Chilliwack River Trail via Hannegan Pass

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)

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

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

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)

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

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

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.