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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

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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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Shawn Roots, Isaac Sun liked this post

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

Columbia River Gorge with Hayden

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Hayden and I made a trip down to the Gorge and explored a little. We saw the Vista House, hiked the Oneonta-Ponytail Falls Loop, rode our bikes in the Mosier tunnels, drove up Stacker Butte in the Columbia Hills, visited Horsethief Butte, and climbed Beacon Rock. Where else can a father and son get away and get to see and do so many cool things? »Read More

Ancient Lake Overnight

On Friday the 22nd of April 2011, I drove to Eastern Washington after work to do a micro backpacking trip at Ancient Lake near Quincy. Ancient Lake is about 20 miles or so from the Gorge Amphitheater.

The trail itself is only a couple miles and its a good thing because I didn’t arrive until almost sunset. I packed a couple duraflame logs in for a fire and my neighbors decided to join me since it was getting cold quickly. I used the darkness to practice some night photography of the stars. I see that I still need to work on my technique and figure out the best camera settings, but it wasn’t all bad.
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Klickitat Rail Trail and Labyrinth Trail

On April 9th, Paul Dutky, Isaac Sun and myself drove down to the Gorge to do a short hike and a bike ride the next day. We met up with fellow PWC club member Kevin Koski at the Labyrinth Trailhead and hiked a short 4 or 5 mile loop before heading to camp. The next day (April 10th) we got up and Kevin was gracious enough to provide a shuttle service for us so we could ride our bikes back to the car. The rail trail was really fun and we were the only people in the Swale Canyon portion of the trip. The Klickitat Canyon Portion of the trail was scenic but I preferred the Swale Canyon area better because it was smoother and the downhill grade was slightly steeper requiring less pedaling. The Klickitat portion was very rough and took a lot of work to get through. All in all we had a great time and I highly recommend riding this trail some time. Mileage was a little over 28 miles on dirt mostly and about 1500 feet elevation loss.

Klickitat Trail Conservancy website
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Olympic Discovery Trail and Dungeness Spit

Isaac an I biked the Discovery Trail starting at Sequim Bay State Park all the way out to Kitchen-Dick rd and then followed that rd out to the Dungeness Spit. When we arrived at the Spit, we hiked out to the end and visited the lighthouse and had lunch. Afterwords we reversed our tracks and headed back to the car. This was a significant trip because it was the first time in about 15 years that I had ridden my bike any sort of distance. I can tell you I was one tired dude when it was all said and done. Total of about 30 miles on the bike and 10 miles of hiking for the day.

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Striped Peak

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Last weekend, I attended a snowshoe trip up to Hurricane Ridge sponsored by Doug Savage. Doug, Barbra and myself were the only people that attended. The drive to Port Angeles was quick but we were turned around at the Hurricane Ridge Road gate. The sign said they were still clearing 15 foot drifts of snow out of the parking area that was a result of the heavy snows the previous week and they were unsure when the road would open. What to do, what to do? I suggested we try a place I had heard about called Striped Peak that was outside of Port Angeles on the way out towards Joyce.

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Lower Big Quilcene Trail

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Lower Big Quilcene Trail
January 30 2011

Inspired by Jim’s trip report from the 22nd, two different groups of people I know were planning to hike the Lower Big Quilcene trail. Isaac, Kyle and Craig were in one group, Ron, Tess, Paul N and myself in the other. A third set of folks I invited at the last minute also showed up, Paul C and his hometown friend Sarah.The trip to the trailhead could have been better planned by all involved. We left Silverdale around 7:45 and quickly lost the way to the trailhead once we got on the forest roads. For some reason we decided to take the side road that leads to the Tunnel Creek Trailhead. We followed that Road for about 4 miles and I am sad to report that the way to Tunnel Creek is blocked by a large rock slide about 4 miles in. It is going to take some big machinery, a big stick of dynomite, or both to clear it. Luckily it didn’t appear to have damaged the road other than blocking it. I did not get a picture of it.
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Gray Wolf River Trail

My friends Ron and Tess invited me along to hike the Gray Wolf River trail. Ron and Tess just got married a couple of weeks ago and Tess was also getting over knee surgery from a few months back. Another friend, Cheryl and her daughter Stephanie also joined us.
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Mt Walker

My friends Ron and Tess were planning on getting married at the top of Mt Walker at the first of the year and they asked me to photograph their wedding. I figured I better hike up there so I could figure out what the shoot was going to consist of. While I was up ther I met some folks I know from the NWHikers forum.
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Eagle Creek

Another Eagle Creek hike that I sponsored for the PWC. This time it was just Issac and me.
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Eastern WA, Umtanum Falls and Black Canyon

In an effort to get away from the rain and for a change of scenery, I drove to Eastern Washington to check out Umtanum Falls and Black Canyon. Both places are located in the Umtanum Area between Ellensburg and Yakima. While I have been to the Lower Umtanum Canyon and ridge area before, this was my first trip to to this side of the ridge. The guide book, Best Desert Hikes Washington, co-authored by Alan Bauer was indispensable on this trip.
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Camping and exploring with Hayden at the Gorge

Hayden and I spent the weekend at the Gorge exploring and doing a little camping. Our first stop after the long drive was Multnomah Falls. We mainly were just there for a bathroom break but I couldn’t resist taking a few pictures while we were there.
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Goat Lake/Hawkeye Loop – Goat Rocks Wilderness

This was a last minute trip to the Goat Rocks Wilderness. I hiked the Snowgrass – Goat Lake loop with a side trip up to Hawkeye Point. Since it was last minute I couldn’t find anyone who wanted to go so I went solo. A shame since the weather was perfect. I couldn’t have asked for a better day.

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