165 – Sauk Mountain

Having camped at the Gorge Creek Campground after we hiked to Blue Lake - Rainy Pass the day before (see #164 - Blue Lake - Rainy Pass), this was the day we were finally (finally!) going to hike the Sauk Mountain Trail. It was a long drive up a steep, twisted, rutted, more-or-less one-lane gravel road to the trailhead...

164 – Blue Lake – Rainy Pass

Having recently upgraded from a two-person, three season tent to a three-person, four season tent and anxious to give that new tent of ours a try in the great outdoors, we car camped along the beautiful Gorge Lake at the Gorge Lake Campgrounds. Not far from Rainy Pass, the Gorge Lake Campgrounds is our favorite over the more...

163 – Olympia – Waterfront Walk – Port of Olympia & Fiddlehead Marina

Just because it was business that took us to Olympia didn't mean that we couldn't take time out to explore some of their urban trails too. We like the charm of Olympia and could easily relocate there, so we did our best to add in as much outdoor, urban trail time as possible between the...

162 – Olympia – Capitol Building and Grounds

Visiting Olympia on business, we planned our trip to include plenty of extra time so that we could enjoy the city. In many ways, Olympia is similar to my home town of Bellingham. It's rather like a small version of Bellingham and I always feel right at home there. I enjoy the fact that it's not as congested nor...

161 – Dock Butte and Blue Lake

Dock Butte has been on my list of hikes to get around to doing for quite some time so when I learned that the snow was lingering there, I grabbed my snowshoes hoping for a chance to use them. I also brought the ice trekkers, because the temperatures had dropped since that first snowfall and...

160 – Eight Mile Lakes

Car camping at the Ida Creek Campgrounds (go here - Car Camping at Ida Creek Campgrounds - to read about that) in the Leavenworth area after our backpacking trip into the Enchantments (go here - Backpacking the Enchantments - to read more about our Enchantments trip) so we could enjoy another day of hiking before making the...

159 – Backpacking the Enchantments – On to Ida Creek

If you've been following the blog posts about our backpacking trip into the Enchantments area of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, you already know that it was not the fact that the Government was in the middle of its 2013 shutdown that kept us from entering the inner core of the Enchantments but an early snowfall with lingering...

158 – Snow Lakes

Camping near Nada Lake during our backpacking trip into the Enchantments area of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness (go here - https://60before60.wordpress.com/2013/10/03/62-backpacking-the-enchantments-snow-lakes-trail-to-nada-lake/ - to read about our hike to Nada Lake), isn't this quite the view to enjoy while sipping the morning cup of coffee? With a view like this, it was almost easy to disregard the fact that...

157 – Backpacking the Enchantments – Snow Lakes Trail to Nada Lake

Right up until the moment that we put on our backpacks in the parking lot by the trailhead, we felt fortunate to be able to go on this particular backpacking trip, yet not quite sure that we could do it.  First off, the Enchantments area of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness in the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest is a very unique and fragile...

156 – Backpacking Goat Rocks Wilderness – Back to Berry Patch & on to Mount Rainier National Park

This was the last day in our backpacking trip into the Goat Rocks Wilderness, so after coffee and breakfast we packed up our camp there in the Jordan Basin to begin our hike back. The weather was spectacular and the views absolutely incredible. It was such a wonderful trail with views of not one, but three major mountains as we worked...