Category: Overnight Backpack (Page 3 of 4)

We’ve been blessed with some incredible spring weather this year, and I’ve been taking full advantage of it!  J. and I headed out early Thursday morning to the Ancient Lakes area near Quincy. We hiked a little bit further to Dusty Lake, thinking we’d have a better chance of fewer crowds. We set up camp near the lake, and some kind person had left a bit of firewood for us to use, so we were able to have a nice fire that evening. We spent the afternoon exploring the coulee, looking for birds and animals and wildflowers. We saw many different species of birds, a few wildflowers, a yellow-bellied marmot, turtles, and a lot of bats (I LOVE bats!). After a very lazy evening, I crawled into my tent and slept pretty well, like I always do when backpacking.

The next morning we packed up early and headed to Beezley Hills Nature Conservancy. Wow!  Weather was perfect and wildflowers were at their prime. This is one of the largest concentrations of hedgehog cactus in the state, and they were just coming into bloom. A gorgeous area to wander around and enjoy a different side of Washington than I’m used to.

Next we drove out to Rock Island Grade and drove several miles up a steep dirt road for some beautiful views of the canyon and the Columbia River Gorge, with more wildflowers. There was a beautiful herd of free range horses that I had to stop and get photos of too.  All in all, a wonderful April backpacking and wildflower hunting trip.

My first backpacking trip of the year, in FEBRUARY!!!  Our weather is so crazy, I never thought I’d be going out overnight this early in the season (I do NOT handle cold nights well). We drove to the Curly Creek trailhead at Lewis River and backpacked out to the Bolt Shelter. It was originally built in 1931, restored in 2013, and is one of the nicest shelters I’ve ever seen in Washington.It even had a very creative Hobbit table and we felt very spoiled.

We thought about camping 1/4 mile away in a much sunnier (and warmer) spot along the river, but the swarming ant hills and thousands of jumping spiders on the grass changed our minds for us very quickly. This quirky warm weather too early in the season is waking up all kinds of creatures that should still be sleeping.

After setting up camp and naming a few massive Douglas firs (William and Eleanor), we collected firewood knowing we’d want a nice big fire at night or we’d be too cold. Steve worked at getting a fire going with wet wood and we were able to keep it going until 11 o’dark, sitting around the fire having surprise birthday muffins and shots of Limoncello!  It sure felt good to crawl into my warm and toasty tent and down sleeping bag, and I slept really well, like I usually do when I’m out under the stars.

The next morning Steve miraculously got a fire going again (thank you!!!) and we enjoyed a sunny, lazy morning by the river. After packing up and heading back to the car, we drove further up the road to Lower Falls, which was well worth the bit of extra drive. The falls are incredible right now with all the rain we had last week. Felt like I was at a mini-Niagara 🙂

What a good weekend with friends, sunshine, campfires, massive rainforest trees, waterfalls, and birthday cake!

I’ve wanted to see the golden larches for several years, and this past weekend the weather was beautiful, so I went for it!!  I packed up early Sunday morning and headed to Cle Elum, north from there, and hiked out to Headlight Basin on the Lake Ingalls trail. Wow!  Once I came over Ingalls Pass and saw the larches down below, I knew the timing was perfect, the basin was gold with larches.

I pitched my tent overlooking the basin, with Mount Stuart as my backdrop, and spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around taking photos of larches and mountain goats. Unfortunately, the goats were a little too comfortable with humans, and decided that it would be fun to hang out at my campsite. I had to “vacate the premises” several times  – luckily they didn’t feel the need to eat or destroy any of my gear.  They’re cute and fluffy, and were totally non-aggressive, but too close for comfort a few times and I had to leave and give them plenty of space. (Note: goat photos were taken with a zoom lens.)

Sunset was wonderful, the moon was almost full, and the wind was relentless!  I didn’t sleep most of the night because of the wind, but at least it wasn’t too cold out. Sunrise again was beautiful, and lit up the larches like they were electric. Once again, my 3 goats decided to “visit” right as I was packing up my campsite and I had to leave for about half an hour while they checked things out … again no damage or interest in my gear, just liked the view, I guess.

Overall, an incredible 2 days spent in a very magical place 🙂

I spent a wonderful fall weekend in the William O. Douglas Wilderness with S & S. Fall colors were wonderful, and we had a relaxing 2 nights at a gorgeous lake. Weather forecast said 47 degrees overnight, but it got cold enough to partially freeze our water bottles, Brrrr!!!  Huge campfires each night helped keep us warm, especially since it gets dark earlier this time of year. We even had our very own creeper-ranger, but that’s a story all in itself 🙂  Beautiful weekend with good, good friends 🙂

Upper Palisades Lake is one of my yearly pilgrimages at Mt. Rainier, this time an overnight trip.  We started the day with a mama bear and her cub along the trail, and were lucky to have a great vantage point for photos without getting too close to them.

The water at Palisades Lake is pretty low this time of year, but it’s still a beautiful area.  After setting up camp at Palisades Lake, we backtracked a bit and went up to Hidden Lake, which was new to me. We both went for a dip in the **cold** water, but it felt wonderful!  Hidden Lake is beautiful, and not many people there which made it even better. In the evening I saw a mountain goat high up on the cliffs above our campsite.

The next morning J. was brave enough to wake me up at 5:45 to catch the sunrise, and I’m so glad she did, because it was magical watching the Palisades cliffs light up in bright pink. We also got to see and heard elk bugling on the hillside above us at dawn. Wonderful area of Rainier, and a great overnight backpack trip. It’s also a great area to dayhike.

I was one of the lucky people to get a permit for the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Enchantments to Colchuck Lake. It’s beautiful out there, to me it’s like a little piece of Yosemite in Washington State, with granite and towering mountains and gorgeous alpine lakes. Most of the trail up is very rocky and steep in parts, not necessarily good for the knees, but worth it for the incredible views. The color of the water in Colchuck Lake is a beautiful creamy-teal color, a very easy place to sit and relax and enjoy the wilderness.

We sat in the evening on some big boulders at the end of the lake and watched people the size of ants coming down Aasgard Pass, it must be amazing in the Upper Enchantments but these knees will never do that!!!  I’ll have to see it vicariously through photos, unless someone wants to helicopter me up there some day.

The hike back down next day was fairly brutal on these poor surgical knees of mine, and I got back to the car feeling sore and abused, but it was very worth it!

Well, the plan was to get all the way out to Enchanted Valley in the Olympics this weekend, 3 days off, gorgeous weather, but a migraine had other plans for me.  Still, I had an excellent half-hike (minus the headache) in a gorgeous rainforest, can’t complain about that!!

I started out at 3:30 Friday afternoon toward EV, extremely humid but sunny and beautiful. After crossing Pony Bridge, the headache started to set in and by about mile 5, I was desperate to find a flat clear spot to pitch my tent. Easier said than done, since virtually every square inch of surface is covered in vegetation out here… it’s a rain forest after all. The trail was extremely muddy in many spots from the downpour of a few days ago – my new Keen boots are thoroughly broken in now, I hardly recognized them for all the mud covering them.

Finally found an absolutely gorgeous campsite a bit before O’Neill Creek, right on the river. Thank goodness my Nemo tent goes up fast… I barely got the tent set up and then crashed and slept for about 10 hours!!

Woke up and everything that was wet or damp the day before was even more wet and damp. The humidity was off the charts, impossible to get anything to dry out there. The headache was gone but I still didn’t feel that great, so I decided to head back instead of push another 7 miles up to Enchanted Valley, then a 13-mile hike back out. I’m bummed I didn’t make it all the way, but my head was glad I made the decision to turn back. I woke up to spectacular light on the river right next to me.. light shining through the trees and onto the water was just beautiful.

I drove back to Lake Quinault and spent the next night at Falls Creek Campground right by the Quinault Lodge, read some of my book, took a nap, listened to music, wandered the lakeshore, and just laid low. Sunset over Lake Quinault was stunning.

Some day I’ll make it all the way out to EV, but for now I’m happy with half-way.

Incredible weather for the beginning of May, so Janelle and I decided we’d better use it!  We drove to the Hoh Rainforest visitor center, got our overnight permit, and hiked out to Five-Mile campground on the Hoh River. Less than 50 yards down the trail we were stopped by an elk right in the trail who was simply not interested in letting us pass, and actually got aggressive toward Janelle when she tried to sneak past him. Took about 10-15 minutes for him to wander off the trail far enough that we could get through. I thought Hoh elk were generally nice, my opinion has now changed…

I decided to bring along my new bear canister, gotta practice lugging it around for this summer at Yosemite and Ansel Adams Wilderness. There are bear wires at the campgrounds, which would have been much easier. End result: I hate the thing. Pain in the rear to fit into a backpack, pain in the rear to haul 3 extra pounds, pain in the rear to get food in and out of it… but it’s necessary, so we’re beginning to develop a love/hate relationship with each other.  On the other hand, I’m madly in love with my new Nemo Obi 1P tent, love it, love it, love it, and am looking forward to spending a lot more time with it 🙂

Just after getting to camp, another person there told us we’d missed seeing a bear crossing the river by about 5 minutes. We wandered around looking for signs of it, but never saw it.

After setting up camp at Five-Mile, we wandered a bit further up the trail to Happy 4 campground for an evening stroll and to see the shelter there. I think I’ll stick with Five Mile. I slept well, after putting on every single layer of clothing I had and crawling into my down sleeping bag with hand warmers and a wool hat. I passed the test of sleeping outside in what otherwise would be too cold for me. I’m a chicken in the cold, ‘nuf said.

Next morning we broke camp early and headed back to the car, heading for Klaloch and the Olympic coastline…