The previous weekend I made an attempt to hike up South Mountain. This time around I was better prepared and actually drew out a track to follow on my phone’s built-in GPS. I was successful this time around. I didn’t see a soul all day out there, probably due to the ambiguous signage that the …
Ok, so I wasn’t exactly lost, but I sure as heck didn’t find the top of South Mountain. For all the logging roads that criss-cross this mountain, I figured I could surely find a route, but I got a bushwhack instead. South Mountain is the southern most peak in the Olympic Mountains. To get there …
I heard the Griff Creek Trail was snow free so I headed that way this weekend. While the Griff Creek Trail doesn’t actually follow along Griff Creek, it does follow along the ridge next to it. The officially maintained trail ends at the 3300′ elevation mark but an unofficial trail continues on to a prominent …
I went up to Hurricane Ridge to go snowshoeing and hiked out to Hurricane Hill last Monday on the MLK holiday. The snow was very firm so I didn’t end up needing the snowshoes. The weather over the last week has been strange. The last few years we have had a strong inversion in January …
This was an event I sponsored last October for my hiking club – the Peninsula Wilderness Club. A lot of the events my club puts on are really close to home, which usually means the Olympic Mountains so I was excited to find out that there was 11 of us on this particular outing to …
While looking for a place to hike this fine fall weekend, my friend Cheryl and I decided on Hawk Peak in the Olympic Mountains. You get to Hawk Peak by way of the Tubal Cain and Tull Canyon trails. I had been this route before on a hike we called the Koski Loop which is …
Trying to get caught up on the blog so I’m writing up some older trips this week. This trip is from September. Desiring somewhere new to go, I decided on Skyscraper Mountain near Mt Rainier. Skyscraper is a very easy to do scramble just off the Wonderland trail near Sunrise with amazing views all around. …
I had the good fortune and privilege to hike with guidebook author, Craig Romano on the weekend of Sept 8th 2012. Craig is the author of several of the Day Hiking series Mountaineers books. We hiked the Mt Whittier “trail” in the Mt Margaret Backcountry of Mt Saint Helens. We also hiked the Lakes trail …
This was my rather weak attempt at capturing some star trails. I drove up to Tipsoo Lake and spent a couple hours there waiting for darkness and shooting the stars. I’ve learned that I’m going to need to perfect the infinite focus thing on my camera if I want to be successfull at this.
A long time dream of mine has been to hike the entire Wonderland Trail around Mt Rainier. Being a working guy with a family, it would be hard if next to impossible for me to take a large enough chunk of time to do the whole trail in one go. I don’t have the luxury …
A few months back, I decided at the very last minute to drive down to Mt Saint Helens for a hike and to see if I could figure out conditions on the Mt Whittier Trail. Mt Whittier had been on my to-do list all year and I figured I should go see for myself if …
WARNING! Gratuitous wildflower pictures contained in this post! This was a pretty tough 17 mile day-hike near *The Mountain. In years past it wouldn’t have been so difficult but this year I have been very out of shape. This trip starts at Mowich Lake at around the 4900 foot level, climbs up to the 6400 foot level at …
This year, I won permits to the Enchantments. I entered 4 lottery tickets and won 2 sets of permits. One set of Snow Lakes zone permits and a one set of core permits. Unfortunately at the time I applied, I had forgotten that I would be in California at the Muir Trail Ranch during the …
I took a hike with my friends Ron and Tess up to Blue Mountain on the Deer Ridge Trail. The day started out rainy as I left my house and the weather didn’t look too promising. I met Ron and Tess and Paul at the park and ride on the Port Townsend turnoff on Hwy …
This was my first year to ride in the Peninsula Wilderness Club Pub Pedal in Seattle. It was a great time and I hope to do it again next year. We were expecting rain for much of the day but we were lucky that it didn’t start until we reached our first pub. It …