August outdoor adventures

Lenticular clouds near Mount Rainier

August was jam-packed with outdoor adventures - two backpacking trips, some day paddles, day hikes, lots of fun work outside, visiting friends, and mushrooms. Life doesn't get much better than that right?

 Backpacking in North Cascades National Recreation Area along Ross Lake with Nickie and Carolé.

 Cascades from our camp on Ross Lake

 Wine, chocolate, and good friends

We were treated to a visit from our friend Gretchen in August - last sighted at our wedding in 2009! Ralph came to see Gretchen too and fun was had by all. When friends of yours, like Gretchen, live in the U.K. you have to take every second with them you can grab. We also got to meet her kiddos and we collectively discussed ways to see her husband and our friend, Matt, again. Someday I guess we will have to take a trip to the U.K. eh?

Jay's new kayak, named Iridaea after a lovely red algae, was ready for a real paddle after we bought her. We were busy the next several weekends so we decided to paddle out after work to Burrows Island and the lighthouse for dinner. The light was perfect, the company was perfect, the kayaks were perfect, and the food and wine were perfect. It was a ridiculous night.

 Alaria and Burrows Light

 Jay paddling back to Skyline Marina with Mt. Baker in alpenglow.

It took some work and some luck, but we (J&J and Nickie and Carolé) scored on an overnight backpacking permit in Mount Rainier National Park on the Spray Park Loop trail. Our drive to the park was awesome with big lenticular clouds pouring off the mountain (first photo of this blog) but by the time we climbed to the 6,300 ft. high point on the trail, Rainier was hiding. We still, as you can see, had some fun along the way even though it was freezing (glad we know how to dress appropriately!).

 At the high point on the trail, right on the flanks of Rainier, with my love looking "down" on the Cascades.

 Heading down to Seattle Park

 Nickie, Jay, and Carolé in Seattle Park watching for that mountain to appear. 

There it is! Yes!! After these clouds cleared, the views kept getting better and better. The huckleberries did too!

Descending into the huckleberries and not sure if I should eat every berry in sight or watch Rainier and the lenticular clouds pouring off that majestic mountain. 

The next morning we kept losing all the elevation we gained (and lost) yesterday. I knew we had a big elevation gain push at the end of the day when I would want a light pack, but then we found this mushroom. Into my pack it went for a 10 mile wander back to the car.

Yum.

 Crossing a bridge along the Carbon River

 The Carbon Glacier

What four people look like after 3,000 ft. in elevation gain in 1.5 miles.

This beauty was treated well back home. 

All August photos can be found here:https://goo.gl/photos/4WK3aZCiyZH3jefU7

Hiking to American Lake in some good ol' smoke

After leaving NY and MA we came back to a week of work and then another weekend of play. The forecast was great - warm and sunny with clear blue skies. Sure sounded like we should head to some big volcanoes! So Nickie, Carolé, Jay, and I decided to hike in the Okanogan Wenatchee National Forest just outside of Mount Rainier National Park (we wanted to have their dog Beebee join us, hence no hikes in the park). We read about a trail to a lovely alpine lake called American Lake and we hit the road! 

We spent Friday night at their place near Seattle and woke in the morning to a very hazy sky. It was supposed to be clear! As we drove closer and closer to the trailhead, we concluded correctly that the winds had shifted and we were going to spend the weekend hiking in the smoke from the wildfires that were raging around WA and OR. We checked with the rangers and made sure there were no active fires near our planned hike and decided to go for it! It was like hiking through a campfire - it smelled lovely and only made me cough a few times.

But the smoke totally obscured our view of Rainier. If you read my blog a bit, you know that Nickie and Carolé just moved to the USA from South Africa (after living in Cape Town for 12 years). This was their first time near Mt. Rainier and I was stoked to see their reaction when they saw that volcano up close and personal for the first time. Here is the view of Mt. Rainier! Amazing! Note the sarcasm. No jaw dropping experience for us....but it was still an awesome hike.

 
I found this satellite image that was taken over WA on the weekend we were hiking - you can easily see the Olympic Peninsula on the top left corner and you can actually see the white dot of Mt. Rainier (why couldn't we see it on the ground!??). The smoke covers almost all of Puget Sound and there is a little gap over the Cascades. That is misleading, because we were in the middle of the Cascades and we couldn't see very well at all. But this image was taken on Saturday when the smoke wasn't too bad - it actually got worse on Sunday when we hiked back out.

Jay and Nickie try to hitch a ride out of the smoke??

 Awesome camp near the lake

 American Lake through the haze

 Beebee and I went for a swim! 

What would a hike be without some downtime by a lake with good food, good friends, and a bottle of wine?

 We even got to watch two female common goldeneyes fluff their feathers

Serious smoke on the hike out

 Goofballs.

No hike is complete without a beer at the end of the day! 

All August photos are here, hike photos are at the end of the album: https://picasaweb.google.com/111221596171793333099/August2015?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCOTBn-WKoMmvcA&feat=directlink

July, in a nutshell, was awesome

Alright - I'm clearly to damn busy having fun to keep up with this blog. I'm two months behind in working on my photographs and getting them into online albums and way behind on the blog. But I do this to have fun too, so finally I'm in the mood to write up a blog about July. This will be short on text though - Jay and I spent the day beating up our crappy old countertops to get ready for new counters that will be installed on the 8th. Yes! It was great to show the tile who is boss yo.

Alright - here is all of July in one massive post of photos and terse descriptions... It started with a visit from Jay's sister, Allison (Lee). It was a short but very sweet visit with enough time to play outside, eat well, and discuss a bright future for Lee as she just finished her N.P. degree and is ready to begin to practice!

 Lee in the Anacortes Community Forest Lands

Once Lee left, we headed to Canada - our tradition over July 4th holds strong - get the heck outta America! Except it was going to be hot (over 100 degrees!) in BC and coastal Anacortes would have been nicer. Oh well, at least we escaped the firework insanity. We were thinking of hiking along a ridgeline in Manning Provincial Park, but we opted for a cooler, lower elevation hike in the forest and along lakes beckoning us for a dip. Here is Jay along the Lightening Lakes trail heading out to a backcountry camp.

 Lakeside peace

 

Flash Lake, Manning Provincial Park

The next weekend we went for a paddle along the north coast of the Olympic Peninsula. It was a dead calm rainy day - perfect for a gorgeous paddle along a stretch of coast that could have big scary waves. I love this photograph of Jay in all the kelp.

What a great spot for lunch! And all the bushes behind us were loaded with ripe thimbleberries! Bliss!

Jay floating over his anemone study subjects. Look at how clear the water is! 

Julie and Alaria - lovin' my gorgeous boat.

We played the rest of the weekend with our old friend Ralph and his girlfriend, Alana. The boyz went freediving for some Dungeness crab while Alana and I went for a lovely walk.

We managed to get in some cider tasting at Finn River before rushing to Port Townsend to catch the ferry.

Anacortes is gorgeous in the summer. Here is a plant sale during Shipwreck Day - the giant yard sale that occupies the entire downtown one day in July. We love Shipwreck Day!

Jay and I met up with Nickie at Chateau St. Michelle for an outdoor Harry Connick Jr. concert. The best part was that he played a lot of songs from "Oh My Nola" - my favorite album of his with lots of New Orleans jazz.

Chateau St. Michelle 

Trying out my synchronized swimming moves with Karl watching on

I spent the following week running a big geoduck dive survey based out of Port Townsend for the week. To get the job done we worked with divers/biologists from four different tribes as well as the 2015 Our World-Underwater Scholarship Society North American Scholar. It was the first time Swinomish (and I) took the lead on a geoduck surveys and after a few hiccups, we got our groove on and finished the entire survey in the week. Yes!

Rocky, Cathy, Max, Karl, Julie, Michele, Courtney

Weighing and measuring the geoducks is always entertaining

Even though Michele and I were beat after a long week of diving and logistics, we ramped it up to celebrate the 21st birthday of the Anacortes Brewery with friends from Shannon Point Marine Center!

My favorite part of the birthday celebration - Bartender Olympics! Yes! In this photo three of our favorite bartenders in town go for it during the tricycle race (ride around a block without spilling your tray of water), while the head brewer for Anacortes Brewery looks on in the background.

July photos are here: https://picasaweb.google.com/111221596171793333099/July2015?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCPf_3qWXtKSWxgE&feat=directlink