Backpacking on

Royal Basin Trail.

Sat, 09 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Joel was right. The Olympic rain shadow is pretty amazing. It was to be sunny & dry.

gray wolf ridge

Joel and I have gone backpacking together the last two years and have had some great trips but before hand I generally whine about wanting it to be sunny and dry. The NWS forecast for Royal Basin showed a possibility of rain so I suggested we try the East side of the Cascades. Joel wanted the Olympics (I honestly did too but I craved sun) and convinced me to chance it. Damn happy we did.

Oh look, a marmot!

Thu, 05 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0000

A good friend of mine and I went backpacking in the North Cascades a couple of weeks ago (been busy, this post is a bit late), setting up camp on the slopes of Mt Baker – unfortunately the weather prevented us from seeing it clearly except from a distance on the hike up to camp.

The plan was to hike to Park Butte and enjoy the views but with overcast skies and limited visibility we ended up seeing fewer mountains …

Ingalls Creek.

Tue, 22 Jun 2010 00:00:00 +0000

I spent Saturday and Sunday with a couple of friends escaping the rain and cold in Puget Sound by traveling over the Cascades to the Eastern slopes for an overnight backpack to Ingalls Creek. We had originally planned a trip to Spider Meadows but some concern about snow caused a change in plans.

We arrived Saturday around noon to find the “creek” was raging white water (turned out to be a perfect foil to one my camping buddy’s snoring). We hiked about five miles along rather easy trails, setup camp and attempted some fishing, but seeing no rising fish gave up rather quickly. We went back to camp, had a fantastic campfire, dinner and enjoyed some well earned bourbon.

Mountains, marmot, blueberries.

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 00:00:00 +0000

black and white mt olympus

Last weekend I had the good fortune to backpack the High Divide and Sol Duc River trail, enjoy an overnight at Lunch Lake and summit Bogachiel Peak for unobstructed views of Mount Olympus.

blueberries and heather

Along the trail blueberries, both low bush and high, grew everywhere and they were deliciously sweet. The high grew in the forest shade and the low in the umber heather hugging the ground. We feasted continuously on the hike, often contemplating if there had been any need to bring additional food.

Marmot Pass, sunrise, mountains.

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

With clear weather and field reports of wildflowers in bloom, a friend and I decided to backpack up to Marmot Pass in the Olympics and spend some time shooting photos.

marmot pass

The plan was to hike to Camp Mystery, setup camp and then hike a bit further up to Marmot Pass to catch the sunset over the Olympics. So, under bright skies and in very warm weather we started up the mountain. The first couple miles of the hike hug the Big Quilcene River as the trail winds through the deep green PNW forest.