washington

Lacey and I hit up the Olympic Peninsula again to get away from it all real quick. The past two weeks have been hectic with the seattle snow. I've racked up 72 overtime hours at work in 6 days plowing snow for the city I work for, something I thought I wouldn't do too much of again (coming from...

Long Video Short Video A few weeks ago my wife and I did a day hike in this area (Trip Report) and we were blown away by it's beauty - even during the poor weather. Since then we've been haunted by the thoughts of returning to the area, with the idea of going as high as we can go, and...

Sorry for no highlight video. I've been strapped on time, I'll get one out eventually. This was a 3 day 2 night trip into GPW in the southern part of the North Cascades Sept 27-30. We left after work on Thursday and drove up Stevens Pass US-2 toward Phelps Creek TH where we front country...

Don't have a video for this one. The wife and I took quick day trip up (despite our really late start in the day) to the Yellow Aster Butte area in Mount Baker Wilderness. Thanks to watching WINDY.TV closely we were able to thread the needle with weather. A pretty reliable cloud cover predictor...

FULL TRIP REPORT (LONG) HIGHLIGHTS (SHORT) Hello all, On labor day weekend the wife and I went to Mt. Adams wilderness for a overnight trip to Glacier Lake on Mount Adams in Washington's Mt. Adams Wilderness. Glacier Lake is an easy off trail route from the High Divide Camp Trail. We got...

After 10 days, a tendon around Jenny's knee was complaining. I will say upfront that NO ONE is tougher than this gal. So I put a hand on the tendon and was shocked and appalled. Swollen bigger than a golf ball! How was she able to even walk on that thing? Oh yeah...she is tough. Sigh, alas she...

With the Inspiration Traverse under our belts, Jenny and I were joined by Giles Wallace. Giles, with a wicked sense of humor, strong skills and a stronger back, I know we were thrilled to be carrying lighter loads and having his company. Our plan was to climb Mt. Shuksan via the Sulfide...

Hello again everyone, Trip took place 8/10 - 8/11. I just got off a week of on-call duty and was very pent up since I needed to stay within a 1 hour response distance of my place of work I needed to get out badly. The wife worked Friday and Saturday, which I had off, and low and behold a window...

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Alas, it was time to go down the hill. And a long hill it was. Within an hour, we were in the heather, at treeline. With the trees, came the bugs. The sweat. The cliffs, we weaved around, on the ridge top, that dropped over 5,500 feet, mostly trail less, to the...

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Questions asked from the first two segments. The trip was July 11th-16th and yes it was before the fires. We saw our first plume of smoke on the 18th. I have no idea what kind of tent it is. I don't know tents. I am a tarp type of fella. After arriving on the summit...

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 When we woke up the 4th day, we vacillated on which way to go. Back where we came from, or to continue on, with a long way to go. Going back would put us in the low lands, on a weekend night, among the crowds. Forward would be sans a safety net. But the weather...

In early July, Jenny West and I did the Inspiration Traverse, in the North Cascades. We got up 3 peaks and traversed 6 glaciers. We took our time and it took 6 days. Days above treeline in the Cascades, in good weather, is as good as it gets. Here is the first 3 days, including the ascent of...

I finally got around to do some backpacking in one of my favorite areas in the country. The Pasayten Wilderness in north central Washington. The pasayten is over half a million acres of designated wilderness located in the North Cascades part of the Okanogan subrange. It's rugged lonely beauty...

My kids are getting old enough (9-year-old twins and a 5 year old) to start joining Mom and Dad on adventures. In July 2018, we did an 11-day journey through Washington including 6 bag nights. The trip started with 4 nights kayak camping in Baker Lake and Lake Diablo, car camping in the North...

I took this summer off to ride my motorcycle up to Alaska and do some backpacking along the way. I left in June, and after seeing some friends in the Seattle area i went to do some hiking on the Olympic Coast. This was my best trip of the whole summer, which was a little bit of a bummer since...

My daughter, Holly, going to school in Seattle, had the great idea that I should come up in the summer and we could explore Rainier National Park. Our research led us to the Wonderland trail, so we decided to apply for the hard to get camping permits that would take us all the way around the...

My daughter and I stopped by this park for a first time quick visit on our way back to Seattle from Glacier NP. We were expecting a point of entry with a booth but never saw one. We drove in from the east and were impressed by the mountain scenery in the fading light of the day but never saw...

The Pacific Northwest did not have a winter this year. That was followed by perhaps the hottest June and July on record. By July, snow was mostly gone. Glaciers were icy or huge crevasses had opened as to make travel perilous or impossible. In this, my 21st, 3 week, July trip to the North...

My wife and I took our first backpacking trip over Labor Day week in 2012. At the beginning of the year I did not even know that North Cascades National Park existed. Hiking, camping, and backpacking were not on my radar. Then I saw a copy of a Backpacker magazine at a newsstand. On the cover...

Let me attempt to quickly report on one of the great trips of my life this summer - my 4th attempt to climb Mt. Rainier. The first climb was all about fulfilling a childhood dream of summitting this impressive mountain. The next climbs have been more about inspiring myself to stay strong and...