North Twentymile Peak

May 31, 2015

It's not every Saturday that we feel like going for an obscure thirteen mile 4400' gain hike, but yesterday we went. Darin's dad had seen this peak in his hiking book a few months back and asked if we'd do it with him sometime. So, this was the weekend.

It was hot. If not for the steady light breeze we might have turned around. And there was not another human soul for miles.

North Twentymile Peak is in a few of our hiking books, but appears to be a very unused trail. We saw one set of footprints in places, and one set of horse tracks, and evidence that someone had come through recently with clippers to get rid of trees growing on the trail, but that was about all the evidence of recent human presence we could find.

The 1920s cupola style lookout was my favorite part of the hike. It had so much character, and the door was unlocked so we went inside. Darin and his dad found the shiny new weather station and 1940s lookout pretty cool too.

Marmot Pass and Buckhorn Mountain

May 25, 2015

I'm not really sure how neither my husband nor I had ever done this hike before. It's so beautiful, even in the clouds.

The trail along the Big Quilcene winds through lush, beautiful forest with trilliums at the trailside, and then the steady climb begins and continues all the way up to Camp Mystery where we set up camp before continuing on to Marmot Pass and Buckhorn Mountain. The snow near the trail is completely gone. We brought our ice axes for any lingering snowfields on the way to Buckhorn Mountain but we had no need for them. Just a quick use of hands up to the summit closest to Marmot Pass, which our mountaineering guide lists as the tallest of the arêtes.

The trail is in amazing shape, and the steady climb isn't steep, which was a welcome to our knees on the way down.

And, upon our return, our adventure cat Hobbes demanded to know why we didn't bring him. He's pictured at the bottom hiding in our rain fly.

Eagle Creek

April 26, 2015

I had the pleasure of spending a night hiking with my friend Kiri on the Eagle Creek trail in Oregon last week. I understand it is one of the most hiked trails in Oregon, and we definitely understood why. The trail is lined with wildflowers, and we joked that we were sick of seeing waterfalls by the time we made it back to the car. I have never seen so many spectacular falls on one trail before, and we only hiked it to Tunnel Falls at six miles in.

Punchbowl Falls is one of the most photographed spots in Oregon and the feature of many of its calendars. I had made the first two miles of this hike with my family when I was in elementary school because my dad wanted to see the source of the picture he had hanging in his college dorm room. It was fun to return to see it again, and with a better camera! I have disposable film camera pictures of this falls, and I might find, scan and share them too for comparison. My skill has improved quite a bit in 18 years, at least I hope.

2015: First Quarter Collection

April 12, 2015

I've been neglecting my blog and realized I have so many photos that I haven't thrown up on the website yet. They have been shared on social media, but I wanted to share them here as well. These are all from January 1st to March 31st 2015, so the first quarter of the year. It's been a beautiful three months!

Rialto Beach

February 19, 2015

I had been to Rialto Beach once before, as a child, but have very few memories of it. With the promise of good weather on the Valentines/Presidents Day weekend and a lack of snow in the mountains, we opted to head for the coast. Rialto may have just become my new favorite beach, despite the swarms of people even in February. The geology is so interesting to marvel at, and we were fortunate enough to do the Hole-In-The-Wall hike twice! These pictures are from Saturday and Sunday night.