Hiking

Every time we drive down I-90 going into eastern Washington we pass a large bridge with a big sign saying “Palouse to Cascade state park trail”. Ever since I first saw it, I’ve had my eye on the Palouse to Cascade state park trail as an amazing adventure to do some day. Bit of background - It’s a 289 mile trail (350-ish including detours) starting in Cedar Falls near North Bend and going all the way to Treskow on the border of Idaho. The trail follows the old Milwaukee trail (railroad line) and is mostly gravel/sand the whole way. It’s relatively flat (railroad grade) the whole way, with the exception of a few detours that bypass broken bridges/tunnels.

Knowing we had several big trips coming up, we had been considering laying low for the next couple of weeks but a 3 day weekend combined with good weather was too hard to pass up. I made a last minute camping reservation at Birch bay state park which is just north of Bellingham right before you get to Blaine. We have been to a nearby state park (Larabee) several times so we knew the area, but this was a whole new place to explore.

Bryce canyon was our second national park of the Utah national parks trip. The park was much smaller than I was used to, but there were still plenty of things to see/do. Bryce is a hikers national park (vs canyoneering at Zion) and most of the things you want to visit are day hikes (although some of them can be quite long for a day hike). There was only one trail that we didn’t do (or at least not all of it) out of the the list of the top hikes in the park. Next time we come, a multi-day backpacking trip on the Under the Rim trail will be on top of the list.

Welcome to Zion! When we had our Galapagos plans fall through, we decided to meet up with the family in Utah for a National park trip - starting with Zion National park. We only spent 3 days here, but we did get a good taste of the park through some canyoneering and biking. Zion is known for Canyoneering - which is where you climb up/down steep walled canyons often by walking through/in the water. We rented gear (big waders & felt soled boots) and took the bus up to the start of the narrows. There were a lot of people for the first 1-2 miles (note the first picture below) but it thinned out as we kept going.

After having such an amazing time at Diablo lake a few weeks ago, we decided to head back with the kayaks. The goal was to pre-position the kayaks at the head of the lake, drive to the other end of the lake, hike to the kayak, and then kayak back down the lake to the car. It was a big trip, but we were excited. 2022-04-01 The first order of business was to drive up to the North Cascades. We left late on Friday so we stopped of in our standard rockport for dinner at the brewery there. This is a really fun place, and Sara played and played on the chaulkboards and markerboards they had on the walls.

After visiting Hurricane Ridge ski area a couple of weeks ago, I thought it would be a fun trip to go back with skiis and give the $20-lift-ticket ski area a try. It was super fun and Sara had a blast - grabbing onto the rope tow was a learning experience and she realy had to put her whole body onto it to make it work. :) Anyway, more on that later.

For our first trip of 2022, we had a whirlwind adventure - hiking in the snow to climbing over logs on the beach. Sara started Ski lessons, so our first van trip of the year was Sunday and Monday of a long weekend (Saturday was ski lessons). There was a lot of driving on this trip, more than I expected, but we got to see it all, snowy mountains, rainforest, and a very stormy (and rainy) beach.

Welcome back! Baker lake, round two. I think our plans must have changed 3 times before this trip - from Mt St Helens, to Langley, and finally to Baker Lake. The weather called for rain/snow all weekend, but we didn’t let that deter us! Sara made the final decision, she wanted to see snow. Baker lake had some obvious advantages - clear roads (to support the Dam there), I knew the landscape, and the hike I was planning (Baker Lake trail) was in the trees so, theoretically anyway, it shouldn’t be as windy/stormy - as it likely would have on St Helens.

We made a last minute decision to head to Ft Flagler this weekend (near port townsend). The origional plan was to head to Mt St Helens but the forecast was for lots of wind and rain, so we decided to change it up a bit. There is a drive-in movie theater that we were going to try and Ft Flagler an old historic fort with lots of trails and places to explore.

We went on a 3 day camping trip this weekend - joined by my parents and Sara’s grandparents. We didn’t have any particular goals for the trip - but managed a good mix of hiking & the outdoors with some window shopping and hanging out in some placed we haven’t been in a while. We took off on the trip Saturday mid-morning - after picking up Sara & my parents from a fun night of swimming and sleeping over at the hotel. We drove through to Leavenworth for lunch at a beautiful restraunt by the water.

Our first trip to Larabee state park - which is right on Chuckanut bay near Bellingham. Beautiful location and lots of fun stuff to do. There are railroad tracks that run right through the park, which might be n issue for some people, but Sara and I did great (didn’t wake up at all) and it was fun to watch the trains go back while we were playing around. We went on a fun hike and Sara hiked the most I have ever seen her do - almost 2.5 miles!

We just completed our first 3 day van trip - which was an all around success. We went to three different state parks and saw some very different terrain in each - super fun trip. Also figured out quite a few van optimizations, including how to watch movies and the best way to store clothes. Leadbetter Bay Loop So our first park was Leadbetter state park which is on the very end of cape disappointment. It’s a wildlife preserve and we saw a ton of birds. I didn’t realize until after we got back to the car that dogs were not allowed - so shame on me. The coolest stuff we saw was a stretch of beach where the tide had started cutting away at the land above the beach and caused a bunch of trees to fall and the dune grass north of the loop, which was a stunning view.

We decided to do a day hike on Bainbridge Island and the trail was super cool so I decided to do a post about it. It’s a 5 mile trail point to point that goes from one side of Bainbridge Island to the other. The first mile was on a road and the first half mile was not super fun (small shoulder) but after that the hike was super fun. Old growth forests, open meadows with views, interesting landmarks, etc were all available. Angela dropped Sara and I off at one end and came to meet us at the other end (she was planning to hike in to meet us but got a little lost).

Back in 2012, I was given the opportunity to study abroad to finish up my MBA education - at the WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management. It was a great way to finish up my education and it offered the opportunity to travel around before heading back into the real world. 2012-04 At the end of the study abroad program, we made our way down through France and Spain to Gibraltar. I don’t actually remember how we got there, either the train or a flight, but we ended up walking across the border from Spain into the tiniest bit of England, where the rock sits. The place was not what I expected - there was some of the historical batteries and the like that protected the entrance to the Mediterranean, but mostly it was just a very touristy place where they sold everything under the sun that said Gibraltar on it. The most notable thing about the rock was the monkeys, there were probably a hundred of them on the rock and they were melicious - stealing things and harassing people. I watched one steal a little toy out of a babies crib and another distract someone while a different monkey stole an apple from his backpack.