://www.sunguilt.com/2010/02/sun-poisoning-in-seattle.html). I was playing around with various routes last night on the gps and have a tentative plan. Cross your fingers that we get sun because it is a really pretty place when it is clear.

Thats all for now. Hope everyone has a great holiday season!!

Wedding post at long last

2010-12-20T20:10:00.000-08:00

All the pictures here (click me)

I have lost track of the number of times I have started and stopped this post since the wedding. Every time I start I just cannot capture how much fun we had in words. I have tried and tried but just cannot do it. We had the time of our lives visiting with our friends and family that we do not get to see enough. Every aspect of the wedding was perfect. If I were to do things over again I would not change a thing. Even the weather decided to cooperate. We were out with friends from the Tuesday before the wedding until the Tuesday following and loved every second of it.

I am really lost for words when I try to describe the wedding. Seeing Natalie walk down the isle is something the makes me smile every time I think about it.

Normally my posts go on and on but I am truly at a loss for words. Thank you to all of our friends and family that made the wedding such a perfect day, or I should say a perfect week. It is really amazing to have such great support from our parents, friends, and extended family.

High Divide Loop in Olympic National Park

2010-10-20T18:42:00.000-07:00

All the pics (here)

Well this past weekend we got out for what will probably be the last backpacking trip of the year before the snow really starts rolling in.

I had to work the previous weekend which was a bummer but the bright side was that I took Friday off as a comp day and so we headed out first thing Friday morning.

After a ferry ride and a bit of driving we had picked up our permit, bear canister for our food, and were on the trail. The first day was a steady climb up from 2000ft to where we camped at just under 5000 ft over almost 8 miles. We setup camp just as dusk was changing into full on darkness. As soon as the sun dropped it started getting really cold. We inhaled our food and sacked out fairly quickly.

Saturday we took our time rolling out of the nice warm sleeping bags and ate a leisurely breakfast. By the time we headed up the trail it was probably 10:30 or 11. This is a vacation right? We also mixed in a little time spotting animals on the neighboring mountain. We saw about 18 elk and a lone mountain goat way up on the peak.

The game plan was to explore a spur trail that eventually became a trail that the park service no longer maintains. The ranger had promised us great views and was he ever right. Most of the hike we were looking out over the Hoh river valley to Mt Olympus with glaciers hanging off in every direction. The fall color on the trail was beautiful and we had a great time checking out the scenery. We went out about 3-4 miles, had some lunch and then had a great hike back.

We made it back into camp before the sun started dropping and learning from our mistake the day before and we made sure to have dinner ready before the sun dropped. We finished off a bottle of port, cleaned up and hit the sack pretty early saturday before the temps could drop too far. I would say we were asleep before 9:30. Ahhhh.....

Sunday we completed the loop back to the car by hiking up the ridge over the 7 lakes basin. This was a beautiful trail that had some amazing ridge top walking. On the right was a beautiful basin full of lakes and on the left was Mt Olympus with it's blindingly white glaciers. The fields all around us were covered in brilliant red and yellows of what I think were blueberry bushes changing colors before going dormant for the winter. This was the hardest day because we were walking downhill for around 4 hours but it was by far the most scenic.

We had left camp pretty early so we made it back to the car around 2:30. The treat at the end of the day was Sol Duc hot springs that was just down the road. We tossed our packs into the car and headed down the road eagerly anticipating our soak in the natural hot springs. They may smell like sulpher but man do they ever feel good on sore legs. We soaked in the tubs for about 45 minutes, then showered off and headed back to reality.

An awesome weekend with my beautiful wife. So glad we were able to get that last trip in this weekend.

Well overdue post about Honeymoon in the San Juan's at Doe Bay

2010-10-19T21:13:00.000-07:00

All the pics (here)

I have been meaning to writeup a post about our honeymoon, aka minimoon (it was Thursday - Sunday), in the San Juan's for weeks. Well now that we just passed our one month anniversary I thought it was about time to sit down and make myself type.

I will post about the wedding as well but I am waiting to get our photos back from the photographers. We had the time of our lives at the wedding but it was over before we knew it. Monday rolled around and I had to go back to work for a few days. I worked from Monday until Wednesday the week following the wedding and by the time Wednesday rolled around I was dying to get away and relax with my wife. We headed out as soon as I got in from work Wednesday and were in Anacortes WA by 7 or 8pm. We checked into our hotel for the night and were thrilled to be upgraded to a water view room with a hot tub. We took the front desks suggestion on where to eat and headed downtown to a cool brew pub. I can't remember the name. The beer was good but the music was excellent. They had a local bluegrass band playing and we had a great time kicking back and listening.

After a lazy breakfast we woke up Thursday morning and got on the ferry around 10. I was exhausted from the wedding and work and took the ferry ride as a great opportunity to catch a little nap. We got to the San Juan's and were greeted by low clouds and a nice drizzle.

The whole weekend the weather switched between rainy, cloudy weather and then the sun would pop out for a while. The rain storms were a great opportunity to open up the front door on our little water front cabin, and read.

Thursday night we headed over to open mic night which I thought would be very lame. I mean open mic night /pizza night on a tiny island? How lame.... Well it was awesome! We got take out pizza because the restaurant was too full for us to sit down. The pizza was amazing. After eating our pizza and washing it down with a little wine in our cabin we walked back over to check out the music. For such a tiny place there sure was a lot of musical talent. Most of the singers worked at the restaurant and were really impressive. One guy had a business on the island of making ukuleles. He play a few tunes that were really cool. We had one strange dude sing songs about dogs. He was pretty proud that when you search google for dog songs he was one of the first few hits. A great mix of people and it was over way too soon.

Friday we woke up to some really nice weather and decided to get out for a hike. We headed to a nearby lake and took a nice leisurely 4 mile hike. The trail wound around the lake and it was a great time. We headed back in time to catch the afternoon showers.

Saturday we had a reservation to go kayaking. The best part was we would start right at Doe Bay so we did not even have to get in the car. Well we woke up and could not see 5 feet outside the window. Luckily the fog cleared a bit before our time to go out and we had a blast. The fog socked things in so you really felt like the place was remote. All sound was muffled so all you could hear was your paddle in the water. We saw a few seals, a jelly fish the size of a basketball (seriously it was huge), and a ton of starfish. What a great time.

I am missing a ton of things but you just have to go to Doe Bay yourself to see them. It is an amazing place. Natalie and I recently have been thinking of how we live to extremely different lives. When we are home we have busy jobs, a fun busy city full of things to experience. It seems like there are always people to see and friends we have not caught up with in too long, phones ring too much, and we are always running around. When we go on vacation we tend to go off the grid. Backpacking or going to a resort with no phone service, and yurts, or high camp where you have to be snowmobiled in or something just as basic. It is great to live in a place where we can experience all that a city has to offer and at the same time be out in the middle of nowhere.

Kendall Catwalk

2010-08-25T19:00:00.000-07:00

All the pics here (link)

This past weekend we got in a great 11 mile day hike and headed up to Kendall Catwalk. It was a very nice mellow climb up the PCT (pacific crest trail). It was raining when we left Seattle and the whole climb up there was a nice mist coming down. The fog and mist felt great on the climb and made the catwalk have a spooky feeling since we could not see the bottom. The rock face below us just fell away into a foggy abyss.

The catwalk is a section of the PCT that was blasted out of the mountain. On one side is the mountain and the other is a sheer cliff with several hundred feet straight down. It reminded me a bit of some of the biking trails I have been on in Utah. While we were up there everything was socked in with fog so we hiked in our own little bubble of a view.

So far we have checked off quite a few hikes on our to do list and hopefully we will check off one more before the wedding. We will see how the timing goes.

Natalie Heads Out Solo

2010-08-24T18:00:00.000-07:00

This past Friday Natalie checked an item off of her summer to do list by hiking Mt Si solo. The trail is 8 miles round trip with 3700ft of climbing so the trail is certainly a steep one. The round trip took her about 4 hours which I think is awesome!

Good job baby! Keep it up! Very proud of her for getting out. I think she may have caught the hiking bug!

Pratt Lake Day Hike

2010-08-15T19:12:00.000-07:00

Few Pictures Here (click me)

This past weekend Natalie and I got out for a nice 12 mile day hike. After the North Cascades rain fly incident I was not sure Natalie would want to get back out. Every trip we go on seems to turn into some sort of death march incident and that last trip as awesome as it was did have a hint of that element. Anyway, mid week Natalie asked if I wanted to head out for a day hike. Right after that she surprised me by saying "we could go overnight if you want."

I believe it was the first time I have said that I could not do an overnight since I had some things I had to get done over the weekend but we settled on a day hike instead. Even better it was a trip Natalie picked out.

So armed with backpacks filled with the 10 essentials, see we do learn, we headed out of Seattle at 8:30. After a coffee break, yes that is standard, we arrived at the trailhead a little over an hour later and started the walk. As the trail description had warned us the parking lot was pretty busy but after we turned off to Pratt lake the crowds dwindled and we had the forest to ourselves.

According to the trail description it was a little over 4 miles in and although it took a little longer than we were thinking we arrived on the ridge overlooking the lake. It was amazing how the forest changed as we walked and as we descended to the lake the pine forest gave way to talus fields on all sides.

The lake was a beautiful spot nestled at the base of the ridge we had descended from. I tried my luck at fishing but did not see any activity at all.

The rain began to fall as we headed out but was short lived. The mist felt pretty good and made the area feel very remote.

After a few hours we descended back to the car and found out from the trailhead sign that instead of the 8-9 mile dayhike we had planned we had just done 12 miles. Feeling very good about our fitness we packed everything in the car and headed back to the city.

Hoping to get out on a good day hike again this weekend with several friends so more later.

Chilliwack River Trail via Hannegan Pass

2010-08-09T19:30:00.000-07:00

All the pictures here (click me)

Every year our friends Dan and Laura head out on a backpacking trip with an ever growing group of friends. Over time people have moved so the trip flip flops back and forth between the east and west coast. This year the trip was out west and we were invited along. All put together there were going to be 11 of us on the trip. The only people Natalie and I knew were Dan, Laura, and Dans brother Tom.

I was psyched about this trip for weeks as it would be the longest I had been able to be out in the woods in over 10 years. We would be heading out Wednesday after work and sleeping in the woods until Sunday. We did a few training hikes, one is Mailbox Peak which was posted on here previously. I went through all our gear with my neighbor Ross the weight freak (not a mean comment, he really pays close attention to the weight in his pack) the week before so I could cut out unnecessary weight. In the end I had Natalie's pack down to 25 lbs and mine right around 36lbs. Finally the day arrived to head out.

Day 1

We all met at our place, as we live the farthest north, and headed out in three cars. Right from the start I could tell this was going to be a really fun group. Everyone was really excited to see each other and to just get away from it all.

After a quick coffee stop we hit the road and drove the 2.5 hours to the trailhead out by Mt Baker. There was a second coffee stop just to give us the extra bump we needed to get there. I had been working until midnight and 10pm the first few days of the week so the coffee was powering the road trip for me. We arrived as the sun was going down and everyone setup camp and then got a little fire going. A large chunk of the group had just flown in that day so nobody made it too long around the fire and we all turned in around 11pm.

Day 2

Thursday the fun began with a climb up to Hannagan Pass (5100ft). It was only about 4 miles to the pass and worked its way up a beautiful valley with snow melt waterfalls coming off of all of the ridges so the time passed quickly. When we reached the ridge the group made a decision to make a side trip a mile up and 1000 ft of elevation gain to Hannagan peak. It was going to be an out and back so we left our packs at the bottom and headed up.

Hannagan peak is 6186ft tall so the view was pretty amazing. The weather was perfect without a cloud in the sky and we soaked up all of the sun we couold. We could see all the way out Copper Ridge and down into the valley where we would setup base camp. We came across several large snow fields as well which we had a great time sliding around in. The trip was originally going to be a loop but because of the snow on the ridges we had to change it to a base camp with several large day hikes, but more on that later.

My legs were starting to get a good burn going as we made our way back down Hannagan Peak but we arrived back at the packs soon enough and after a quick snack break we headed down into the Chilliwack river valley.

We arrived at Copper Creek at camp (3200ft) after our decent from Hannagan pass. We had only done 10 miles but we were all pretty wiped out. Everyone picked out their campsite and started setting up. Natalie and I arrived first so we headed up to the top of the camping area which we dubbed mountain view estates. It was a pretty exclusive property that only had room for two tents so we ended up with Dan and Laura as neighbors. I remember looking at the area where I setup the tent and saying "looks like water pools here when it rains but it is not going to rain so it does not matter". Those words would come back to bite me.

We got a big fire going and everyone had a great time chatting and eating dinner. Before we knew it the day was going and we retired to the tents. We had a big day planned for Friday so we all wanted a good nights sleep.

Day 3

We woke up to the sounds of the east coasters calling up the hill that it was 7am and time to get moving. Aaaarrrgghhhh, don't they know it is 7am?

We groggily (is that a word?) crawled out of the tent and started to get our stuff together for the big day. The plan was to hike up to Watcom pass at 5200ft. The elevation was not too big of an issue but the pass was 10 miles away making the day a 20 mile hike. The most I have ever hiked before was 21 miles in Linville Gorge NC and I was in much better shape then. Nobody else had done a day that big but everyone was in high spirits and ready to give it a shot. That was the best thing about the group, everyone was motivated to make it to the pass but it was not a macho thing.

We loaded up our backpacks with day hiking supplies and were on the trail by 8:30am.

A little after 3 miles we hit one of the highlights of the day, the Chilliwack river crossing. This was a highlight because it was in a cable car. The car is a two person basket that you sit in and pull yourself across the river. I felt like a little kid when we got there I was so excited! The structure holding the car up was even cool. Natalie was pretty nervous as we loaded up but as we pushed off she felt how surprisingly stable the ride was and really started enjoying it. We all agreed it was a major highlight of the trip.

The first 7 miles were pretty flat so we made great time, the downside to this is that it left us just under 3000ft to climb in the last 3 miles. The push to the top was a bit of a grunt but before we knew it we were up and sitting in the saddle of the pass. The view was amazing!! The whole day we had been harassed by these little black flies that only seemed to bite select people, I was not one of them, but even if they did not bite they drove me crazy buzzing around my face and landing all over me. I lost count after I killed 190 of them for the day. Well on the way up for some reason Tom discovered that if he put his deodorant all over him the flies would leave him alone for a while. So, when we reached the top we all slathered ourselves in old spice deodorant, basked in the flyless bliss, and took in the view.

Natalie had chosen to wear shorts for the day and her legs were pretty beat up from the brush we had to pass though all day. I was wearing long pants and offered to swap pants with her and wear her shorts. Her shorts look pretty long on her but on me they turned into some sweet retro 80's short shorts. I am pretty confident in my manhood so I did sport them the rest of the day despite the million jokes. Natalie commented that I looked just like a picture she had seen of me when I was 8-10 going our on my first backpacking trip.

It was tough to head off the pass but we all knew we were only 1/2 way and had a long 10 miles ahead of us. Everyone hung in there and we arrived back at the cable car after a few hours. The ride back across was just as cool.

Our group was the last to roll back into camp and we all cheered for ourselves having made the 20 miles trek. All in all a really awesome day!!

Day 4

Sleeping the night before we were really hot so I had the great idea to pull off the rain fly and it was great!! We spent the night staring up at the stars and I slept great. We woke up to clear skies and one little cloud surfing across the sky. We had a few groups going out that day. We had one group, which Natalie and I were in, that was going to head up to egg lake on copper ridge and another group was going to take it easier and head on an adventure up the river to see how far they would get.

We headed out a little after 9 for our ridge top adventure. The plan was to head up to egg lake which was 6.5 miles away and if we had time/energy we would keep going to a forest service lookout that was a few miles further. The hike back up to the copper ridge trail junction was uneventful except it made me think that after all this hiking it was going to hurt the last day to come back up this. We made the turn off and it looked like the clouds were starting to roll in. Nno worries I thought, just a little cloud cover, lets get up on the ridge and check it out.

It was quite a climb up to the egg lake viewpoint (5689ft) and we had to cross a few sketchy snow crossings but we were there quickly enough and had a few slides to keep the grins on. It had spit rain a little off and on but nothing to really worry about. As we stopped for lunch the bottom fell out and it really started to come down. So much for heading to the lookout, we headed home.

Before we knew it the jackets came out and we had quickly gone from sweating to freezing in a matter of minutes. The emergency blankets came out as we waited on one member of our group to come back off of a far ridge. Once we were all together we headed out. It took a bit of hiking but we were all warm enough to take off jackets soon. We had a blast sliding back down the long snow fields we had climbed earlier. Several brave folks glissaded down on their butts and came to a stop at the bottom with giant grins while screaming that they were frozen. I took the safer route and slid using my feet as skis.

Once we hit the snow free trail we all pushed it to get back to camp as quickly as possible. At this point I was pretty worried about our tent sitting back in camp with the rain fly off and our sleeping bags laid open. The more I thought about it the more I realized we were a little screwed as all of our dry clothing was laying in our exposed tent as well. The prospect of a long cold wet night was becoming more and more real. Fingers crossed the guys in camp put our rain fly on before things got too bad.

After a few hours we were back at camp. The rain still had not let up so the first thing I asked when I got into camp was if Dan had a chance to put our rain fly on. Unfortunately everyone had been down hiking up the river and they had not gotten back to long before us. Dan had put on our rain fly and done his best to soak up the pool that had formed in the tent but the damage was done and we were going to be wet.

Luckily everyone else was smart and had the rain fly on their tent so there was plenty of dryness to go around. Before long we had a plan where Natalie was going to bunk with the girls and I would camp out in one of the guys tents. It was not ideal and I was still really mad at myself for being stupid about the rain fly but it would get us through the night.

The rain just kept coming down until at about 8pm the faucets were turned off. Not to say that the sun came out or anything but it did stop raining. I want up to examine the tent and it looks salvageable. I used my camp towel to dry off the sleeping pads and get rid of the left over water pools. The crux was to dry out the bags. My bag was just damp so I figured I could get by but Natalie's (luckily synthetic) bag was soaked. There was a ripping campfire going so I figured it was worth a shot to dry out the bag. Steve and I held the bag up to the fire and it immediately started to dry, there was steam blasting off of it. It was crazy but within 10 minutes one side of Natalie's bag was completely dry. We kept going and eventually were able to get both sleeping bags 90% dry. We reloaded the tent and were happy to be located back in mountain view estates. It was really great to have such a great group to work with. I would say problem solved.

Everyone stayed up as long as they could despite the rain. I don't think any of us wanted to let the trip move to the last day.

Day 5

The night was a little damp but comfortable and we woke up to cloudy skies. We loaded up the soaked clothing from around camp and broke down camp. I was sad to be leaving but happy that we would have a chance to dry out once we hit the cars. The thought of a meal that did not come from a zip lock bag was pretty appealing as well.

We headed out of camp with bags that were probably a little heavier than when we came in due to the waterlogged clothing. It was a tough push up to the pass but after an hour and a half or two we arrived on top, paused for a snack and then headed down the other side. The rest of the trip out was uneventful but beautiful as we hike back down into the valley where the cars loaded with dry clothing and snacks awaited.

There was quite the hiking after party in the parking lot when we came out and we quickly dropped our packs, changed out of our wet boots and joined in. Coolers were unloaded and everyone began to dry out in the sun that had decided to peek out a bit.

We headed back to Bellingham to eat at Boundry Bay Brewery which is one of my favorite spots after a hike in the North Cascades. The food was amazing (best fried oysters in the world) and the beer was even better. We all stuffed ourselves until we were uncertain if we could make it back to Seattle without a nap.

It was sad telling everyone bye in the parking lot, I think we all wanted the trip to keep going. But all good things must come to an end and eventually we were back on I5 headed to Seattle, showers and warm beds. If only all trips could be this great with such a perfect group of new friends. Thanks for such a great trip everyone, certainly a highlight of all of my hikes. Hope to see you again next year!!

Mailbox Peak (2.5 miles up 4000 vertical feet of climbing)

2010-07-24T09:22:00.000-07:00

All the pics here (click me)

Last week Dan and Laura and I met up out at the trailhead for Mailbox peak. We got started about 6:30 and quickly realized it was way too late to start this monster. We got about half way up before throwing in the towel.

We all agreed we had to come back and start a little earlier so yesterday a group of us met back up at the trailhead to give it another shot. In attendance were Ross, Stephanie (after her second ACL surgery), Dan, Laura, Tom (Dan's brother), Natalie, and myself.

We headed up the trail at 5:30 and were quickly climbing. This trail really does not waste much time before going straight up the mountain. And I mean straight. The demeaning part of the trail is that it seems to get steeper as you go up so as you climb it is getting progressively harder.

The whole climb is under a heavy canopy and is beautiful. If it were not for the buzz of I-90 in the background you would never know you were 45 minutes from Seattle.

We ground up and up and up, finially starting to see light at the top. This light was not the top but a giant boulder field that we climbed up and up and up. At the top of the boulder field the meadow area started and was covered in wildflowers. My progress quickly ground to a halt as I took out the camera and kept taking pictures of all the flowers. The fog was pretty heavy which just made the lighting better for photos and I could not pass it up.

After about 3 hours we all were on top standing by the famed mailbox on top of mailbox peak. Several of us signed the summit register, we ate some snacks and then headed back down.

The trip back down was about as hard as up because if how steep it was and I was very happy to have my trekking poles along. About 1/2 way down the sun started to set. We were in several groups at that point and Ross and I stopped to wait for Natalie so I could give her a headlight. We gave Natalie and light and headed down the mountain. For some reason Ross and I thought it would be a fun challenge to see if we could make it to the bottom without turning on our lights. We made it within 100 yards of the trailhead before we turned on the lights and walked out to the gravel road.

Everyone was psyched to have made it to the top and we celebrated in the parking lot by destroying a bag of pretzels. Then we all loaded up for the drive back into Seattle. Thanks guy for such a fun hike.

Up to Carbon Glacier

2010-07-01T19:59:00.000-07:00

View all the pics here (link)

This past weekend Natalie was away in NYC for a friends wedding. I figured if she was having a girls weekend then it was off to the woods for me. My neighbor Ross was game so we left the house at 7am Saturday morning headed to Mount Rainier National Park. The goal was to camp up above the carbon glacier.

When we arrived at the ranger station we found out that we were next in line behind the guy who got the last pass for the campsite we wanted. We ended up with a permit for the carbon creek campground which turned out to be a nicer place to camp than were we wanted, even if it was not quite as far out.

So we started the trip with a 5 mile bike ride from the car up to the trailhead. It was interesting riding a bike with 30lbs on my back but it was really nice to be back on the bike after taking a few years off.

Then we hoofed it in just under 4 miles I believe to our camp at Carbon Creek. We got a little turned around but after some searching we figured out where the place was. There was a sweet suspension bridge on the way over to camp so I took about 5000 pictures of that. We nabbed a great spot and setup camp really fast before loading up our dayhiking gear and heading up the trail.

It was not long before we came into view of the glacier. I am not sure what I had pictured but this looked a lot like a gravel pit. I can see why it is named the carbon glacier as it was black and covered in dark rocks. It was an interesting contrast with Rainier gleaming so white you could hardly look at it in the background. An amazing sight.

We kept heading up the trail, and I mean up, and passed the dicks creek campground where we had wanted to stay. There was probably a nice view but the campsites were not much to look at. We agreed that things had worked out well for us and continued up. There was supposed to be a pretty lake at the top with an amazing view Rainier over a wildflower meadow. Well after several miles of going up and up and up we hit the snow line. Looks like no wildflower meadows for us. Just to be stubborn we kept pushing up past the snow line a bit but realized that all we were going to accomplish was to get out feet soaked since I once again did not bring my gators. Ok, they are coming on every trip from now on even if I am going to Arizona.

We eventually decided it was time to throw in the towel so I sent a quick message to Natalie from my spot messenger and we headed down.

We got back to camp, fished our beer out of the creek and kicked back in the campsite for a while. Not too long after dark the day caught up with us and we turned in for the day. I froze again proving to myself that I just need to bite the bullet and get a feathered friends 10 degree sleeping bag. I must be getting old because I am getting really cold camping at night. Nah, that can't be it!

Sunday we had a pretty quick hike back to the bikes and then had a blast racing back to the car. I slowed us down taking lots of wildflower pictures. Hopefully my buddy Stu will chime in and identify the ones I am not sure of.

Another great trip. Looking forward to our car camping 4th of July adventure coming up this weekend.

Back to Rachel Lake -Dayhike

2010-06-18T18:00:00.000-07:00

All the pics here (click me)

Natalie had to grade all weekend so I was going to get back out backpacking but due to a prior commitment on Saturday I turned my plans into a day hike.

I headed out of Seattle around 9am and headed the hour and a half to the trailhead out I-90. I have done this hike quite a few times at this point and it is one of my favorite quick getaways. It is 4 miles in to a beautiful alpine lake. The first 3 miles are pretty flat and then you gain 1300-1800 feet in the last mile or so.

I was not sure what the conditions were going to be this time of year so I packed several items to make it a good trip. I carried my flyrod on one side of the pack in case the lake was snow free (link to fishing trip in 2008), and on the other side I packed my ice axe figuring that if I had enough time I might try to get back up to Alta Peak (link to this hike in 2008).

Well both the fish and snow gods were against me and I did not use either of my toys to fish or climb but it was a great 8 mile dayhike. The lake was still snow covered and because of how low the snow started (3000ft) it took me a bit longer to get up to the lake and I did not have time to attempt Alta. So I ended up hanging out in the sun up at the lake for about an hour taking in the silence and looking out over the lake with a cool blue ring around it where it was starting to melt.

The highlight of the trip ended up being down in the valley where the hike is generally a little boring. All of the wildflowers were out in force. The ground was packed with trillium and some other yellow flower (pictured above) that I feel like I should know the name of. There were dozens of snow melt waterfalls running down the ridges and it smelled like spring. Check out the pictures link above to see all of the flowers.

It was a great day to soak up some sun and I look forward to getting back out. Hoping to head out on a legit backpacking trip in the next few weekends so more coming up.

Long weekend in the Enchanted Valley (Olympic National Park)

2010-06-03T20:37:00.000-07:00

You can see all the pics here (click me)

What a great weekend! Saturday morning I met Dan and Laura at their house with my backpack all loaded up for the weekend. Natalie had to sit this one out so that she could finish up some grading so I was playing the part of the third wheel.

We left Seattle at about 9am and headed out to Olympic National Park. True to form we planned this trip the night before but as always it worked out great. The destination was the Enchanted Valley in the south west side of the park. Choices were limited as the snow line is still pretty low as I learned last weekend. So this trip would top out at around 2500 feet and keep us under the snow.

We stopped off at the ranger station to get our back country passes and chat with the ranger about the crowds/animals/trail plan/etc and found the whole experience very relaxed. Generally I have a slight problem with camping in national parks just because there is so much red tape. You can only camp in certain spots, you have to tell them where you are going, etc. I understand this is because the park is so heavily used and it is necessary but it still always bothers me a bit. We had the exact opposite experience. The ranger told us that it would be pretty busy but not to worry about it. He made a suggestion about where he would camp but that we could go where ever we wanted. He even said, "ah just write down a site for the records but you don't have to stay there". It was nice having this kind of relaxed attitude for a holiday weekend. Anyway, he did tell us that he had been out a week or so ago and saw 14 bears, elk, and a few goats. He told us all about what we could see and about the trail in general. It was probably the best stop I have ever had at a ranger station.

We left the ranger station and headed up the road to the trail head. About 20 minutes later we arrived to a packed parking lot. There were license plates from Virginia, Utah, Oregon, California, and obviously Washington. This was going to be good as long as it was not too busy.

The plan was to hike in either 7 or 10 miles and setup a base camp for the next two nights. The trail was beautiful. There were waterfalls all along the trail, the wild flowers were starting to come out, and we were hiking in a misty rain that actually felt really nice. As we went up the valley we started to see more and more evidence of elk. There started to be more game trails spread around. We did not see any animals however and were soon at the campground 7 miles out. We were feeling good and decided to push another 3 miles to the next campsite.

The forest kept getting thicker and I really felt like I was walking through a movie set. The trees were huge!!

After another hour or so we rolled into our spot 10 miles out. There were quite a few people out there but we never felt crowded. On the way out we really did not see too many people on the trail. We ended up camping on a sandbar that was set back from the Quinalt river a bit. I believe we may have camped at the elk latrine as there was tons of evidence of them around. There were several fresh piles of bear poop about 15 feet from our campsite as well so we made sure to pick out a good location for the bear bag that night.

We had a great time chatting away around the fire until well after dark when we decided to turn in. We all had high hopes of seeing a bear the next day. Little did we know....

I woke up first Sunday morning and stumbled off to pull the bear bag down out of the tree and retrieve the coffee I needed to wake me up. I was half expecting to see the bag on the ground with the contents spread around (you never know how clever the local animals are) but was happy to find our food hanging in the tree just like we had left it the night before. I carried everything back to camp and made a cup of coffee. I kicked back, sipped my coffee and watched the far river bank hoping to see a black ball of fur. I had nearly finished my coffee when I decided that I would head down to the river and see if I could find any bear prints. Dan and Laura were still sacked out but I figured they would be up shortly. After a great walk, and having not seen any bear prints, I walked back over to camp to find Laura and Dan staring into the woods behind our site. Turns out that about 30 feet from our campsite a huge black bear had decided to bed down for the night. This was the first black bear I have seen on the west coast and it was massive. He did not seem to care at all that we were over in camp and would periodically look over, yawn and go back to sleep for a while. Turns out the whole morning while I was staring across the river bank hoping to see a bear all I had to do was turn around. Eventually our bear woke up and silently slipped off into the woods.

We had a bit of a slow start Sunday, it was vacation after all, and around 11 we headed up the trail with our daypacks. We headed 4.5 miles up into the enchanted valley and were blown away by how beautiful it was. There were waterfalls coming off of 3000ft cliffs, crazy river crossings, and bears bears bears. We saw 4 bears during the day with one far off on a meadow, two just off of the main trail and another one that I spooked on the way back to camp as he was walking up the trail. We saw one elk perched up on a bank high above the trail just keeping an eye on everyone. Neither words nor pictures can do that hike justice. We all agreed it was our favorite hike in Washington so far.

Back in camp we ate dinner and were asleep by 9pm. I believe it took me about 12 seconds to fall fast asleep.

The rain cranked up a notch Sunday night which made for some great sleeping weather. We all woke up feeling rested Monday morning. Dan and Laura had a bit of a flood issue but luckily they were both dry for the most part. As we were drinking coffee Dan spotted a bear across the river so we went down and watched him for a while.

We broke camp and started the 10 mile hike back to the car. The trail was extremely muddy from all of the holiday traffic and the rain overnight so it was slow going. I managed to spook another bear on the way out. We were low enough in the valley that I had stopped looking for wildlife when I heard something big move over to my right. Turns out I had come around a corner and was about 4 feet from a big bear. I think he was about as surprised as I was so we had a little stare off and I told him he should move along. After a bit he wandered off down the trail. That got my heart going pretty fast!

The rain did not let up Monday but after about 4 hours we were back at the car. We were all feeling the 29 miles we had put in over the last three days and were happy to change into dry clothes and take off our packs.

It was an amazing trip and my only regret was that Natalie could not make it.

Unsuccessful camping attempt outside Salmon-la-sac

2010-05-26T21:29:00.000-07:00

My neighbor Ross and I have been trying to get out backpacking for quite a while now. This weekend we were making it happen. We rolled out of Seattle at 7:30am on the dot (early for us) and after a quick coffee stop we were headed out I90 to the mountains. The destination was Waptus lake outside Salmon-la-sac area.

I have never hiked in this area that is loaded with alpine lakes and was really excited to get out in the woods, fish a little, and put in some miles with my backpack on.

The trail did not disappoint. We walked along the Waptus river for most of the trail enjoying the cool air and silence of the woods. We were making great time until about the 6.5 mile mark where we dropped down into a valley that had about 5 feet of snow covering everywhere. The trail disappeared completely but as long as we kept between the river and the foot of the mountains we knew we were headed the right way. It was hard work making it across the snowfields with a full pack and no snowshoes or gaiters. Every once in a while you would be walking along and suddenly post hole in the snow to have to wriggle out like a beached whale. It was slow going but we were enjoying the exercise.

The big question mark in this trip from the beginning was a river crossing we knew we were going to have to make. About a half mile from our intended campsite the bridge had washed out and we knew we were going to have to ford the river. Being 2 feet deep in snowmelt water sounded a bit painful but it was a warm day and we knew it would not take long. As long as the river was as I had read we would be fine crossing but you never can be sure this time of year.

Well we never found out about that river crossing because about 8.5 miles into the trail, 1/2 a mile from the river crossing, I managed to have a medical mishap. I was crossing a log much like the 15,000 logs I have crossed over the years when this particular one happened to break as I put all of my weight on it. I fell through said log and involuntarily grabbed onto a small tree below it to stop myself from falling. Well the tree I grabbed happened to be a pine with a large spike sticking out of it that did a pretty good job out cutting most of the way through my hand. ouch!! I was actually a bit more angry that the trip was over than I was in pain. Ross and I managed to clean out the hole with ice cold water and got the bleeding stopped. After thinking it over for a few minutes we made the correct choice and headed back to the car. 8.5 miles back to the car....

It was a good hike and I am amazed how great we felt for a 17 mile day. I was happy that my feet and legs held up well this early in the season but it was a bummer to have to head out.

We got back to the car and headed back to Seattle. My hand was not hurting much when we got back so I put off the trip to the emergency clinic until Sunday morning. I spent a few hours of my sunday waiting to be seen by a doc. Got a tetanus shot which I was wayyyyy over due for and was told my hand looked ok and to just let it heal on its own.

So boys and girls, what did we learn on this little adventure? Well I learned that things happen and Ross and I were perfectly prepared. I also learned that I am in better hiking shape than I thought.

I am hoping my hand will close up before this weekend so I can head out with Dan and Laura for a little backpacking trip.

Here is a little end of post humor to offset the awful picture at the beginning.

Catching up after a long break from blogging

2010-05-25T19:46:00.000-07:00

I just looked back at my posting history and it looks like 4/12 is the last post I made. I admit I have fallen off of the blog wagon a bit but things have been very busy.

We had Natalie's dad come out for a great visit. We took him around the normal full circuit of Seattle sites that we all know well (pike place market, kerry park, golden gardens, chittenden locks, etc) and added in a few side visits to a few of our favorite bars. I think Phil appreciated St Andrews pub the most as he could get his soccer and scotch fix all in one place. We ate great food and had a really good time touring the city and catching up. We even managed to get in a cookout with all of our neighbors and friends. It was a really fun visit and we can't wait to see him, and everyone, in September for the wedding.

A few weeks later I headed to Vegas for my bachelor party. The old Banner Elk gang (Matt, Nick, Sean, Palmer) was all there, Atlanta was represented by my buddy Mason, and Ross was our Seattle representative. It was a really good time having everyone out. I had not seen Nick or Matt since I moved so it was really great catching up and seeing how everyone is doing. The funny thing is that even though most of us had not seen each other in years it felt like it had only been a few weeks. Everybody just kind of picked up where we left off. Great friends. More pics and writeup can be found on Nicks site here. It was sad to say goodbye to everyone at the end of the trip but great knowing I will see everyone again out in Seattle in September. Thanks again guys for a great trip.

One weekend was spent selling Palmer's motorcycle that had been sitting in my garage since we rode the Trans America Trail together last year. Funny how as soon as the sun comes out everyone wants to buy a bike. I had about 5 people scheduled to come look at the bike on Saturday alone and the first guy ended up buying it. Sad to see it go but I believe it will pay for a new roof for Palmer's house. Not quite as much fun but thats life. Being grown up is pretty lame sometimes.

Add in some working and working and a month and a half really disappears.

Great weekend of birthday, splitboarding and wedding planning

2010-04-12T20:56:00.000-07:00

I don't think we could have packed in anything else this weekend if we tried. When I got home from work on Friday Natalie told me to be ready to head out for something at 7:30. Birthday surprise!

We headed downtown and I was psyched when we walked up to my favorite sushi place. The surprise was just beginning. We were a few minutes early so we grabbed a drink at the bar before heading into the reserved seating area that I had always wanted to check out. There are pillow on the floor in front of a very short table. I always thought it was really cool but it must hurt to crouch down like that while you eat. Turns out that under the table it is cut out so you can stretch out like normal. This was pretty key when everyone started showing up and in our group of friends we had one pregnant and one that just got knee surgery. One by one all of our best friends from Seattle showed up. It was great to be surrounded by all my favorite people in Seattle, great sushi, and some tasty beers. We all had a great time eating way too much and chatting away. Before we knew it 11pm had arrived and it was time to head out. Thanks again to everyone, it was a great time!!

We got home with plans to catch up for one last drink but I was heading out early in the morning to go up into the mountains with Ross and decided it was a good idea to call it a night.

All the snowboarding pics here (click me)

Saturday morning I rolled out of bed, met up with Ross, threw the last of my gear in the car, and we headed out of Seattle. We headed back into the mountains after the snow gods had blessed us with 3-5 feet of new snow, depending on where you went. We pulled up into the Hyak snowpark parking lot (same place as last week) at about 9:30. The plan was to take the same route up but then branch off and head over to the Kendall clearcut. This is a mountain just next to Kendall Peak (sort of) that was clearcut years ago and has trees coming back in but is still open enough that it is a fun place to ski.

We made pretty good time getting up to the top of the road and then headed out into new territory. It looks pretty straight forward getting over to the road that we planned to take to the top of the clear cut. Once we got close though we realized we were going to have to get across a crevasse about 10 feet down. The creek that runs through the valley had managed to keep this gap open all winter. We had to move quite a ways up the mountain before we found a snow bridge that was substantial enough for us to cross on. After this little adventure we decided to take a nice long lunch/coffee break.

After lunch we kept heading up and discovered that there were going to be several snow bridges we were going to cross before we made it to the main part of the road. Things turned out great and we managed to work our way over to the road and head up. and up.... and up some more.... That mountain was a lot taller than it looked. We set a turn around time of 2:30 and as soon as 15-20 minutes were left we kicked it in to high gear and surprised ourselves as we crested the top of the mountain. We took a few minutes to catch our breath but the high winds had us strapping on the boards for the ride down pretty quickly.

It was not a long ride but we got some great turns in. We even scouted a much better run for next time. Funny how you don't see the routes until you are looking back at where you came. The snow was amazing and worth every inch of the climb.

I am getting better on the splitboard but still have a bit to learn. These past few weekends have been a great way to get out and figure out what I am doing.

Saturday night the neighbors all got together for a mexican dinner out over in Greenwood. After that we took it easy over at Jake and Kays until about midnight when I headed back home.

Sunday arrived early and Natalie and I hit the road/ferry to Bainbridge Island for an open house at the resort where we are having the rehearsal dinner and are having guests stay for the wedding. It was a beautiful day and we knocked out several big items on our to do list as well as tasting all of the choices for the rehearsal dinner. Luckily there was enough time to squeeze in a good sun break out on the back lawn of the hotel overlooking the water. Not bad...

After the open house we headed over to the Farm Kitchen (where we are getting married) to meet a potential florist. We got there a early and soaked up a little more sun before meeting with Amy (the florist). She was great and we gave her a deposit before packing up and heading to dinner at a little restaurant on the water looking back at Seattle.

Now that was a great weekend!

Out in the snow

2010-04-06T20:00:00.000-07:00

All the pics here (click me)

I recently picked up a new toy I have been wanting since we moved out here. REI was having a sweet sale and well, I broke down. So I am the proud owner of a new Voile Splitboard. In case you don't know what this brilliant snow toy is it is a snowboard that breaks in half to form two "skiis". The idea being that you use the ski mode to get into the back country and once you work your way to the top you put it together into a snowboard for the ride back down.

So Ross and I headed up into the mountains this past Sunday to play in the snow. We went to Kendal Peak which is an area I have been to many times so I knew that route finding would not be an issue. We got out to the mountain about 10am and started up. I realized pretty quickly that I need to do this a bit more since I found some muscles I was not sure I had. We worked our way in, stopped for a quick lunch break, and then headed up to the top. We explored around a little trying to figure out how we were going to drop down to the road. We eventually picked a path and made a few great turns back down to the road. Well, I did take us on one little adventure through the forest but I had to throw in a twist, it could not be sooooo easy... I need to do some adjustments to the board but overall I am psyched with how things worked.

Hoping to get back out this Saturday to give it another go. Fingers crossed the snow conditions hold up.

Hawaii

2010-04-06T19:00:00.000-07:00

For all the pictures click here (click me)

Disclaimer: Due to extreme relaxation the timeline of events may not exactly match the post. In the end we did all the things so lets not worry about the order.

Well I think I have been putting off posting about our trip to Hawaii because once I post about a trip then it is officially over. I never wanted to come home from this trip.

This was my first trip to Hawaii and I have to say that I completely get why people are in love with the place. We were in Kauai for 9 days.

We were invited to this amazing paradise by our friends Robyn and Phil. The offer was presented to us an "engagemoon" which we could never pass up. It was an amazing time to say the least.

Natalie and I flew in on Friday night and spent the first evening having dinner by the ocean and beginning the unwinding process. We spent Saturday hanging out on the beach watching the surfers roll by. We met Robyn and Phil at the airport around 3 and headed to their place in Poipu. When we got to the timeshare I could not believe how beautiful it was. We were 100 yards from the water. We could hear the waves from our room. Now that was living!!

The whole trip was a great mix of relaxing with friends and getting out to explore the island. We spent the first few days settling in and then ramped up the adventure. Natalie and I took an amazing zodiac (inflatable motorboat) ride up the Na Pali coast. I have seen this area written up in backpacker many times and instantly start to drool. Seeing this amazing area from the water was one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen. You will have to check out the pictures because words cannot do this area justice. Come to think of it photos cannot really do the area justice either. This was a 5 hour boat tour with the last hour being a stopover for snorkeling. At this point I did not think the trip could have gotten better but after throwing on fins and a mask I jumped into a new world. With your head underwater you could hear the whales calling to each other. After about 10 minutes in the water a turtle swam by and I had the amazing experience of diving down and swimming along with him about 5 feet away from my mask. Wow!!

The night after the boat tour we all packed up and headed to a luau. This turned out to be a bit touristy but was fun as well. After fighting a bunch of tourists for a table we realized why we loved being on vacation with just 4 people. The show was good though and we had a great time.

The next day the girls were getting massages so Phil and I picked up some snorkeling gear from the resort and set off to find a place to swim around and see some fish. After doing a little driving we decided to go check out the area where we had signed up to dive later in the week. We were not out long but it was great to be in the water checking out the fish and we knew we would be back in a few days.

We headed back to meet the girls and load up in the car for a little tour-de-island. We drive up to the top of the island with our final destination being the town of Hanalei (where puff the magic dragon lived by the sea). Along the way we stopped off for a hike/swim in the Queens bath. This was a really cool tide pool right on the edge of the pacific where waves would keep the water moving as they splashed over the top but for the most part the water was very calm. We swam and lounged around for a long time before we could bring ourselves to leave. Near the end of the day we rolled into Hanalei which ended up being one of my favorite towns of the trip. I am not quite sure why I loved this town but it had a great feel to it. At this point of the island the mountains come almost directly down into the ocean. A very very peaceful place to be.

The next day Robyn and Phil headed to do a little sight seeing while Natalie and I roamed the beaches near the room and did a little exploring. We discovered a bar down the road that served the best fish tacos I have ever eaten. The only thing planned for the day was a dive class in the pool where Phil and I would get briefed on how to use our equipment for the dive we had scheduled for Saturday. Everyone had a great relaxing day and settled in even more. That afternoon as Phil and I were getting our dive instruction in the pool the girls came down and had a few drinks. After our class wrapped up we all sat in the sun sipping pineapple drinks until the sun started to dip. Ahhhhh.....

Friday (so sad that it was Friday already) we explored a beach with Phil. I wish I remembered the name of the beach because it was the most beautiful one we saw. To get there we had to push the limits of the rental car a bit but after navigating the ruts and rocks we parked safely and walked the last 100 yards to a beach tucked away by limestone cliffs. Again, you will have to look at the pictures since words cannot do this place justice. We made it back to the room in time to walk up the hill and watch the sun set over the surf.

Saturday we got up to watch the sun rise (as we did most mornings we were there) and then Phil and I headed off to meet our dive guide at 8am. We got a fish briefing of what we would see underwater and the signs our guide would use underwater as well as a quick safety refresher and we were off into the water. The last time I went diving was in Australia and they motored us about a mile offshore before putting all our gear on us and letting us fall over the side of the boat. In that little adventure I kind of freaked out but this time we just walked into the water and calmly slipped into a different world. Within 10 minutes we were seeing turtles, moray eels, angel fish, and coral. At one point a huge turtle swam up from underneath us and came within 2 feet of me. It was so amazing to see such a huge animal effortlessly glide by. We were under water for almost 50 minutes but it passed by like we just blinked. I could have stayed out all day diving and swimming with all that sea life.

After turning in our dive gear we headed back to the room and took it easy. It was very sad that we were already to Saturday. We were looking forward to a great dinner to cap the trip off though. We sat down to our nearly waterfront table 30 minutes before the sun began to set. It was great being in a place like that with such good friends. We snapped a few pictures as the sun settled into the ocean and waved goodbye to it for the last time.

Sunday was a very early wakeup to catch our plane. I was physically pained to leave the place and cannot wait to go back one day. I cannot thank Robyn and Phil enough for sharing that amazing place with us.

T minus 2 days

2010-03-18T11:26:00.000-07:00

2 days until we land in Hawaii....... Heading out Saturday and returning the following Sunday.

Mt Baker Cabin Weekend

2010-03-09T08:10:00.000-08:00

This past weekend a group of us headed up to a rental cabin by Mount Baker. Our neighbor Stephanie did all the work and found a great deal on a place that was 10 miles from the mountain.

Our friend Laura met us at our place Friday as I was getting in from work and we all quickly loaded the car and headed out to dinner. After grabbing a mexican dinner and letting the traffic clear off of I5 we headed up to Baker. It only took about 2 hours before we were walking in the door. Ross and Stephanie had gotten out of work around 4 so they were already settled into the cabin. We unpacked broke open a few drinks and took it easy the rest of the night.

Saturday morning the girls went for a little hike while Ross and I loaded up our snowboards and hit the mountain. This was the first time I have been snowboarding at Mount Baker and it was a great time. The sun was shining, there was not a cloud in the sky and life was great. We rode for a few hours, had a beer and lunch on the deck at the base of the mountain and took in the view. After relaxing in the sun for about an hour we hit the mountain for a bit longer and then headed back to the cabin.

Saturday night was spent listening to music, sitting in the hot tub, and enjoying the fact that not only did we not have any cell service but we could not pick up a single radio station.

Sunday we had a leisurely breakfast before hitting the road for Seattle.

Once we got back and were unpacked my neighbor Jake and I moved our newest 9310 Stone Brewery beer (a brown ale this time) into secondary fermentation. It is going to be tasty.

Now I have just enough time to finish the book I am reading and maybe start on another one.

Only two weeks before Natalie and I head out to Hawaii for 9 days!! What a rough life we lead. :)

Sun poisoning in Seattle

2010-02-22T17:05:00.000-08:00

For all pictures (Click Me)

I have been feeling a little antsy lately and knowing that it was about time to head up into the woods. I was supposed to go a few weekends ago but I had a really busy week at work and did not have a chance to pack during the week. Well this past week was really busy too but I made myself head down to the garage and pack up my gear Friday after I got home at 7:00pm. Luckily I have been pre planning trips lately so all I had to do was print out a map and load a little info into the GPS and I was ready to head out the door.

I had been thinking about getting out for quite a while and the original plan was to try the Alaska Lake trip that I bailed on last time when I was not feeling so well. So, all week I was thinking I was going to head out there and then Friday I pulled up the weather report and it said warm and bluebird skies all weekend. Hmmmm, I had Artist Point on my list of winter camping spots and the view was why it was there. So, after a quick change of plan I printed out a different map, reloaded the GPS with the new destination.

The trip was pretty easy. Getting there was a snap. You just head up to Mt Baker upper parking lot, tell them you are staying overnight and head up with no passes or parking fees required. I walked on the edge of the ski resort the first mile and then had around 2 miles up to my campsite. I was snowshoeing in a tshirt it was so warm. Ahhhhh, I sure did miss the sun!!

Words cannot describe the scenery up there. I have to say that the Mt Baker area is one of the top 5 prettiest places I have ever been. As you climb you have a view of Mt Shuksan off to the left, a few huge back country ski bowls off to the right and as you begin to crest the ridge Mt Baker comes into view. Even though the ski resort is close by I could not really tell and felt as though I should have had to work much harder to make it to this place.

I got to my campsite around 2pm and started digging in. After a few scoops of snow I was so warm the tshirt even had to come off!! So after I dug my campsite into the side of the hill and was satisfied that I had everything all leveled off I setup camp, dug out some snacks, pulled my sleeping pad out into the sun and read my book for a few hours.

Eventually I put the book away and decided I would head up to Artist Point (a few hundred feet up the hill from my campsite) and see the view from there.

I discovered a few other people camped out up on top of the point and was happy to have my campsite all to myself.

I spent the afternoon reading, watching snowshoers and skiers head down the distant peaks and came to the conclusion that I have to quit thinking about getting a back country setup and just do it. I cannot imagine a better weekend than heading in a few miles to camp out and then mixing in a few ski runs.

Sunday I woke up to a carbon copy of Saturday. Blue skies and mid 40s. I was planning to snowshoe a little and explore but decided to repeat Saturday by dragging my sleeping pad outside, building up a snow recliner to set my pad in, and read my book. I took it easy in the sun for 3-4 hours before packing up and heading home.

I felt a little woozy the whole drive home and all night which I think was minor sun poisoning. Or maybe my body just forgot what to do with vitamin D. Either way I have a little tan and feel like all of the stress has been burned out of me. I can't wait to get back up to the mount baker area with some ski gear next time.

Valentines Weekend

2010-02-15T18:03:00.000-08:00

Last weekend instead of just having valentines day we decided to turn it into a weekend.

Friday we went to see Presidents of the USA. It was a pretty sweet deal as the tickets were a Christmas gift from Palmer. We got there a little early so rather than wait in line we headed over to a bar across the street I had been wanting to check out and had a relaxing drink. It was nice to unwind after the week so after our beer we headed over to the show. This is a band that I liked a long time ago so I figured it would be one of those "oh yea I remember that song" kind of bands. It was one of the most fun shows I have been to in a long time. The lead singer has at least as much energy as he did 10 years ago, and maybe more. We got out of the show around 11:30 or so and headed home for the night.

We slept in saturday and after running some errands (yay oil change!) we headed downtown to the aquarium. We took a cab down so we would not have to worry about parking or getting the car broken into (happened to the 4runner again last week). We walked through the market and got a snack, picked up some tea natalie wanted and headed to look at the aquarium. We got down there about 4 and spent two hours walking around. It is a really nice aquarium. Atlanta's (my hometown) is probably nicer just by being so new but this one was really fun. They put a lot of mini tanks down low to the floor so kids can walk right up. There is a huge touch tank section that was filled with kids. We wrapped up just as they announced they were closing which was perfect timing. We walked up to grab dinner and since we were early we walked over to the new 4 seasons and had a drink in the bar. After a little relaxing there we went to dinner right under the market at il bistro and had a long relaxing dinner. After dinner we were not quite ready to head home so we walked over to a little bar overlooking the sound that we had seen while we were walking up from the aquarium and had a final drink of the evening. Then we caught a cab home and passed out. Sunday was just a relaxing get things done day and we finished the weekend watching the opening ceremonies that we had recorded.

Such a relaxing weekend and I think valentines should be a weekend event from now on.

Mush!!

2010-01-31T16:38:00.000-08:00

For all the pictures click HERE.

Saturday we headed out with Laura and Frank to an event that I don't think you can see in too many parts of the country. We went to watch the Cascade Quest dog sled race over by Levenworth.

This was a really cool event that went from Saturday to Sunday. The racers headed out 25 miles, camped, and then headed back in Sunday. Since we were there on Saturday we saw the teams leaving.

The whole event was very laid back so we got to meet the racers and all their dogs. We saw the 2pm start that was a purebred race. Since we were there at around 1:30 we saw them getting all of the dogs ready. As soon as the dogs saw their harnesses they got really excited and started howling. Even at the starting gate the dogs were so excited they started hopping up and down and jumping on top of each other.

It was a great day filled with lots of dog slobber.

Hiking in the jungle

2010-01-18T21:42:00.000-08:00

Another great weekend out in the woods. Dan, Laura, Natalie and I headed up to the north cascades this past weekend. The plan was to head up into the snow so we all loaded up the packs with winter tents, snowshoes, and all the warm gear we could carry. Well we got to the trailhead and even after driving uphill for 30 minutes the snow line was still so far above us that we decided to leave the snowshoes in the car.

We headed out under skies that were pretty nice but had a hint of darkness to them. About 30 minutes into the trip things began to get interesting as we came across an unexpected river. It was not really cold (probably low 40s) but still to cold to just wade across a river of snowmelt. We searched around a little and Dan and I decided the best crossing was over a fallen tree that was covered in ice. What could go wrong right? Well everything went well and after a little sawing of branches and handing of packs we were all across. In the back of my head I was thinking, hmm I hope the water level does not come up overnight because I have no idea how we will make it back across.

After crossing the river we headed into what looked like the set of Jurrassic Park. The trees were huge and covered in moss. We spent a good portion of the hiking heading up a creek bed. There were quite a few blowdowns which resulted in the trail just disappearing. We would realize after about 15-20 feet that we were not on a trail any more (this was a lightly used trail anyway) and would have to fan out to locate the trail again. It was cool to have to do a little route finding. I felt like we were making good time but as it started getting later we were still nowhere near the treeline where we had planned to camp.

A little after 4 Dan said he thought we should call it and use the remaining light to find a campsite. I really wanted to make the treeline for the views and so while he went off to the side of the trail to find an area to camp in (we were on the side of a mountain so not many flat spots were to be had) I dropped my pack and jogged up the trail in the off chance that

a. there was an established flat campsite ahead
or
b. that by some miracle the treeline was closer than we thought

Turns out the the trail just got steeper up ahead and there were not any good campsites up there at all. I reluctantly turned around and started jogging back down the trail to see if Dan had found a campsite.

When I got back Dan had just re-emerged from the woods and thought he may have found a place. We all heaved our packs back onto our backs and headed off the trail and into Jurrassic Park. The campsites were not much to look at but after adjusting the tents a few times we decided they would work well.

After getting setup we all changed into our warmest clothes and headed to our dinner/bar area. Between all of us we had two bottles of port, one bottle of wine, and a bottle of bailey's to have with hot chocolate later. It started getting cold so we fired up the stoves, opened up the port and ended up having a great night just catching up and talking trash. The hanging of the food line was a memorable experience. Booze+waterbottle tied to a rope that needed to be thrown over a tree is always interesting but this was a classic. Classic bear bag setup....

It had gotten dark at 4:30pm so we had all turned in by nine with full stomachs and faces that hurt from laughing. Great times with great friends.

The hike out was uneventful and my worst nightmares about the river crossing on the way out turned out to be nothing more than paranoia.

Han Solo

2010-01-12T21:18:00.000-08:00

Ok, so 3 beers made that subject line sound really cool.

Last year in April Natalie headed out for her first winter camping trip. We headed up to Kendall Peak lakes which is a great snow camping trip where you snowshoe in 4 miles in with the last mile being the snowshoeing equivalent of a bushwhack, meaning there really is not a trail. This past weekend I had grand plans to head out on an epic solo snoeshoe adventure but after fighting a cold, or hangover or whatever it was I decided to bail on the idea on friday evening and repeat a trip Natalie and I did last year.

Last years trip was before this blog was started so let me recap a bit. This was the trip that last year Natalie and I took with my 3 season tent and ended up getting about 6 inches of snow overnight. Luckily this was a calm storm that blew in so we were comfortable under the 3 sleeping bags I had carried in. I figured that since it was Natalie's first winter camping experience I would make sure she was warm so she would want to go again. We worked so hard to make it up to this alpine lake and it never occurred to me until we hiked up to the edge of the lake that in April this lake was just a flat spot in the snow. Hmm, what a scenic plot of snow we worked so hard to reach....

So getting back around to this trip (sorry for the stream of conciousness post but well that is how it is this evening). So I rolled out of bed saturday morning at 9 and hit the road. After a bit of driving around to pick up last minute parking passes at REI I was on the road to the trail. I strapped on my snowshoes and started walking up the trail around noon. Ahhhhhh, I needed to get up into the mountains so bad..

Ok, so one more aside and then I will get back to the trip. I have probably posted on here more than once but I have discovered a formula to my happiness. I have discovered that I have to get up into the mountains overnight at least one weekened every six weeks. More is better but to maintain my sanity the formula seems to be one weekend every 6.

Ok, now back to the trip..... So I hit the trail at the crack of noon and felt the stress drop off with every step. After a few hours I was at the end of the trail and started up the bushwhack portion. Last time I headed up this with Natalie it was a lot of powder but this time the hill was a sheet of ice. Every step had to be stamped in so I would not slide back. About half way up the value of an ice axe started to make sense. Hmmm, note to self, next investment is an ice axe.

After a bit of bashing up the ice I was at the top of the hill. I took a quick detour up to the top of a peak to check it out and then headed to my campsite. After passing a few groups of campers I found a great campsite at the base of Kendall peak. Just about the time I was going to set my pack down I heard the entire wall of ice shift. This was a very eerie, very heavy sound as the snow/ice was consolidating for the night and I quickly decided to head to a safer spot in case the hill decided to detach. So a few minutes later I was within a stones throw of the site Natalie and I had used the year before.

The rest of the evening was spent setting up camp, bundling up and checking out the map for areas I had hiked and would like to hike in the future. Solo snow camping and just solo camping in general is a great time to just sit and think. I reflected back on the amazing year that has just passed. Wow, it is crazy how fast life passes. I feel like it was just yesterday Natalie and I were engaged in Doe Bay, or climbing Mount Adams with Dan and Laura. Wow, it all goes so fast.

Well I am back home now nursing my sore core calves and looking forward to getting out again this weekend. Natalie and I are headed out with Dan and Laura for another snowshoe weekend and I can't wait.

Weekend getaway

2009-12-22T12:38:00.001-08:00

Do you ever run across that place where in the back of your head you think, maybe I should never tell anyone about this place? You don’t want the secret to get out and have your little discovery get ruined. Well we found one of those places this past weekend and I have to share.

Shortly after we moved here I was surfing around the internet searching for cabins to rent. Growing up my family always went to a cool little cabin in a Georgia state park and I was searching for something similar in this area. Well I happened to run across a little place called Scottish Lakes Highcamp. This place was much more rustic than where I went as a kid but I was instantly in love with the place just from the website and vowed we would make it up there.

Two years later (last weekend) Natalie and I loaded up after work and headed out to the parking lot below Highcamp. I say we headed to the parking lot because it is a little involved (in a great way) getting to the cabins. First we drove about 2 hours, due to Seattle traffic, up I5 and over on highway 2. We passed over Stevens Pass, with the ski slopes all lit up for night skiing, and after a few more miles we arrived at our parking lot. We parked the car, did a little gear inventory to make sure we had everything and shortly our first shuttle arrived. We hopped in an old 4runner and were driven 4 miles up into the mountains, thru a forest service gate, way back in the woods where we transferred all of our stuff into a sled behind a snowmobile. There was only one other passenger for the 8pm shuttle and he took up a bobsledders position on the back of the sled while Natalie and I rode behind our driver on the snowmobile. We motored another 4-5 miles up a snow covered road way up into the mountains where we were driven past a few cabins and to the front door of our home for the weekend.

We were staying the weekend in the Larkspur cabin. The cabin was a simple A frame design and was perfect! There was no power or water in our cabin. We had a little propane light, a few oil lanterns, a two burner stove, and best of all a little wood stove that heated the whole place. A fire was already burning away and our cabin was all lit up when we arrived. We could not have been happier.

We quickly settled into the silence…. Ahhhh the silence was so nice… I broke out a beer while Natalie poured herself a glass of wine and we just took it all in. What a place.

In the morning we woke up to cloudy skies and after making a little starbucks instant coffee (surprisingly good), and having a few scones I picked up the day before, we decided to go for a little snowshoe. We stopped by the lodge to pickup a map and see who was in. Nobody was around so we picked up a map, decided on our route, and headed out. The trails were fairly straight forward and after altering our plan a little we ended up at picnic point. After a little snack break, it was picnic point after all, we headed back to the cabin.

Saturday night it is a tradition at highcamp that the lodge has a potluck and everyone brings something to eat and drink along. We were not so sure about it but decided why not check it out. What a great time! We got to meet the owners, several of the employees, quite a few guests, and chatted the night away. After the festivities wound down (we all ran out of wine) we headed out into the cold. We had thought ahead however and instead of going back to our cabin we headed to the wood fired (that’s right, no power so wood fired) hot tub. The water was 110 degrees and felt great. Now this is living!!

Sunday we woke up a little earlier so that we could take advantage of the day. We were both a little bummed that it was Sunday already since we had decided we never wanted to leave. We made some coffee that turned out a little soapy due to our water container having some dish soap in it, made bagels with salmon and cream cheese, stoked up the fire, and read our books for a while. A little later on we figured we still had time to sneak in one more snowshoe so we headed out to wedding point. The clouds and fog were still with us which limited visibility but it was an amazing view all the same. We slowly headed back to our little cabin paradise to clean up and get our gear packed up for the ride back to the car.

After a return snowmobile and 4x4 drive down the snowy road we arrived at the car and headed back into town. We will certainly be back. Hopefully we can get back later on this winter and get in some backcountry skiing. If not then the mountain biking in the summer is supposed to be great too. Either way, I can’t wait to see our little cabin again.

Its a toaster!!

2009-12-05T10:24:00.000-08:00

Once I start posting I can't stop. Thought I would put up another quick post about our new car!! Natalie and I finially decided just to go for it and traded in Fear This (the 1998 Ford Escort ZX2) for a 2010 Scion XD. We test drove a lot of stuff and never planned to get a Scion but after the test drive we were hooked. Coming back from work in Shelton yesterday I got 41mpg. Pretty sweet!

This has made me laugh all week.

2009-12-05T09:27:00.000-08:00

Well it has been a while since I posted last but life work, busy, blah, blah, excuse, lazy, etc.... So I was working at a client site last week and this picture was pinned to their printer. For some reason I can't stop laughing every time I look at this image.

I really plan to catch up soon on posting. Slick Lettuce (aka Sean McAndrew) is headed into town next week so we are psyched. More later....

A halloween to remember

2009-11-03T10:45:00.001-08:00

Click on the picture to link to the full album

Well Saturday night we all loaded up and headed out to our favorite dive bar. We were not sure what to expect as the Barnoff has its own character and we thought we might be the only ones dressed up. Turns out everyone, including the bartenders, was dressed up. The place was packed with mermen, hall and oates, ghostbusters, pinguins, oscar the grouch, cookie monster, and the list goes on.

Our crew was dressed as T-paine'esk rapper (Jake), spider lady (Kay), witch lady (Stephanie), greenman (Ross), hippie (Natalie), and emo version of myself (Thomas). We managed to grab one of the last tables and had a great night. At the end of the night Ross and Stephanie took first and second place in the costume contest raking in $150. I think they came out well ahead on cash that night.

Two weekends in a row of dressing up has boosted our collection of costumes down in the garage. What party will be next?

Natalie is headed out to LA this weekend to visit friends and I plan on taking it easy around the house. Well, I have to get in a 10 mile run as training for the Seattle 1/2 Marathon but other than that I plan on taking it easy.

Dress as your worst picture party

2009-10-27T20:03:00.000-07:00

So this past weekend we had a dress as your worst or most embarrasing picture party. The idea is pretty self explanatory and everyone certainly stepped it up for this party.

We started with a few rounds of beer pong, mixed in a little flip cup, then moved to my place and for twister, then finished up the night over at Ross and Stephanies place playing Beatles rock band. A great time just like the good old days...

The pictures say it all. They are here (click me)

And with that a brewery was born!

2009-10-06T11:14:00.000-07:00

So my neighbor Jake and I have been talking about brewing beer this winter for quite some time. This weekend we made things happen. We headed over to Bobs Homebrew supplies in the university district Saturday morning. I had read a little bit about this shop on the internet and the word on the street was that Bob's cost a little more but with the advice you got it was worth it.

Well all the reviews were dead on. We walked up to the counter and said "we want to brew beer this winter but have no idea what we are doing." The only input we had was that from what we had read we wanted to skip bottling and just go straight into a keg as that seems easier. We knew we would need a little more equipment but what the hell, lets go for it! Bobs response to our statement that we had no idea what we were doing was "not a problem, feel free to roam around the store and I will get together what you will need." Wow, no "you guys are stupid so you should get out of my store and read a little?" Nope, Bob was great and shortly we had everything we would need.

While Bob was rounding things up we picked out what our first beer would be from a list of recipes on the wall. We settled on a Porter since winter is quickly approaching and will almost be here in a month when the beer is ready.

So we hauled everything home and put it all in Jakes garage with plans to brew our first batch on Sunday.

Sunday afternoon Jake and I got together at my house since Natalie was off at the ballet and tried to figure out what order we should do all of this in. We decided to start the keg reconditioning (would take 2 hours) and while it was doing its thing we would get started. So after wrestling the keg into the bathtub and adding the sanitizing agent (Natalie, we did not do this in the bathtub)(everyone else, yes we did) we headed downstairs to start cooking.

I never realized how much was involved in brewing. First you have to start drinking beer from the fridge and then there are lots of steps after that. :) Anyway, we got everything rolling along and for the most part had every step knocked out without too much trouble. The directions said it would take us 3 hours and it took 5 but hey, it was our first time. We only forgot one step which was to take a gravity reading before sealing everything up but that should not be too big of a deal.

So right now we have a sealed firmenter down in Jake's garage with a little airlock on top which will release oxygen as the yeasts eat away at the sugar and create carbon dioxide. I went down in the garage yesterday (Monday) and we already have action down there. We have about 30 bubbles a minute coming out of the airlock so the yeast is down there doing its thing. In 10-14 days we get to open things up and transfer to the secondary firmenter so fingers crossed until then.

And with that 9310 Brewery was born!!

Engaged in the San Juans!!

2009-09-28T10:21:00.000-07:00

Well this past weekend was one I will remember forever.

All the pictures here (click me)

After a crazy week of work, going to see Pearl Jam (awesome show!!), having dinner with friends down at the lake, working more, cooking out with Laura and Dan at their house, and then working more, being crazy busy with life in general..... whew.... well I surprised Natalie with an overnight trip to the San Juan Islands.

Natalie knew we were going somewhere but I did not tell her where. To be honest, until Thursday I was not even sure where we were going. I had quite a few plans up in the air but it all came together perfectly in the end and I managed to grab a reservation for Saturday night.

After a nice night out downtown with just the two of us Natalie and I woke up to the alarm clock beeping away at 6:30am Saturday morning. We managed to roll out of bed, grab our stuff and be driving away from the house by 7. We headed an hour and a half up I5 to anacortes and caught the ferry over to Orcas Island.

This was our first time into the San Juans and I have to say I was blown away. If you took western north carolina and flooded it with an ocean it might look similar. The ferry ride was a little over an hour and when we pulled off of the ferry we were in paradise. We stopped at a little b&b/restaurant for lunch. After enjoying a great lunch and a tasty beer while looking over the harbor we hopped back in the car and headed off down the island.

We took a little detour up to the top of mt constitution (highest point on the island at 2000ish feet). From the top you could see the san juans stretching out to the ocean, mt baker peeking up above the clouds, and Victoria BC just to the west of us.

After oooing and ahhhing for a while we hopped back into the car and headed down the road to Doe Bay Resort which I have no other way to describe except that it is a hippie resort. Many of you may be thinking at this point of dirty smelly people driving a VW bus that was hand painted but this is not what I mean. Everyone was super friendly, showered, but the place had a cool community feel to it. There were a mix of camping sites, cabins, and my personal favorites the domes and yurts. We had a dome reserved which is essentially just that, a canvas dome up on a wooden platform with a bed over by a window. We were overlooking a bay that looked out into the north sound of Orcas Island.

So we got all of our stuff moved into our dome and walked over to our picnic table which looked back into the bay. We saw a little seal swimming around down there and watched him for a while. Well while Natalie was checking out the seal I snuck the ring out of my pocket. She turned around and started crying instantly. After quite a bit of crying and smiling she said, "I did say yes right because the answer is yes!!".

We spent the rest of the afternoon taking it easy sitting in chairs overlooking the bay and saying wow a whole lot. Natalie checked out the ring in every type of light we found. I loved looking away from the bay and catching her just staring at the ring. We are both so excited but vowed not to talk about how, when or where we were going to get married that weekend so we could just enjoy the moment.

After a while we headed to the hot tub. Everything in the resort faced the water and we soaked away any stress we might have had left from the week while we watched the sun sink into the water. Ahhhhh....

After dark we changed and headed over to dinner which was made from all local organic produce (most grown on site) and it was amazing. Natalie had a salmon dish that was fantastic and I had some artichoke ravioli (the chef would probably hate me calling it ravioli but I forgot the real name). We agreed it was easily one of the top 5 meals we have ever had.

We were pretty wiped out after dinned but managed to walk down to the water and stare are the moonlight on the bay for a few minutes before the cold got to us. We headed back to the dome and loaded on the covers before passing out.

In the morning it was hard to get up. The air was so nice and cool and clean and the bed was toasty warm. Eventually we pried ourselves from the bed and headed over for breakfast. Breakfast was just as good as dinner the night before and I found myself eating even though I was full just because I did not want to leave anything that good behind. We took our coffee down to the bay and hung out for a bit not wanting the weekend to end.

Eventually we had to head back to reality and it settled on quickly when we barely made the ferry. I had to work that night so I had to be back if it meant I had to swim. We had a backup plan in place where if we did not make it onto the ferry I was going to jump out of the car, run onto the ferry (leaving poor Natalie to wait 2.5 hours for the next one) and then I was going to catch a ride with some complete strangers that I met and had agreed to give me a lift. Luckily it all worked out and we were one of the last cars they could fit on for that run. We went up on deck and had a beer and a pretzel to celebrate our good fortune and to watch the islands roll by.

What a weekend!! So sad that it is over but it is just the beginning of a new chapter in an amazing adventure.

Rachel Lake Rain Storm

2009-09-24T11:14:00.000-07:00

The weather this summer has been amazing. Up until this weekend you could make plans and just count on it being sunny. This past weekend I thought this would continue even though as the week went on the forcast kept getting worse.

We had made plans with our neighbors and Dan and Laura that we were going to head up to Rachael lake, fish, maybe hike to the top of Alta peak, camp out and have a relaxing weekend. Well the origional plan was to go in friday after everyone got off of work. About mid week I got a call that my friday appointment was having quite a bit of trouble and it was probably going to take a while to get them sorted out. So the plan was revised to Ross and Stephanie going in Friday and we would meet them in Saturday.

I am glad that the Friday plan was changed because I did not end up getting home until 7:30pm so there was no way we would have made it in.

Fast forward to Saturday morning. Natalie and I woke up to rain lashing against the windows. Hmmm, that does not look good. Ah, I am sure it will clear up.

Dan and Laura met us at our house and after a quick coffee stop we headed out to the mountains. We had the windshield wipers going the whole way out to the trailhead. Why are we doing this again? Oh yea, it is going to clear up. The weather forcast said rain until about 11am and then clearing. There was a 30% chance of rain at night but that would just pass over I was sure.

Well we made it out to the trailhead and the sun did start to poke out. Hmm, guess the forcast was right. I sure was glad we did not bail on the trip only to see the sun come out.

About 3/4 of the way in we ran into our neighbors Ross and Stephanie. They had a great time camping but at the last minute their dog sitter had cancelled and they had to bring the dog along. Sadie was soaked and just to pumped up to be stuck in a tent another night so they were headed back. Well looks like we are down to 4 tonight.

The trail is a pretty flat 3 miles followed by the last mile up to the lake being straight up. We made the push and arrived at the lake. The visability was very good considering it had been raining all night. The wind was whipping and we quicklly changed into warm clothes and set out to find a spot to camp.

After quite a bit of searching (people in Seattle seem to go camping no matter what) we found a great site right on the lake. We were tucked into a great pocket where the wind went right over the top of us. We were in such a beautiful spot, we had warm clothing, and the weather was starting to clear. Just does not get any better.

We got camp setup and I even got a few minutes of fishing in before the rain rolled back in. That 30% chance of rain stayed with us for the rest of the afternoon and night. Boooo.... Luckily we were all able to get setup in a dry tent and after hiding out for a while we decided "to hell with it, lets get some dinner going". All that wine and food we had carried up the mountain was not going to eat and drink itself.

I have to say I love camping with Dan, Laura, and Natalie because everyone just rolls with whatever happens. We could have been all bumed that the weather did not work out but instead we all threw on gortex jackets and headed out into the weather to make dinner and drink our faces off. We had a great time catching up and enjoying the weather for what it was. Thanks guys, it was a great time!!!

What a great weekend last weekend!

2009-09-18T15:05:00.000-07:00

Well last weekend was a great one. I took Friday and Monday off to head out to Monica and Dave's wedding. I caught a red eye out of town at 10pm thursday and landed at JFK at 6:00am where I met Katy, Mike, and Mary Beth. We all carpooled it an hour or so to Stamford CT where we caught a few hours of sleep and then kept pushing on to Lakeville CT.

After getting in around 3ish we settled in and visited with everyone until the rehearsal dinner. It was great getting to see so many people and meet some many family members that I have not had a chance to meet yet. Everyone was in great spirits and ready for the weekend.

The weather was not really cooperating but none of us really cared, there was a great group of people around and we were going to have fun with or without the sun.

The ceremony Saturday was great. A buddy of Dave's married them with style. He was a funny guy and kept things going along great, although not so much in order. My favorite line of the weekend was when, about halfway through the ceremony, he said "for all of you following along on the program...well...don't. I have accidentally made up my own order and that is what you get when you ask a disorganized hippie to administer your wedding."

Saturday night the reception was a great time. The party moved to the bar after the dance floor closed and around 2:30am a swim in the lake seemed like a great idea and a large group of us headed out. There was a perfectly good heated pool out back but the lake was calling.

The morning rolled around way too fast and it was time to pack up and leave. We headed back to Stamford CT where we stayed with a friend of Katy's. We recovered from our hangovers over some great pizza.

The weekend went by way to fast. There were so many people I would have liked to visit with more. I was only hit with one "so will there be a wedding next year" the whole weekend and it was thrown in so sneaky that I really was not prepared and had no answer. I think my response was "asdf;klhrjgfiuha". So good to see everyone and can't wait to do it again.

Moving to a new web address

2009-09-14T16:24:00.001-07:00

In the spirit of change this blog is packing up its bags and moving to a real domain name. You will be redirected automatically for a while but the new address is www.sunguilt.com.

So at this point I guess a little explanation is in order.

Sun guilt is a term that I came up with for an affliction I have. When the sun is out (and if you read this blog then you realize that sometimes it does not even have to be out) I feel that I have to be outside playing. I can be laying around in the sun down at the lake, hiking, it really does not matter but I cannot allow myself to sit inside under any circumstances.

The theme of the blog will stay the same. I am still posting about trips, people, places, etc.

In the next few days there will probably be a few issues as the new domain is registered and things are redirected but everything should migrate over shortly.

North Cascades At Last

2009-08-24T15:12:00.000-07:00

Well after two years of living out here Natalie and I finially got a backpacking trip to the North Cascades going this past weekend. Guess that really says something about the amount of hiking in the area.

For some reason all of the trips I plan seem to start out pretty straight forward in the planning stages and then morph into something much more by the time we are hiking. This trip was no exception. The origional plan was that we would get up Saturday morning, grab some coffee and head up the road. The drive is about 3.5 hours but that would be pretty nice too since we had never been to the area. Once we got to the trailhead we were going to hike up to Easy Pass (not an easy 4 miles with 3300 feet of elevation gain) and then back down the other side to Fischer camp which would be a nice 6 mile push.

Well things went according to plan until we stopped in at the welcome center to get our backcountry hiking permit. Turns out nearly all of the campsites in the area were spoken for (can only reserve 24 hours in advance and in person) so our leisurely 6 mile backpack in turned into a 9 miler. There was a day when I really did not think that 9 miles was very far but in those days I did not have huge mountain passes to go over. I don't want to make it sound like I am dissapointed that the trip got longer because I do love that sort of thing.

Well the push up Easy Pass was everything we thought it would be. It was hard work but we took our time and got up without too much trouble or pain. The view from the pass was amazing. We spent quite a bit of time saying ooo and ahhh and the top and then decided that these backpacks were not going to carry themselves to our campsite and headed down. We immediately set into steep switchbacks and dropped 2000 feet in about a mile and a half. We hiked down through the valley that we had been looking down on earlier and after a few miles we were "in the timber".

Many sections of the trail felt like Linville Gorge because in places the trail became faint and there were several major blowdowns that were fun to reroute around.

As the sun began to fade, which was early since we were under a thick canopy, we pull into camp. What a spot! We were under the trees so there was not any dramatic Hurricane Ridge'esk view but through the trees you could make out the huge cliff faces surrounding us, we were right on the banks of a glacier fed river, and there was not a single noise except for the trees creaking in the wind. As wiped out as I was I headed straight for the river to rinse off. Natalie said I was crazy and the water was going to be freezing seeing as how it was straight snow runoff. Nah, I am tough, it is just cold. Well it was so cold that it took me a couple of runs in before I could actually force myself to go underwater. After a little toweling and a brief period of shivering I was very refreshed.

We spent the night chatting and just enjoying being out in the woods by ourselves. We also managed to down the entire bottle of wine that I carried in. I have never slept so well on a camping trip in my life.

The morning was cool and crisp which made it tough to get out of the sleeping bag. After a little work we managed to pry ourselves out of the toasty bags and make some coffee. After a round of oatmeal we packed up, worked on our torn up feet for a bit and headed out.

The hike out was beautiful. The day before was pretty since we were looking up at the glaciers hanging on a range in front of us but this was even better. The whole hike out we were looking up into the valley we had hiked down and off in the distance we could see the pass we were headed over. There were waterfalls coming down the cliff faces from snowmelt and the wildflowers were all blooming in the valley around us. Very very cool.

After 4 miles of gradual climbing up the valley we hit the switchbacks to the pass. The push up the 2000 feet of verticle in 1.5 miles was not nearly as bad as we thought it would be and before we knew it we were up on the pass. On the way up we did take a long break to watch a marmot on a rock above us whistle to all of his friends below.

We spent a long time relaxing our backs and feet at the top and then headed down to the car. We made it back to the car a few hours later and pulled our shoes off to reveal our mutilated feet. At that point I think we both wanted food so bad it did not phase us too much.

We had both seen a little greek place on the way in and had our minds set on dinner. I think we would have been crushed if the place had been closed but it wasn't and we gorged ourselves until we could not hold another bite of pita and hummus if we had too.

It was a great trip and I can see why everyone is always talking up the North Cascades. We will be back as soon as we can.

Forgotten pic from Mt Adams

2009-08-03T20:42:00.003-07:00

Forgot to post this small world picture. So last weekend as we are hanging out on the summit of Mt Adams we run into this guy.

This guy not only was from Boone NC (note the hat as the giveaway) but he worked at Lees-McRae at one time. Whatttt!!?!?!

Weekend of Ahhhhhhh

2009-08-03T20:28:00.000-07:00

All the pics here (click me)

This past weekend was just the Dr ordered. Ever since getting back from the TAT trip I feel like Natalie and I have been rushing to fit in everything we could before the sun went away again and the mountains were covered in snow (hopefully). This past weekend we went out of town but on a 100% relaxing trip.

We met the gang saturday morning over at Walter and Courtney's place and hit the road for the northern entrance of Mt Rainier. We entered the park right by Crystal Mountain (where we usually go to ski in the winter) and headed over Chinook Pass. On the way up we got two jaw dropping views of Mt Rainier. I had my camera all packed away so no pics of that but just google Mt Rainier and if you see a good picture that as what I am talking about. I had not been past the Crystal Mountain turn off and never realized what I was missing up there. Beautiful craggy peaks peaking over tree line and just the tiniest bits of snow on the top. I could go on and on but I will spare you my drooling over mountain views. Anyway, shortly after going over the pass we were at the turn-off for our home for the night.

The cabin belongs to Courtney's family and sits on the American river and inside Mr Rainier park boundries. The cabin was built in 1910 and is one of my favorite places in Washington so far. There are only 3 rooms, the bedroom/living room, the kitchen (complete with the origional wood burning stove), and a little bedroom. We had power and access to an outhouse. How can you not love a place with an outhouse?

We spent the entire day Saturday hanging out by the river, taking the occasional dip, drinking beer, reading, playing ladder golf (my new favorite outdoor game), and not having to do anything. Put simply we were in heaven for the day.

We all had big plans to play board games all night but our oldness kicked in and we all found ourselves passing out in our chairs by the river. So nice to not have anything we had to be doing.

Sunday was pretty much a repeat. More swimming, drinking, and taking it easy. But all great things must come to an end and around 3 we packed up the cars and headed out. It was sad to leave the peace and quiet of the cabin and good friends but it was a great weekend.

A few pics.

The cabin

Ladder golf action

Our hostess

The river we took it easy by

The parting shot

The crazy parting shot

Mount Adams

2009-07-28T18:29:00.000-07:00

All the pics here: (click me)

If you have followed our adventures you might remember the pictures from our Mt Saint Helens climb last year. In the pics and writeup you might remember a few pics from the summit of St Helens where Adams was next door. Well the rough plan was to climb Adams next and this past weekend we made it happen.

Mt Adams is the 2nd highest peak in Washington state after Rainier. The south face of the mountain is known as a great first mountainieering climb since it is not very technical. All you need to climb the mountain is crampons, an ice axe, and a lot of energy. We managed to get together a gang that had all of these things and we all proved it this past weekend.

The week was a little crazy with work, life, picking up rental gear from REI (and some had to search around town for crampons when REI ran out) but in the end we headed out of town Friday afternoon. Natalie and I rolled out of Greenlake about 4:45 and after fighting through traffic we picked up Dan from his house around 5:30. Traffic was the theme for the day and by the time we got to Auburn area, picked up Laura and Matt from work, ate (mexican what else?), and got to the campsite it was midnight. We setup camp in the dark and were all passed out quickly.

After sleeping in Saturday we packed up camp and headed up the mountain. The first day was a climb from camp (5200ft) to what is called the lunch counter (9200ft). All of this climbing is done in 3.5 miles and completely kicked my ass. Even without gear it would be tough but after adding in all the ice axes, crampons and other climbing gear I think everyones pack was pushing 50lbs. It took us about 4.5 hours of hiking and popping through a hail storm before we got to our camping area. The camping areas on Adams are setup as stone rings since you are above tree level and the wind rips across. Luckily we found three great campsites next to one guy (Joe) who was already setup and kicking back. When we first rolled up I was thinking, man this guy is going to hate that we are butting into his private space looking up at the summit. Turns out Joe was up there solo and was happy to have camp mates. We all got along great and ended up climbing with Joe all the next day.

Saturday afternoon was a blur of setting up camp and trying to cram some food in our faces. I was so wiped out that I really don't remember much except for finishing Dan's dinner and deciding I was too lazy to cook my own. We all sacked out before the sun even set with the plan that we would get up at 4am to start the climb.

Well true to our hiking past everyone, including Joe, slept through their alarms (we knew he fit in) and we ended up peeking out of our tents at 4:30am wondering what had happened. It was pretty cool looking out of the tent and seeing headlights dotting the slope from other climbers who had started out on time and were making their way up.

After a lot of dragging ass we managed to start the climb at 6am and were shortly slogging up the first snowfield. The snowfield was steep and we all shortly settled into a step step breath rythem. It was beautiful being out there. All we could hear was the wind whipping by and gradually all of the surrounding peaks lit up with the sunrise.

The first section was a 2000 foot climb up to a false summit. By the time we hit the top the sun had risen and you could see Mt Hood clearly over your shoulder. Everyone way psyched hitting the top of the false summit.

As we were hanging out behind some rocks taking a break we met crackers. Crackers was the most bad ass little dog I have ever met. This tiny dog ended up making it all the way to the summit.

After a nice break we all packed away the crampon and ice axes for the push to the summit. This late in the year the summit got enough sun to where we did not need anything more than hiking poles to make it up. We crossed some scree fields and at the base of the final push we crossed the Adams glacier.

We had a 1000ft push at the end but since it was free of snow I think we all found it was not as bad as the fist bit earlier in the morning. Before we knew it we were out of breath but at the summit. Woohoo!! Hang out and smell the sulfer of the volcano!

This summit was just over 12,200ft and had amazing views. No matter which direction you looked you saw a volcano. To the south was Mt Hood, to the east was Mt Saint Helens, and to the northish was Mt Rainier. It was really cool looking back on Mt Saint Helens and thinking that last year we had been looking over at Adams thinking how cool it would be if we could climb it one day.

After about an hour we headed back down to camp. We hiked back to the false summit and that is where the real fun began. The first snowfield that we had climbed gained 2000 feet and had taken us about 2 hours. On the way down we could slide through the glissade chutes and made the descent in about 15 minutes. These chutes were over your head at the top and you were cruising once you dropped in. To slow down you could lean back on your pack or dig in your ice axe. There were tons of smiles on the way down.

Natalie dropping in

Having a blast!!

We all defrosted a little and headed back into camp.

After breaking down camp we loaded up heavy packs and dropped from 9200 feet back down to the car at 5200 feet. About 2 miles from the car all conversations turned to food. Luckily we had beer, chips and salsa, cookies, and other great stuff waiting for us at the car. We relaxed at the car for a bit and then followed Joe to a great brew pub back in Hood River. I don't think I have ever eaten anything better in my life. The drive back to the house was a killer but we rolled in about midnight, took quick showers and passed out.

I have to say a special thanks to Matt for showing us the ropes and making sure nobody stabbed themselves in the face with an ice axe. It was a great weekend and I can't wait to get out and do it again. You just can't beat a great group of friends getting out in the woods.

Next weekend is a relaxing one hanging out at a cabin by Mt Rainier and I can't wait!!

Day 21 - All great things must come to an end

2009-07-06T12:08:00.000-07:00

Mileage - 190 (if things had gone according to plan it was only 150)
Ride Time - 10.5 Hours

The day was a bit of a late start since Palmer and I were having a blast at the Casino last night and did not get in until about 1:30am. We went in to grab some food and check out the casino and ended up playing craps for 4 hours. Luckily at Oregon casinos they do not give you free drinks as you play so other than feeling tired, and a little lower on money, we were ready for the last day. After stalling a little and putting up a blog post we loaded up and hit the road.

The day started out great. We cruised down some really beautiful logging roads and were making great time.... then the re-routes started. I think the thing with the Oregon section is that there is so much logging the roads tend to be constatly changing. Once you get sucked into the spiderweb of roads it is tough to find your way out. Our first re-route ate up about 20-30 miles of riding and at least an hour and a half or more. Our short day to the finish was quickly expanding.

Eventually we worked out way out of the spiderweb and then ran into the landslides that we had read about but were hoping had been cleared. Well these were still there but luckily we were pretty good at finding re-routes by this time and managed to get back around to the trail pretty quickly.

The last 70 miles of the day has to be the longest 70 miles I have ever ridden. I was having to manually scroll through the route on the gps as we rode due to a glitch in the gps so every time I scrolled to the next screen full of route I was sure it would be the last... well every time there was just more out there. We just kept running up and along the razor thin ridges. Really pretty but at this point the sun is starting to head down and I wanted to see the pacific by dark.

Eventually we started loosing elevation. All I could think of was this was the point in the trip when the captain comes on the radio and tells you were are beginning our dedscent and thanks for using this airline. In my head it was "this is the trans america trail speaking, we are beginning our descent to the pacific and hope you have enjoyed your bumps and bruises this last 4300 miles.. we know you have choices in which trails you ride and are pleased that you chose this one..." In the end we came around a corner and could see Port Orford below us and the sun getting ready to sink. We pulled in to town just in time to ride out to the beach, snap a few victory pics and try to let it sink in that we had just ridden across the country on dirt bikes. 4300 miles, at least 4000 of it was dirt or trail, and we were unhurt on motorcycles that for the most part were operational and able to get us to Portland the next day.

Little did we know that the adventure had not ended. We had much more in store. As we were getting everythind loaded back up on the bikes and off the beach before the tide came in it dawned on us that we had focused so hard on the trip itself that we had not really thought about the hotel for the night. Normally this would not be an issue but we were at a costal town in Oregon on the 4th of July holiday weekend. See where this is going? Yep, no hotel rooms anywhere. I pulled up a list of hotels in the GPS and started calling... sorry no vacancies.. 40-60 miles each way up and down the coast every hotel was sold out. Hmmm, that is not what we had planned.

So since it was going to be a long night, it was only 9:30, and we had not eaten since having a Gatoraide for breakfast we thought we should find some dinner. At first we could not find anything that was open. Where were all these people that had filled the hotels? Just as we were giving up I spotted an old flat roofed building with what looked like beer signs lit up in the window. We were in luck and a bar, that served food, was open. We walked in covered in dirt and wearing our filthy riding gear and were immediately accepted. The band was great, the beer cold, and I had my 5000th BLT sandwich of the trip for dinner.

At this point I was ready to throw a tent out anywhere and get some sleep. I asked the waitress if the police would care if we camped out in the park just down the road and she said w would probably get kicked out but she would keep thinking on where we could stay. As we were finishing our food out waitress came over and said she thought she had an idea on who to ask about camping. "There is the guy over at the bar that lived in the shed behind my house for a while, I bet he will know where you can camp..." Lewis, our camping advisor, came over and introduced himself. "So you guys are looking for a place to camp? I am camping at a spot just down the road right now and you guys could probably fit in there if you wanted. Of course you would have to camp where I pee." This guy said all of this with a straight face and I 100% believe that he was offering up his pee spot for a campsite. We gratefully said we did not think that was a good idea but did he know of anywhere else? "Well there is one place... you had out of town on 101 and right after the bridge just turn left. Look on your left immediately after the turn and you will see a bunch of concrete barriers with no trespassing written all over them. Just behind those barriers is a great flat spot and nobody will see you back there." Well we were so tired this seemed like a great idea so we finished dinner and headed out.

We were quickly over the bridge and then, right where he said it would be, there was a concrete barrier with no trespassing written on it. There was a small berm of sand to get over but at this point we were so tired we just pointed the motorcysles over and hit the gas. On the other side we were astonished to see a great area for camping. The ground was level and sandy... perfect!! We setup the tent, stopping and turning off all the lights only when a car drove by, and crashed out for the night. I have never slept so well while camping in my life.

Day 20 - Life is great again

2009-07-03T09:39:00.000-07:00

mileage - 210
ride time - 9 hours

What a next to last day! For the most part today was straight up gravel cruising. Things got a little interesting when we got to a land slide.

We unloaded both bikes and wrestled them up and over the rocks and roots. We prayed that there would not be any more of those since we were not sure we could find the energy for many more. We did run into several more blocked roads but nothing this size and with a little stacking of logs we were able to get over them.

Eventually the roads smoothed back out and we got back up to speed.

As we were crossing the first blocked road a truck pulled up and after finishing up moving the bikes we got to chatting with the guy in the truck and he told us about some water falls we should check out.

Well as we were crusing along we saw a sign for the falls and decided to check them out.

They were super cool! The only thing I could think of is sliding rock in NC with a giant deep pool next to it. You could just slide down the rocks of you could slide off the side into the pool. Even better you could climb up and jump down into the pool. Here is a shot of Palmer taking the jump

We got back on the road and headed to our gas stop. Turns out the gas station was closed so we were going to be pushing it making it to the next fuel stop. We figured that as long as the roads stayed smooth then we would make it just fine. Well about 20 miles later we were routed into a 4 wheeler trail. The trail was narrow but seemed well used so we figured we would be fine. About 5 miles in the trail headed straight up. When I say straight up I mean it. I have never ridden a motorcycle up anything like this. The first section was steep but the front wheel stayed down just fine. On the second pitch it was so steep that my front wheel floated up a few times. With a little speed, luck, and a little bull riding like style we were on top. According to the GPS this trail did not go anywhere but we followed the route anyway and it just worked out. Before we knew it we were cruising down logging roads and hoping they ended up somewhere.

In the end we made it to a gas station and headed to the hotel.

As usual we just got into the hotel and are wiped out. We are planning to dig deep, grab some food and check out the casino down the road.

Day 19 - Not a great day until the end

2009-07-03T09:31:00.001-07:00

mileage - 170
ride time - 9 hours

Well today was the first day that was really just not very good.

The quick summary is just locked gates

Then the trail dissapeared into a pile of rocks. Knowing how tough we are we pushed on through them.

Turns out it just kept getting worse and worse. In the end we wore ourselves out and then had to turn around and go back. I have never seen so many mosquitos in my life. At one point we were turning the bikes around and I had at least 20 (if not more) of these blood sucking monsters on my riding pants. This was the first time this trip that I was very happy to be wearing all this gear in the heat.

So after we turned around we tried to re-route in the spider web of forest service roads we were on. Seems that in Oregon the gates are locked unlike in Nevada where they just have a sign that asks that you close the gate behind you.

In the end we fought our way to Cresent Oregon and the day turned around. To start off our hotel room was themed. Seriously this was nuts! We had antlers on our light shades, light fixtures, an antler on our ice bucket and best of all we had bullets in our toilet seat cover. Check this out...

Also next door was this store.

Day 18 - Ever just have one of those days?

2009-06-30T22:26:00.000-07:00

Mileage - 250
Ride Time - 9 hours

Today started out pretty normal, we were lost in the first 10 minutes. Our "trail" just ended in a field. Well we did a little re-route and were back on the road. After about 30 miles I noticed that my tachometer was not registering anything. At first I thought, oh well who cares. Never really use the tach anyway. After a few more minutes I realized my temp gauge was not registering anything either. So I pulled over and turned off the bike to check things out. After looking at the bike and deciding the best thing to do was to just keep going I tried to turn the bike back on and realized that all of the electronics on the bike were dead.

Luckily the KLR is a product of the 80's and super low tech so we could just roll start it and things would run. The problem with roll starting all the time was that if I stalled at the bottom of a hill we would have a hell of a time pushing it up enough to roll start it again.

So Palmer and I had to decide if we should turn back to a town that we knew had cell service but no mechanic shops or if we keep going and hope the town in 30 miles had a shop. We decided to let the GPS re-route us to the next town thinking that it would only take real roads and not the trails we were scheduled to take. Well a few miles later our road the GPS sent us on turned into a trail and then ended on top of a mountain with nothing in view. At this point we had wasted about half a day and decided to cut our losses and head back to the town we had come from.

So outside of McDermot Nevada we picked up a cell signal and called our buddies at Valcom Motorsports back in Colorado. I talked with PJ and after he pulled up the wiring diagram on his computer we decided it had to be a fuse. I thanked PJ and Palmer and I proceeded to pull the Red Devil apart. After digging down to the fuse box, that was cleverly disguised so we could not find it at first, we discovered that the main fuse was blown. After replacing the fuse the bike fires up and runs great with the exception of my turn signals and brake light. My turn signals do not flash anymore and the brake light just does not work. Who needs those anyway right?

So after wasting away the day we told Nevada goodbye and hit the highway to Oregon. After getting into the hotel I pulled the bike back into many pieces only to discover nothing.... really just nothing. So the plan is to keep pushing ahead and Palmer is going to be my brake lights.

For now I am happy to call it a crazy day and hit the sack.

Day 17 - Sagebrush still smells good

2009-06-30T21:56:00.000-07:00

Mileage - 160
Ride Time - 10 hours

We can't figure out why but today seemed like a very long day. We were riding Nevada again today and the terrain was not extremely challenging but we are worn out. I think it was that we were riding trail all day and never really got a break on a real road. We were riding through grassy tracks and sage brush constantly. These sage brush were not messing around today, those things were like trees. I had my feet pulled off of the pegs several times from either the sage mini-trees or the rocks they were hiding.

Nevada still continues to surprise me with how beautiful it is. We passed the same mountains of sage and canyons of grass and creeks as yesterday but today we also mixed in some old homesteads. We also got the chance to climb up and over several large bluffs that reminded me of a small version of the grand canyon.

Here is a pic of the "roads" we were on

Bad pic but some cool horses we ran across

Day 14, 15 and 16

2009-06-28T20:00:00.000-07:00

Well it has been a while since I have had internet so it is time to play a little catch-up.

Day 14
Mileage – 160
Ride Time - 7 hours

Today was a pretty short day leaving Utah. We had pretty straight forward roads which was just what we needed. We were both getting pretty beaten down so a short day was just what the dr. ordered. We had a lot of just straight gravel cruising at 40-50mph. We had a couple of notable sections, my favorite being what I like to think of as the whack a mole section.

We were near the end of the day and cruising at 50-60 just to get through the day. I had pretty much lost sight of what we were doing and just ready to end the day when we came down out of the mountains and ran into this section where the road rolled up and down. There was a massive wind storm rolling in out in front of us and the effect was pretty cool. I would roll up to the top of the hill and see the light filtering through the clouds and the dust being picked up and thrown into the mountains and then roll back down into the gap where I could not see anything and just think about what I had just seen and then head back up to the top of the next hill and repeat. I kept adding more and more throttle until I had a grin touching in the back of my head at 70mph. Just great!!

At the end of the day Palmer and I stumbled on one of the strangest hotels we have had so far. This place was just a storage unit complex that someone had transformed into a hotel. I am not sure what I expected for $49 but at least it was clean and did not have bed bugs (funnier if you knew everything about this trip). Here is a pic of this sweet hotel.

For dinner we walked next door to the gas station/diner/casino. Oh yea, high class….

Day 15
Mileage – 25
Ride Time - 10 hours

Well yesterday we crossed into Nevada. For some reason I had been expecting Nevada to be flat, hot and sandy. Surprisingly what we have seen so far has been lush (for a desert) mountains. We started the day off realizing that Nevada was not going to be like any other state we have ridden in so far. About 10 minutes from the hotel we were lost. The routes in Nevada seem to be much more suggestions than anything else.

The maps built into the GPS just don't show the roads and the Topo map overlays Palmer and I have are only slightly better because they show the roads we are looking for, they just happen to be in the wrong place. So between the combination of hand drawn maps we have and a GPS that at best suggests where the roads are we spent the day wandering around making our own trail. This may all sound like a bad thing but we had a blast bushwhacking on motorcycles. Generally we would wander for a while and then eventually make our way to a section of the trail, ride that for a while and then wander to find the next section. The entire area was covered in sage brush which was the first thing that has made us smell anything but repulsive in a while (I forgot deodorant and quit noticing how bad I smell a week ago).

We hit several really cool sections of single track trail that make me realize how much we have progressed since the trip started. I was riding along on one of those sections of trail just thinking how great our riding skills had gotten and that neither of us had dropped out bikes today when all of a sudden I was on the ground in a cloud of red dirt. What happened?@! This helped contribute to this wonderful look I had going on by the end of the day. Check this out...

Day 16
Mileage – 150
Ride Time – 7 hours

Today was another pretty straight forward day. The norm in Nevada seems to be getting lost in the first 10 miles and today was no exception. After a brief re-route we were cruising at 40-45mph on gravel most of the day. I am still shocked with how lush Nevada is. The craggy peaks are just covered in sage brush and some small pine trees. As the day went on the terrain started to look more and more like I pictured the state. The greens and yellows of the morning gave way to more red and gray. At lunch we ducked out to another strange small town. After lunch we decided to take a different way back to the trail. We ended up climbing up and through the coolest canyon. According to the GPS we were not on a road but there was certainly something there. We criss-crossed a creek up and through the canyon for about 10 miles before we popped out into a lush grassy valley with tons of cows chomping away. On all of the peaks around us you could see the trails coming from old gold mines. Sad to see the land so raped but it was a beautiful site all the same.

Every once in a while we would run across a strange rock shack like this one.

Here is a little video of me getting stuck near the end of the day. This was a nasty bog but at least it was in a pretty spot.

Today finished a little early at 4:30 . Palmer and I found a hotel with a pool and let the chlorine attach our nastiness for about an hour before relaxing for the rest of the evening.

Day 13 - So worn out

2009-06-25T21:29:00.000-07:00

Mileage - 170
Ride Time - 11 hours

Best day or riding so far but I can hardly move anymore. Today was a mix of sand, rocks, steep hills. We had a minor mechanical issue when my battery decided that it would not power the bike anymore but after pulling the battery out Palmer and I discovered that one of my several drops during the day must have emptied the battery. We refilled the battery cells from our camelback and as if by magic the bike fired up like a champ. Palmer and I both agree that Colorado and Utah tie for the best riding. Colorado had amazing views and great trails, while Utah has great views and amazing riding.

Not much or a post today so here is a little video from the day. I am going to take a handfull of advil and head to bed. Ouchh...

Day 12

2009-06-25T21:07:00.000-07:00

Mileage - 180
Ride Time - 9 hours

Another long but great day. We headed out of Montecello today and headed twords the La Sal mountain range. Amazing that this mountain range is just a few miles from such a huge desert. We went from zipping up all of the vents in the La Sals to 100 temps in Moab and opening up every vent we could find.

We stopped over in Moab for lunch and ran into Staples. Staples is a rider we have been bumping into off and on while we have been riding. The other day when we had a second night in Salida that put him a day ahead of us. So we were suprised when we ran into him wearing just a sock on his right foot. Turns out he was playing around on the way into Moab. He headed up a steep slope when he stopped and the bike started sliding backwards. The bike dumped on top of him and the foot peg, we think, punctured his boot and tore up the bottom of his foot. He had three stitches between his two smallest toes and the bottom of his foot was all messed up. So, we must have a moment of silence because his trip is over. Such a bummer.

On a different note today was a little interesting when I had a little mechanical issue. Palmer and I were headed up a steep sandy slope when my clutch cable snapped. Luckily I used my deep mechanical skills to replace the cable and housing. Here is a pic of me jumping in with the utmost confidence.

In the end it only took Palmer and I 15 minutes to change out and we were back on the road.

Tomorrow is a big sand day so it should be a challenge. Here are a few pics from the day.

The reason for our first detour.

Coming into the La Sal mountain range

Climbing the hill I busted the clutch cable on

Flatlands outside Green River Utah

Palmer outside Moab

Day 11 - fun with high mountain passes

2009-06-23T22:04:00.000-07:00

Mileage - 180
Ride Time - 11.5 hours

Wow was it ever a long ride today. We had a mix of a little of everything. We crossed over 3 11,000+ ft passes today. The ride was a combination of everything we have seen so far (rocks, steep, beautiful) with serious exposure added in to keep your heart racing. On several of the climbs and descents we would have 200-500 foot drops off to the side.

Today was so beautiful it really made me almost sad every time we put in another mile because we were that much closer to leaving. I really felt a connection with each place in Colorado. The views are so incredible I just can't do it justice with words or pictures. I will try with pictures but they really don't even begin to show the whole view.

This afternoon we left Colorado (tear) and headed into Utah. Tomorrow it is on to Moab.

Here is a little video from today.

Day 10 - lets try a video post

2009-06-23T20:52:00.000-07:00

Favorite pic of the day So I gotta work on my script but here goes.

Day 9 not exactly as we planned

2009-06-23T19:45:00.000-07:00

Mileage - 80
Ride Time - 4 hours

Well today was not exactly what we had planned. We got a bit of a late start today and did not manage to start riding until about 10. The big event today was hancock pass at 11,800 feet. The ride up is supposed to be challenging enough to where there is a detour. On the way to the climb we were notified by another rider that the pass was closed due to snow. He said you could get close and that it was a beautiful ride up so we decided to give it a shot.

I was really nervous about the climb because it was supposed to be very rocky. It also did not help that while we were chatting with the owner of our hotel and happened to mention that we were going over Hancock he said "oh, well as long as you are very experienced riders then you will be fine." Anyway with visions of the most vicious rocks imaginable in my head we pointed the bikes up the road and headed up. In the end it was pretty technical with a few very interesting snow banks you had to cross but all in all I think we did great. We rode up as high as you could get on the road (11,600ft) and then hiked a little to get a few photos. Then my dread of getting back down kicked in. My fear was not justified though as it was not bad getting back down either.

Since the detour took us right back through Salida, where we stayed last night, we decided to stop in at a pizza/brewery that someone had recommended the night before. In town we both agreed that we should just call it for the day and rest up since it was already 2pm and we still had to eat.

It was a beautiful day today and even with the pass closed I am very glad that we went up. Crazy that a pass could still be closed on June 19th. From the look of things it did not look like it was going to be opening up any time soon.

Day 8 - Up into the mountains

2009-06-21T06:53:00.000-07:00

Mileage - 270

Ride time - 10 hours

We woke up at 6 this morning since our maps said it was going to be a long day. When we took a look outside we knew it was going to be a bit longer as it had been raining all night and was still going.

About 30 minutes from the hotel we were suprised because the mud was not all that bad. We still had pretty good visibility so other than riding in full rain gear it was not that bad. Well all good things must come to an end and this was no exception. Suddenly the mud changed from a little slippery to deep muck that clogged up the tires and was super slick. Palmer dropped his bike early on but seemed to get it out of his system since that was his only drop of the day. I was extremely confident on the red devil since I had gone 6 days without dropping it at all. Well that confidence was shot when I came around a corner and went crusing into some deep slick ruts at 25-30mph. The red devil finially could not take it and slipped out from under me.

After a while the sun came out and we began to dry out. We also began to climb and it started getting pretty cold. This was the first time that I closed up all of the vents on my jacket. Soon we had climbed up to our first pass at 10,000 feet. We spent the entire day climbing up and over 9000-10000 passes. We passed through aspen groves and lush forest. I can't do it justice but it was amazing.
I am probably forgetting a ton of it but I have to say it was the prettiest and best day so far. Do I say that each day??
At the end of the day the clouds cleared as we descended to Salida. Salida is a really cool town that has a downtown area that is alive. This is a big change from the ghost towns that we have been passing through since the begining of the trip. There is a festival going on downtown so we are headed down there to check it out.

Day 7 - 4 States one day

2009-06-21T06:27:00.000-07:00

What a day!! Said goodbye to Graham this morning, took a quick parting group shot and hit the road. Bummer to see Graham go but it looks like things are getting tougher from here and that V-Strom 1000 is just not really up for it. He will be missed.

We hit the road out of Liberal Kansas and ducked quickly back into Oklahoma to pickup the trail again. It did not take long for us to get back out into the wheat fields again and start cruising on gravel. We saw tons of pheasant as we crossed the fields and also started to see tons of deer looking animals (antelope?). The sand also did not wait long to make an appearance and was a good bit deeper today. After about 70 miles we left Oklahoma and crossed over into New Mexico. Almost on the border the terrain switched over to desert scrub. As we were getting use to running up our speed on the hard packed desert we ran across an area covered in prairie dogs. There must have been 5 hawks circling overhead just waiting to pick one of those little guys off. Really neat to watch the prairie dogs pop out and check for hawks and then go sprinting off for another hole.

After cruising in the desert for a while I saw what looked like a dark cloud on the horizon. The cloud looking things then became two and about the time I was thinking how strange it would be that two little storms were camped out on the horizon I realized they were our first mountains. After what seemed like a long time we turned towards the hills and they gradually grew and grew until they became mesas. We ran up to and around a few and then the trail went straight up a set through some of the most technical trail that we have seen so far. I think that was a pretty good preview of what is to come. After we got to the top we cruised through some rolling scrub for the rest of the day. We were up at altitude so the whole day stayed nice and cool. We finished out the day in Trinidad Colorado bringing the total number of states for the day to 4.
Tomorrow is supposed to be a tough day with 260 miles of technical trail so this might be the last update for a few days. Hopefully I will have the energy to at least do a post with video so I don't have to take the time to type. For now we are hanging out at Valcome Motorcports getting oil changed on both bikes and new tires on Palmers bike.

Here is a little video all clipped together of the terrain from today.

Day 6 - Second Verse Same as the First

2009-06-18T16:03:00.000-07:00

Mileage - 210
Ride Time - 8 hrs

Well day 6 was pretty much as exact copy of yesterday. We started out in the same rolling hills as yesterday and were just as blown away by how amazing they were. We spent the entire morning crossing cow fields and carving through the corners.

The afternoon was filled with the same straight as an arrow roads and as if one queue the heat kicked in at about noon. We had a little deeper sand which actually helped things a bit. The cross winds were not nearly as bad which also helped us out.

We are in Liberal Kansas tonight and everyone is pretty beaten up from riding for 6 days straight. Also it is the last night that Graham will be with us so a few parting drinks are in order. The three amigos are going to turn into just team brothers Straughn. Tomorrow Palmer and I are headed through the corner of New Mexico and into Colorado. Things should start getting progressively harder from here on as we head out into the desert and then up into the rockies. We are planning to end the day at a motorcycle shop tomorrow where Palmer is going to change his tires to full knobbies, get his crash bars repaired from an earlier fall, and we are both getting oil changes. Should be a fun filled day.

For now I am going to hop in the shower and clean off the dust from the day. Then the plan is to work on Palmers bike a little and then grab some dinner and a few beers.

Day 5 crossing the plains

2009-06-17T19:49:00.000-07:00

Mileage- 200
Ride time- 8hrs

The time is flying by way too fast. Day 5 is already over and we are about to sack out. The day started off beautiful as we headed out across the plains. From everything I had read I was expecting today to be pretty boring as we headed in a straight line for hours on end. Was I ever wrong... The day started out twisting over rolling hills. The only other thing I have seen that looked like the view today was in ireland. Really looked like a sea of green.

Here is a little video of the ride.

After leaving lunch the view changed a bit. To picture the ride just think of hoping in your car, cranking up the ac and driving through some of the most beautiful wheat fields you have ever seen. Now take away car, hop on a motorcycle, throw in a few truckloads of sand here and there to make things interesting, put it all in your oven, heat to 98 (record temps today) and bake for 5 hours. Extremely hot but I would not have changed a thing. Everywhere we looked there was a harvester cutting down wheat. It all stretched as far as you could see. Pretty amazing how much farmland there is out there.

Hopefully we are starting a new trend today as all the bikes stayed upright the whole time.

Tomorrow looks like we run for 200+ miles without a single turn. I think the sand is going to continue as well so it should be interesting.

Day 4 mileage is right on target

2009-06-16T18:50:00.002-07:00

What a day! Today was a long mileage day of 250 and we loved avery bit of it. We rolled out out of the Ozarks and headed into the plains. Lots of long stretches of straight roads with amazing views. Increadable how quickly the scenery changes on the way across the country.

Day 3 and we made our mileage

2009-06-16T18:50:00.001-07:00

Click to enlarge image

It is the end of day 3 and we got in the full mileage for the day. Also we are starting to make a dent in our route as you can see above. Still having some trouble with Palmers side bags melting and we have a new fender in the mail for him but the bikes are running great and everyone is feeling good. Well now that I say it Graham did break his shift lever in a fall today so that is on the repair docket.

Today was pretty straight forward. We hit a few technical sections but until the end of the day I would say we were about at the level of the last two days. At the end of the day (10 miles until the end) we hit the hardest section so far. We were cruising along just fine and all of a sudden the trail got pretty narrow. Then the rocks showed up and then it got steep. We had a few drops but all in all everyone really did great.

I am pretty wiped out so that is about all I can post but I hope to check out some of the video we shot today and post a few tomorrow.

Day 2 still going strong

2009-06-14T20:57:00.001-07:00

Today was another great one. We woke up to a huge thunderstorm and thought it was going to be a bad day. Luckily by the time we ate and geared up the weather had cleared andwe headed out under dry skies.

We hit a few technical sections but nothing like yesterdays mud. Although after saying that I do have to mention graham pulled off one of the best crashes so far.

His fender was so packed with mud that his front whel would not spin and made him lose all control in mud. We pulled off the fender and cleaned everything up so he can now actually steer. He's got that going for him now, which is nice.

We also met these friendly pups along the way. If I had any way to carry them I would be theowner of two dogs right now. Here they are camped out under the red devil.

Near the end of the day we worked our way into the foothills of the ozarks (sp?). Really pretty rolling hills that I did not manage to get a single pic of.

At the end of the day we had logged 170 miles which is way under what we were hoping for so tomorrow is an early start to make up time. Gotta sack out now. More tomorrow.

What a first day! Motorcycles hitting the ground already.

2009-06-13T20:14:00.001-07:00

What a nutty day. I will have to upload some pics later but it was a great first day!

I met up with graham in memphis after a looooong plane ride and we were shortly on the road. We hit about an hour of pavement to get to the trail. We hit the dirt with smiles on our faces and were making great time until we hit some nasty mud sections. After hitting the mud our progress slowed from 40-45 mph to about 2mph. Bikes started falling and the temp just kept rising. It was a workout and we had some parts damage (palmers beak from his dakar and grahams hand guard and shift lever) but it was all around a great day.

We are now hanging out in the hotel room blasting the ac and working on finding food in this tiny town.

If this was the first day I wonder what is in store... More tomorrow.

In the air

2009-06-13T08:06:00.001-07:00

I just woke up from a sweet 30 minute nap bringing my total sleep since getting up at 6.30am yesterday to about an hour and a half. Whew... What time is it?

Did get to meet my parents for breakfast in the atlanta airport. It was fun catching up but I was a little loopy from the flight. Can't wait to see them in seattle in a few months.

I am excited/nervous. Can't wait to meet palmer and graham and get a few miles under our belts.

I get to meet my new motorcycle today too!! Think I am going to name it the red devil.

More later...

Lets do this!!

2009-06-12T17:22:00.000-07:00

So I finished up packing. At least I have everything that I am taking as I don't have a single place left to stuff anything.

I talked to P-man earlier today and he is rolling down the road on his way to Memphis with both bikes and will be meeting up with Graham tonight. Wow, this is really happening!!

I decided I would update my google maps file and add in Arkansas because looking at all the milage we are going to do without Arkansas made me scared. Adding more will make me feel much better right? Holy crap we are riding a long way!! Why is this just sinking in as you are 2 hours away from getting on a plane you may be asking. Hmm, good point. Well here is the updated map.

Packing up and getting ready

2009-06-11T15:20:00.001-07:00

Well tomorrow is the day the trip begins. I can't believe how fast this day has gotten here. Seems just like yesterday Palmer, Graham and I were riding across Tennessee dreaming of one day doing the whole trail.

Tonight will be filled with last minute packing details and putting the final touches on everything. Palmer should be picking up the Uhaul about now and starting to load up motorcycles. Uhaul, if you are reading this we would never load motorcycles in your vehicles (but we are).

On the right hand side you will see a link to a sub blog. Not to say that it is a lesser version of this spectacular piece of writing and photography but it has a very limited purpose. For this trip I purchase a SPOT device that will allow me to check in with friends and family when I don't have wifi or a cell signal. It is a pretty cool little device (check out www.findmespot.com to learn more). All the blog http://tatprogress.blogspot.com/ will do is have our location posted as I check in.

I will be posting our location periodically, like the one below, as we go but for anyone who really wants to know where we were most recently you should check it out.

Also, Natalie and I went out for a final nice dinner before I hit the road and she gave me the coolest present, a flip-cam!! So with this super cool little video cam I can post video on here as we go across. Airport security is going to hold me forever with all the electronics I am carrying tomorrow.

For now we have a wide open map with nothing but a route. Can't wait to start putting some locations on there as we head across.

Click to view Full Size

Relaxing weekend

2009-05-31T16:00:00.001-07:00

All the pics here --> Click Me

Natalie and I headed over to Whidbey Island this weekend. We were going to try to stay over on the island but after calling around everywhere Friday and Saturday we found everything was either booked or $350 a night. There was one campground that was first come first serve so I tossed some camping gear in the car just in case.

We made it over to the island around 2:30 and headed straight for the first come first serve campsites. By some crazy miracle we ended up grabbing a campsite. So, with our sleeping plans all taken care of I started to explore Whidbey a little. Natalie explored her eye lids for a while which was well deserved after an 18 mile training run that morning...

and I went out to explore the fort that I had heard was cool. I got up to the fort and instantly felt like I was 7 years old. There were so many cool places to climb around and holes to fall in, soooo cool!!

Anyway, I explored around for quite a while and then went back to camp to check on sleeping beauty. On the way down I ran across this little guy

I got back to camp about the time Natalie was moving again and we setup camp, visited with our neighbors for a while and then headed out to a gallery opening that a co-worker of Natalie's was featured in. We had a great time at the art show; one of those times when you look at your watch and time has flown by. From the gallery we headed to eat what would be hands down the best meal I have ever eaten in the US (The best anywhere is currently held by an Italian place in Victoria, BC). I had a plate of mussels that were pulled out of the water that afternoon for an appetizer, and then Natalie and I both had Halibut that was so fresh. Everything at the restaurant was local which = really fresh and you could taste it.

After such a great dinner we retired to our campsite for the night. The next morning we got up and took a little road trip up Whidbey Island, over deception pass, and back over to I5 which took us back down to Seattle. Such a relaxing weekend and I am very sad to see it end.

Next weekend will be spent doing last minute preparations for the TAT (Trans America Trail) ride with Palmer. Meeting Palmer in Memphis where he will have two motorcycles waiting and then we take three weeks to ride from there to the Oregon coast all off-road. Stay tuned...

It has been a while but I made it out for another trip

2009-05-21T16:14:00.000-07:00

I got out last weekend with Dan and Frank for a little east side desert camping. The plan was to hit up some fishing, get some sun, and take it easy for the weekend. We were sucessful in each of our goals. Unfortunately the fish were sunfish only. Actually that is not true, I think Dan did manage to throw a bass over his shoulder and into the weeds while fly fishing.

In the end we all had a great time. We also managed to see a rattlesnake wich was very cool. I think I got a little too much sun if that is possible but it felt great anyway.

Hopefully we can get another trip going before I head out for 3 weeks of motorcycle riding with my brother but time will tell.

Skagit Tulip Festival

2009-04-26T21:31:00.000-07:00

All the pics here --> (Click Me)

Natalie and I went up to the Skagit Tulip Festival today and all I can say is wow!! It really looked like walking through a painting. The fields looked fake just like I think Mount Rainier looks like a fake backdrop for a movie.

Not too much to say about the trip except we had a great time. I would go back next year in a heartbeat.

Back to the, back to the beach y'all

2009-04-20T22:15:00.001-07:00

All the pics here --> (click me)
Note: Tons of pics (tried to keep it down to 50) due to the good weather. I kind of went nuts on the boardwalk photos but they are cool so there.

Well it was strike 2 in the search for the whales. With the weather promising to be extremely nice I decided to head back out to the peninsula this past weekend for solo hike take 2. It is prime time for whale migration so I thought I might see a few but instead I ended up with another great weekend of backpacking and lots of sun as the icing on the cake.

I went to the same trailhead this week but at the rangers recommendation I headed south instead of doing the loop.

So the wildlife list was; a few seals, several bald eagles, lots of star fish, elk, a few snakes, and some type of heron.

Check out my pics and you can see the super sweet campsite I grabbed too.

It was a great weekend. Dan, Laura, Frank, and I are trying to get another trip together in three weeks so stay tuned for more.

Gortex is great!

2009-04-13T11:51:00.000-07:00

Click Here for all pics

This last weekend I went out to the peninsula to hike the Ozette loop on the coast. The hike is a 9 mile loop on the coastal section of Olympic National Park and is beautiful.

It was misting when I showed up at the trailhead around 2pm Saturday and kept it up until about 30 minutes before I got to my campsite when it really started raining. The hike out is a 3 mile boardwalk through old growth forest and a few bog areas. One description I read about the hike said it was like hiking through Jurassic Park and now I can see why. The trees were massive in places and I have never seen so many huge ferns in my life.

Once I got out to the beach I realized I had picked the tides pretty badly because there was no coast to hike. I got up onto the coastal park of the trail that is washed away in many places. After fighting up and around several washouts I was soaked through from breaking through ferns. After a little while the tide receded and I was able to climb back down to the beach and hike there.

I got into my campsite about 6, quickly setup my tent and tossed everything inside. After changing into head to toe gortex, grabbing my block of cheese and beer I had brought along, I headed out to climb one of the many short sea stacks and watch a seal search for dinner.

Once it started getting dark, and raining harder, I retired to the tent and read until bedtime around 9:30. To many people this sounds like hell but I cannot think of a better place to be.

I got up Sunday morning to more rain but a bone dry tent. I made a little breakfast and tried to explore the tide pools. When I got to the beach I realized the wind had picked up to about 30-40mph and it was nearly impossible to see where I was going. I reluctantly headed back to camp, picked up my pack, and headed to into the wind toward the trailhead that would take me back to the car.

Fighting the wind and rain while stumbling over the rocks on the beach was tough but was over quickly enough. I made a little detour to try to find some indian petroglyphs (sp?) over at wedding rocks but gave up after about 15 minutes. I will wait until the sun is out to find those.

Once I got off the beach it was a short hike back to my car and warm dry clothes. The weather is supposed to be nicer this weekend coming up so I am kicking around the idea of heading back out.

San Diego getaway

2009-03-30T11:48:00.000-07:00

All the pics (Click Me)

Natalie and I got away for a well deserved sun break the other weekend. We headed out of Seattle Thursday afternoon and a few hours later landed in San Diego. Mary Beth (aka beef)and Robin (aka Robin) picked us up from the airport and we headed over to a great seafood place for dinner and a few drinks. Julie joined us shortly and we all finished up dinner and headed out to a bar to continue the party. After a few more rounds of beer and catching up beef drove us out to our hotel to check in.

Friday morning we woke up to bright sunshine and warm weather. Ahhhhh, that is what we needed. We spent the entire day out by the pool. Julie and her baby Mady came out and got in some pool time with us in the afternoon. We had a great time taking it easy, trying to get Mady into the water and enjoying some mojitos.

Friday night was a reunion at the brew house in town. Carlo, Julie, Mady, Ryan, Beef, and Brian were all there and we spent the evening drinking our three allowed drinks (brewery policy. seriously) and catching up.

Saturday was another taxing day at the pool. We had some catching up on vitamin D to do so we did our best. The sun was gone long before we were ready to peel ourselves out of the pool chairs but we got cleaned up and went into Coronado to grab a great sushi dinner. We retired to the bar at our hotel and then called it a night.

Sunday was kind of a sad day since it had showed up way to early. We did get to grab brunch with the gang, this time including Katie and Mike, over by the airport. After about 30 cups of coffee I could have run to the airport but we caught a ride with Julie and Ryan. Just a few short hours we were back at home.

I had not realized until this trip how easy to was to get to San Diego from here. We were sad to have the trip over so soon but it was great to get away and get some sun. That trip should become a yearly ritual from here on out.

St Patty's Dash

2009-03-18T18:02:00.000-07:00

Pics here (Click Me)

This last weekend the neighbors all got together to run the 25th annual (I think) St Patty's Day Dash. We woke up to a little rain that quickly changed into a snowstorm. We are all just that tough so we headed out to run with 15,000 other people. The race was a great time with quite a few people dressed up. I feel Natalie and Jake stole the show with Natalie sporting a blonde wig and knee high socks and Jake in a cape and with a portable sound system attached to him to share the Irish jams as we ran.

Whistler Weeekend

2009-03-09T22:02:00.000-07:00

Check out all the pics here (click me)

It was another great weekend! Natalie, Ross, Stephanie and I headed up to Whistler for the weekend. We got out of Seattle Thursday afternoon and headed north.

About two hours outside of the city I stopped to get gas and after looking up at the nicely locked up skiis on the roof I realized that I left the keys back at the house. A quick call back to Seattle and Jake confirmed that yes, my keys were sitting in the house. Hmm, that will make life interesting Friday morning. Oh well, too far now so we decided to just keep going and track down a locksmith.

Friday morning Ross and I went out to find a locksmith who was able to open up the locks (all 4 of them) in about 2 minutes. This will make me think twice before trusting those locks too much. A quick $30 for that guy but we were psyched to be able to get to our gear and head out to the mountain.

Friday was one of the best days of skiing I have had in a long time. We had crystal clear skies and the snow up top was really nice. The highlight for me had to be the hike to the top of Blackcomb mountain and the great jump rolling off the top.

We got off of the slopes and partied a little too hard for the first night (or really any night for that matter) so we all woke up feeling like we had been hit by a truck.

Saturday was pretty snowy and cold and we all were a little off after the past night. After a few runs we all had our head in the game and enjoyed the rest of the day. Saturday night was a very low key night where we cooked in the room and made a small dent in a bottle of wine.

It was sad to head back Sunday but we made good time and stopped over in Bellingham for lunch at a cool brew pub. It was hard to let such a great weekend go but we will be back next year!!

Denver pics are up at long last

2009-02-25T10:32:00.000-08:00

Well it took long enough but I have finially post the pictures from our trip to Denver a few weeks ago. We snuck out to get little sun and check out Monica and Dave's new house. Great trip, lots of loving on their dog Stella and I can't wait to get back.

Pics are here (click me).

Hurricane Ridge at last

2009-02-23T15:00:00.000-08:00

Link to all the pics (Click Me).

Well the gang got our act together and got out for a trip this weekend. This was actually the trip that we had planned last year that turned into the camping trip on the Pacific coast.

We snuck out of Seattle around 7:30 Friday and after grabbing a little dinner we hit the ferry over to the peninsula. Everyone was a little leery about the campsite being available after the last fiasco but at about 11:00pm we pulled up to the Heart O’ The Hills Campground at the base of Hurricane Ridge.

Since it appeared that all the campsites were covered in snow we picked the first one and setup camp. After waking up in the morning we realized that in the darkness we had picked the only snowy campsite and that the one next to us was not only snow free but also had a pile of firewood stacked up. Oh well, someone else will be pretty happy about that.

We were not planning to go too far in so we did not rush out of the campsite and ended up getting to the ranger station about 11:30 or 12. After talking things over with the ranger we decided to go ahead with the plan we had and snowshoe in to camp.
Due to the crazy weather on top you are not allowed to park at the visitors center but instead you arrange for a ranger to follow you down the road about 3 miles, where you drop your car, and then they shuttle you back up. We were thinking the process would take forever but about 5 minutes after getting to the top Dan was following a ranger down to the parking area. I should at this point say that we could not have picked the weather any better. The visibility was great, and the temperature was mild.

Every part of the trip seemed to top the next. When we got the visitors center the view was amazing, after we hiked in and setup camp I had decided this was the prettiest spot I had ever setup camp. After we setup camp Dan threw out the idea of hiking to the top of Hurricane Hill which was a few miles away and that way we could catch the sunset from up top. We got camp setup nicely and tightened everything down so it would not blow away. About 3:45 we started heading to the top with packs full of food, extra clothing and headlights.

Wow… I think I said that about every 5 minutes as the scenery just became more and more beautiful. All that kept running through my head was that this was only 3 hours from my house. That is a dream come true.

We got up to the top about 30 minutes before sunset and had plenty of time to check out the view, make some hot chocolate with a little bailey’s to keep us all warm, and chow down on almonds and dark chocolate. Life could not have been any better.

Finally with dusk settling and the temperature starting to drop we reluctantly packed up our gear and headed back to camp. Even the hike back in the dark was great with the last lingering pieces of the sunset fading out over the peaks and the lights from the coastal towns blinking on.

After what seemed like 30 minutes we were back in camp. We started up the next round of dinner, finished off a little port that Dan and Laura brought, and then as the temperature really started to drop we all headed off to the tents.

The wind picked up shortly after we turned in and we woke up to a beautiful snowstorm. The high winds made breaking down camp interesting, to say the least. After learning that if you left a girlfriend in the tent as you broke it down it would not blow away we had broken camp and hiked the short walk back to the visitors center.

I believe everyone agreed that this was one of the best trips they had ever been on. Between good friends, perfect weather, and amazing scenery the weekend could not have been any better.

No real news

2009-02-13T08:56:00.000-08:00

Been out skiing a few times so far and managed to get out xc skiing with Dan and Laura last weekend. So far it has been a pretty lame snow year so no real trips to speak of. We have a trip in the works for next weekend so hopefully pics and stories to come.

Halloween

2008-11-02T21:04:00.000-08:00

Had a great Halloween. The pics can be found here. Link

The plan was a core group would be "Faces of Ferrell". The idea being that we would all show up as a Will Ferrell character.

Great day of fishing this saturday

2008-10-19T17:34:00.000-07:00

Dan and I got in a great fishing trip up to Rachael lake this saturday. The hike in is a pretty good push with the first 3 miles being pretty flat but the last mile going straight up.

It was a beautiful fall day with all of the leaves changing on the way up. The fall out here is very different from the color I am use to in NC. There were also not people from Florida parked all over the place so that was a change from NC as well. Instead of having everything changing there were just patches all over the mountains and around the scree fields that were bright red and orange.

We got started a little late as usual but by the time we made it up to the lake the sky was perfectly clear and the wind was setting in across the lake for the day.

Since I have yet to catch a fish in Washington and was beginning to believe that they did not really exist up here I did not have high hopes for the lake. About 10 minutes into fishing I hooked my fist trout, Dan got the next one and I caught 2 more after that. All in all we probably only fished for about an hour but it was great.

We kept the last two fish we caught for a little lunch before we headed back.

We packed up all of our gear and headed up into the woods to build a kitchen. I got some water boiling for the red beans and rice dan brought and he got started on a fire for us to cook the fish over. Neither of us had any idea how we were going to cook these fish over the fire but we improvised and ran sticks down through them and then suspended them over the fire. In the end our system worked great and we both agreed that it just does not get any better than hanging out at an alpine lake away from everything eating fish that you just pulled out of the lake.

It was hard to head out for the day but the sun was starting to dip as we hiked away from the lake. A few hours later after walking 45 minutes in the dark we got back to the car with stomachs still full and headed back into Seattle smiling.

I am hoping for a repeat next weekend.

Mount Saint Helens

2008-09-15T21:03:00.000-07:00

Link to all the pics: Here

Ok, so all those other hikes we did were not nearly as cool as this!! I will not write too much about this one since the pics say it all but Dan, Laura, Natalie and I headed up to the mountain Saturday morning and started the hike up the mountain at 6:15 Sunday... wow, that was an early start. With all of our stops it was about an 8 hour round trip hike. I have never hiked anywhere like this before.

It was great getting out with good friends and seeing an amazing new landscape. Worth every step!!