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2011 Weekly Green Mountain Hikes

This year, starting in May, myself and Doug Savage of the Peninsula Wilderness Club made a pledge to sponsor weekly hikes up Green Mountain every Thursday night after work. In the first few weeks we didn’t have many folks show, mainly just a few friends. By the end of the season, we had as many as 28 people show up. I contribute the success of these hikes mostly to Doug’s outgoing nature and willingness to pack large bottles of wine to the summit. Not sure what will happen next year when he is out of town for work most of the year. Another contributing factor was Soon. I had never met Soon before she showed up for our second outing but Doug knew her. When she starting doing the hikes, word got out about her excellent cookies. Perhaps she will co-sponsor the hikes in 2012 with Doug out of town? Below are photos of some of the highlights of the 2011 weekly Green Mountain hiking season.
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Bruce Lee artwork

I kind of liked this artwork of Bruce Lee that I saw in Chinatown in Seattle. My new office is really close to the international district and this is on the way to the Uwajamaya market where I sometimes eat lunch.

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The rickshaw of death!

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As seen at the ferry terminal in Seattle. Looks like something straight out of a Stephen King novel.
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Star Wars Van

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Recently, my office moved into a new building. This van is on my walk from the ferry to the new office. It is kind of beat up but looks like it might have been pretty cool at one time. The windows that once said Ford were changed to say Force. There is a bumper sticker on the back that says Trey is a Jedi. There is also a rebel alliance emblem on the back window. All in all it looks like my dream van (30 years ago maybe).
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My first time in the Enchantments

July 23-25 2011

On the weekend that I was supposed to hike the Chinook Pass to White Pass portion of the Pacific Crest Trail, I instead took advantage of space on a fellow Peninsula Wilderness Club member’s Enchantments permit. This year the snow has been excruciatingly slow to melt off and I figured it would be a safer bet to go to the Enchantments than to try and route find my way through 30 miles of snowy terrain. Joining me on the trip as my hiking partner was Craig Mecklenburg. The permit holder was Megan Thompson (no relation) and her father Russ Childers. The Enchantments are a set of high alpine lakes located in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness just SW of Leavenworth Washington. They are often called the most beautiful of Washington’s high mountain lakes. Obtaining permits for the Enchantments involves a lottery system and they can be hard to get. The best permits are for the core Enchantments, but anything is better than nothing. The permits we had were for the Snow Lakes zone.

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Duckabush thru North Fork Skokomish backpack

I was supposed to do this trip on the previous weekend but since that was the 4th of July and I had priorities with family, I put it off until this weekend. I have hiked up the North Fork Skokomish countless times, either to do the Staircase Rapids loop or to go up to Flapjack Lakes. Even stayed at Camp Pleasant once. I had never set foot on the Duckabush until this trip, so this was to be a new adventure for me.

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Hiking the odd trails of Green Mountain

I was supposed to hike the North Fork Skokomish over First Divide and out the Duckabush this weekend. Lingering snow in the upper elevations and prior commitments were cutting my 3 day weekend short so I decided to stay local. My favorite option to stay local and still get a few miles in is Green Mountain.

I have been working on a wiki style field guide for my hiking club and I needed to record some info from some of the lesser known trails on Green Mountain. I brought along my gps and recorded tracks for the Plummer Trail, Beaver Pond Trail, Powerline Trail, Wathora Trail and a trail I didn’t even know existed called Tasi’s Connection Trail. All in all, a fun, not too strenuous hike with some variety I usually don’t get when hiking Green Mountain.

If you are curious about the work I am doing on my club’s website as far as the wiki/field guide goes, you can see the field guide here – http://www.pwckitsap.org/fieldguide/ or for the Green Mountain part in particular - http://www.pwckitsap.org/fieldguide/Green-Mountain. The Field Guide is a work in progress. Suggestions to make it better are always welcome.
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Tyler Peak and almost Baldy

Four of us, Soon, Paul, Isaac and myself, went up the Tyler Peak trail on Sunday June 26 2011. We did a loop, first summiting Tyler Peak where we had lunch. Afterwards, we worked ourselves across the ridge towards Baldy. When we reached the point that drops down towards the Maynard Burn trail, Isaac and Paul decided to try to summit Baldy while Soon and I stayed behind and relaxed for a bit. We gave them an hour to summit and return but I think the snow slowed them down. Thick clouds also covered the summit when they neared and discouraged them from continuing on since the views would be limited.
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Buckhorn Pass – Peak 6470

On Sunday the 19th of June 2011 (Father’s Day), I sponsored a trip up to Buckhorn Pass and beyond, up to the un-named peak (peak 6470) on the Tubal Cain Trail. This was a nice high country trip into the alpine. I will refrain from calling it an early high country trip because by this time of the year, the whole trail should be pretty much melted out. This year, we have seen a very heavy snowfall year and a very cold spring. Much of the mountains of the Pacific Northwest are still blanketed in snow. High country trips like this should be easy to come by by now, but I will take what I can get.
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Mount Saint Helens weekend with the PWC

Looking into the crater of Mt Saint Helens from the rim.

Another climb of Mt Saint Helens this year with the Peninsula Wilderness Club.

We drove down on the afternoon of Saturday the 11th of June and set up camp at the Marble Mountain Snow Park. Isaac, Paul and I, who all rode together, went off to explore the upper Ape Cave while everyone else socialized around camp. We had a great time clambering over huge rocks that were once part of the cave ceiling but had collapsed and left a big jumbled mess to get around. There was also the waterfall section, which is a 9 foot tall headwall that one has to scramble over. We had a good time exploring and we even saw a bat flitting around the entrance to the cave on our way out.

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Ingalls Creek

I headed out to Ingalls Creek with Cheryl and her daughter Stephanie on this first warm day of the year. This has been the year of the seemingly never ending winter and this was a nice hike on a beautiful day. I’ve never seen as much trilium as I did on this hike. We saw Calypso Orchids, Trilium, Arrowleaf Balsamroot, Paintbrush, Lupine, Glacier Lilies, Tiger Lilies (not yet bloomed), Silvercrown, Western Serviceberry, Red Flowering Currant, Ballhead Waterleaf, Oregon Amenones, Pioneer Violet and a few more of which names I am unsure of.

Ingalls creek is a good spring destination due to the large variety of early blooming wildflowers. As the trail follows along the creek, you’re hardly ever farther than earshot of its cacophony of cascading waters and turbulent rapids, in fact at times it’s hard to hear anything above the roar of the water.
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Columbia Gorge Weekend with the PWC

2011-05-21 Gorge Hikes with PWC-127

Day 1
On the weekend of May 21-22, I sponsored a trip to the Columbia River Gorge for my hiking club the Peninsula Wilderness Club. Everyone met at my house at 7:30 on Saturday and we drove straight to our first destination, Hamilton Mountain.
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Rowena Point at Sunset

After a couple hikes I did in the Gorge with friends from my hiking club, I drove over to Rowena Point to try to get some good shots. I came away with this one that I liked.
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Seabeck Time Lapse

I created a time lapse sequence last night in Seabeck looking towards the Olympic Mountains across the Hood Canal. Sequence is comprised of about 350 images over the course of an hour. Special thanks to Hayden for being so patient.

For the best possible view of this video, click the HD in the player controls and watch at Vimeo. Open full screen for best resolution possible.

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2011 Hiking Wishlist

Below is a short list of some of the hikes I would like to do. I obviously can’t do all of them this year, but I would like to try to knock out a good chunk of them, heck I’d be thrilled if I got to a third of them. Let me know if you would like to join me on some of these and we can try to plan for them this summer. For the longer PCT sections, I might go solo, but who knows. Probably can’t get to much of the PCT this year anyhow, but I can certainly dream.

Updated 5-11-11 – See confirmed planned trips below. I am totally committed to these trips unless severe crap weather is forecast or snow levels continue to be a problem.

Confirmed trips:

Gorge Hikes – Hamilton Mtn, Dog Mtn (Confirmed May 21 and 22)

Mt Saint Helens Climb (Confirmed June 11-12, no more permits left)

Mt Jupiter dayhike 14 mile RT (Confirmed June 19)

North Fork Skokomish – Duckabush thru, 33 miles -  (Confirmed weekend of July 2-3, dependant on snow conditions)

PCT Chinook Pass to White Pass, 30 miles – (Confirmed weekend of July 23-24, dependant on snow conditions)

Wonderland Trail, White River to Longmire, 33 miles (Confirmed weekend of July 29 – Aug 1, a club member’s trip, no more spots available)

Timberline Trail, Mt Hood, 40 miles – (Confirmed weekend of Aug 13-14-15)

Devils Dome Loop, 42 miles (Labor Day weekend Sept 3,4,5 AND 6th, confirmed and on my calendar)

Loowit Trail around Mnt Saint Helens, 32 miles -  (Confirmed Sept 17-19)

Enchantments thru-dayhike 19 miles (Confirmed Oct 2 from car camp Oct 1)

Tentative:

Open – May 7

Open – June 4-5

Open – June 26

Open July 9-10

Open – July 17

Camping with my son Hayden – Weekend of Aug 27-28

Wishlist:

Washington

  1. Spider Meadow/Lyman Lake/Buck Creek Pass Loop (weekend overnight)
  2. Cascade Pass/Stehekin/Sahale Arm (more research needed)
  3. Tank Lakes (weekend overnight)
  4. Oval Lakes, Chelan Sawtooth Wilderness overnight. Here’s a link to a good report
  5. Cady Ridge – White Pass – Meander Meadows (26 mile dayhike or overnight)
  6. Elwha – Quinault thru (weekend overnight – 45 miles, shuttle needed)
  7. Lake of the Angels – Hagen Lakes – Mount Hopper – Staircase (research needed – off trail route)
  8. Couple overnights in the Goat Rocks Wilderness (NOT at Snowgrass Flat)
  9. PCT section H (I was thinking of taking a week off this year to knock out some of this, shuttles and or hitchhiking necessary, 150 miles or so)
  10. PCT section I
  11. PCT section J
  12. PCT section K
  13. PCT section L

Wishlist

Oregon

  1. Three Sisters Hikes (research needed)
  2. Steens Mountain  (http://web.oregon.com/hiking/steens_mountain.cfm) (http://www.traditionalmountaineering.org/Photos_SteensPack.htm)
  3. Ice Lake – Eagle Cap Wilderness (research needed)

Let me know if you are interested in planning some of these with me this year!

Jay