Gortex is great!

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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

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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

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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

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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

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

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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

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.