Jay's Journeys

South Mountain Loop

Jay — Fri, 17 May 2013 22:57:26 +0000

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 ...

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Lost on South Mountain

Jay — Sat, 04 May 2013 22:12:44 +0000

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 ...

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Griff Creek Trail

Jay — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 23:48:58 +0000

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 ...

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Hurricane Hill – Enjoying the Inversion

Jay — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 17:58:20 +0000

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 ...

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Umtanum Falls and Black Canyon

Jay — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 20:13:44 +0000

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 ...

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Hawk Peak loop

Jay — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 02:55:19 +0000

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 ...

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Skyscraper Mountain and Fremont Lookout

Jay — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 18:59:35 +0000

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. ...

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Mt Whittier Traverse

Jay — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 20:46:04 +0000

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 ...

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Star Trails and Mt Rainier from Tipsoo Lake

Jay — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 22:03:53 +0000

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.

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Wonderland Trail – Longmire to Mowich Lake

Jay — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 03:50:16 +0000

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 ...

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