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

Norse Peak Wilderness

First campsite at Goat Lake (look for the tent to the far right)

Wayyyyyy back in September we headed out on a long weekend backpacking trip to celebrate my birthday and our anniversary. Jay found a nice loop hike in the Norse Peak Wilderness that promised few people, mountain goats, and loads of views of big volcanoes. Awesome! The goats delivered for us! We saw so many of them on this trip - plus loads of elk bugling and bear sign. We hiked up a million switchbacks and then back down again to camp the first night at Goat Lake. Reports were flying that the northern lights had potential to make it south to WA that evening. I was so excited about this possibility that I got no sleep at all...and for no reason. =( We got out of the tent in the middle of the night to check the clear, starry, sky for the lights with no luck. Even though I knew there were no lights, I was still too excited to fall back asleep. Man. I was tired the next day as a result!

 The hike out from Goat Lake was beautiful and chilly!

It would have been sweet if we had made it to Basin Lake to camp on the first night - just look at this place! Alas, the lake was too far for us to reach with the late start we got on Friday and it was too close for us to stop at on Saturday. So we simply enjoyed the amazing view of the emerald water and all the goats on the hill above the lake.

 Tons of goats! 

The spot where we planned on getting water was already occupied by a zillion tadpoles - a delight for these nerdy biologists. After walking around a bit more we found a non-tadpole-ish source for our drinking water and sat down for a tasty lunch in the hot sun. 

It was mid-September but the huckleberries were already changing color in the Norse Peak Wilderness. I had been hoping to pick lots of huckleberries, but they were totally done. This was the only bummer of the trip.

We hiked along the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) in the morning, then headed off of it for the afternoon to head south to Crown Point and finally picked the PCT up again to head north on our loop. The big northern turn onto the PCT slammed us right into this awesome view of Mt. Rainier.

Pacific Crest Trail - Norse Peak Wilderness

View from Camp Two of Rainier

This was a horrible place to camp. Horrible. We were surrounded by horny elk bugling in the morning and the sun was far too bright on that ugly volcano right by our tent. Don't ever come here.

Within our view of Rainier was a view of Crystal Mountain Ski Resort - you can see a tiny building to the left side of the image. I can't believe we haven't been skiing there yet. Jay and I need to go and fix this problem on a clear day so Rainier can be our ski buddy.

 On our third day we climbed up to Norse Peak for the best views of the entire trip! 

The views included Mt. Adams (in this shot), Mount Rainier, and Mt. Baker far off in the north. We could also see the Enchantment Range and the craggy North Cascades. A Cooper's hawk flew overhead. A pika made that cute shrieky sound. And I was very happy.

Pika doing that cute pika thang. I seriously love these little mammals.

https://picasaweb.google.com/111221596171793333099/September2014?authkey=Gv1sRgCLXbr83ct9S4KQ

Happy 70th Dad!

I had a great October - fantastic fall weather in Washington followed by even more stunning fall colors in Upstate New York. It had been about six years since I'd been in the Northeast for the best autumn colors in the world and I was thrilled to have an excuse to fly east around the peak colors - my Dad's 70th birthday! And the most exciting part was that my Dad had no clue I was coming and somehow we all managed to pull off the big surprise!

We are reenacting the surprise here.... but we really did surprise him! Want to know the whole story? Well, I flew in on a red-eye flight, landing around 11am in Albany, NY. My parents had tickets to see a matinee ballet performance with another couple long before I planned my trip. So my mom got another ticket for me and asked the other couple, Bill and Kathy, to pick me up at the airport before the show. The plan was for my parents and Bill ad Kathy to meet up for lunch before the ballet - they would scoop me up at the airport, walk into the pub, and I would appear behind them and surprise my father. Well - it mostly worked that way except my flight was delayed! Eke! My father hates being late to things, so when Bill and Kathy called to tell my parents they were "running late" he was a bit huffy and decided to order his lunch without them. All the while - everyone is just waiting for my freakin' flight to land. The delay wasn't too bad and soon we arrived at the Irish pub. Bill and Kathy headed in and I waited in the car a few extra minutes before jumping out and walking into the restaurant. The timing was perfect! My Dad was looking down at the table as he was just starting to sit down. The chair across from him was empty...and I managed to slide into the empty chair right before he looked up. Then he looked up and saw me instead of my mother! His jaw dropped, the phone in his hand dropped, and there was a fantastic moment of shock, joy, and disbelief. It was awesome. Then we all cried and hugged. Classic Barber-family style. Does it get any better than that?

Happy to be home for my Dad! 

The next day Christina, Sara, Henry, and Jackson arrived. The whole family had also planned a surprise birthday party for my father and Henry and Jackson were part of the ploy to get my Dad out of the house. So these little 7-yr olds had to be let in on the secret! All day Henry kept giving us the thumbs up on the secret (as in this photo) and somehow my Dad never noticed - although he picked up on other hints and had a bit of idea of what was going on.  =) 

I managed to sneak a jog in on the morning of the party - I dragged along a small camera to take photos of the road by my parent's house and a nearby farm called Little Farm. Gorgeous colors!

 The surprise!

 Mike Kennedy, Sara, Christina, Dad, Mom, and my Uncle David (what a treat to see my uncle!!)

 The birthday boy! 

Our wonderful family minus the sleeping twins and Jay (Jay stayed in WA because he had flown back in March to surprise his mother on her 70th)

It sure is interesting and fun to try and get a photo with your very energetic nephews

After all the birthday fun had toned down, I went with my parents to their lakehouse and we relaxed outside by the fire - sipping mulled cider and staring at all the awesome fall colors.

I had one more full day in NY before I had to fly back to Washington and I requested that we spend the day leaf-peeping. The colors were already past their peak in the mountains, so my parents had the great idea of spending the day along the Hudson River where the colors were probably still at their peak - and they were! Anyone familiar with the Hudson River area knows that there are large areas of land occupied by historic mansions and their undeveloped lands. Here we are at the Clermont State Historic Site which was all fancied up for a haunted house tour.

We also went to the Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site - it was nice to see the good ol' NPS picklesuit back in action! I was amazed to learn that when the Guilded Age mansion (considered outdated in 1938), surrounding land, and smaller houses were put up for sale in 1938, the starting price was $350,000. What!??!!! When it didn't sell the price was dropped to $250,000! When it still didn't sell, the neighbor (only the famous FDR) called and suggested that the Vanderbilt's niece donate the mansion and lands to the National Park Service. She did...and for $1 the NPS acquired the mansion in its pristine Guilded Age state. Not a bad deal at all.

View of the Hudson River from the Vanderbilt Mansion

My mom's new house

 

I had a lovely time with my family and a wonderful time taking in as many fall colors as I possibly could. I'm thinking that Jay and I need to take more trips back east in the fall, as it really is the best time of year to be in the Northeast. A huge HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my Dad!!! And a huge congratulations to my mother, sister, sister-in-law, and nephews for keeping everything a secret and pulling off a great party!

More photos in the middle of this album: https://picasaweb.google.com/111221596171793333099/October2013?authkey=Gv1sRgCOLO-O_-3pr-9gE

While this photo has nothing to do with my father's birthday - I couldn't resist putting it in the blog. This squirrel taunted our indoor-only kitties for about five minutes! What a riot to watch.