So Long 2017: Another Year of Pacific Northwest Adventures

As the year turns, here we are again. Yes, the seasons do seem to fly by more quickly with each passing year.

While I had a good, busy year, the blog has lagged. I can't say exactly why. Social media burnout? Work overload spilling into evenings and weekends? New distractions in life? Probably a combination of all.

Regardless, sharing annual Pacific Northwest highlights is a tradition here at Pacific NW Seasons.  I hope you enjoy, and I'd love to hear about your 2017 highlights, too, in a comment below.

January
When I'm not skiing on weekends, I've been hiking lowland forests in the winter the last couple years. It's getting harder to find forests to hike near Seattle or Portland that aren't overly crowded or threatened by logging and development. 

I spent several hours on a January day walking the sometimes confusing trails of the lush Port Gamble Forest, which sits on a northern finger of the Kitsap Peninsula, across Puget Sound from Seattle, Washington.

Save for a few mountain bikers, we saw no one else.  I'm happy to report that several thousand acres of this forest, which was slated for continued logging, has been permanently protected as of late December 2017.


February
Continuing the lowland hiking theme, I enjoyed a lovely day hiking windswept Ebey's Landing on the western edge of Whidbey Island with the Alpine Trails Book Club. This is a perennial favorite hike any time of the year, but it's quieter in the winter.

This trail offers a nice combination of upland and beach walking. The views up the Strait of Juan de Fuca are spectacular.

March
In March 2017 it rained. A lot. We had a record-breaking rainfall last winter.

On one of those rainy, mucky days, I joined some friends from Blue Heron Zen Community to team up with the Friends of Jackson Park Trail and Thornton Creek Alliance and pull invasive weeds along the Jackson Park Trail in north Seattle. 

It was wet and muddy, sometimes it felt like an exercise in futility, but it felt good to be out there with other civic-minded people. We smiled and laughed a lot, then ate pizza together huddled under a tarp.

I highly recommend taking a few days each year to volunteer.

April
Indeed we had April showers in 2017 as our wet spell continued into spring. Rain be damned, I went to the University of Washington Quad to catch the cherry blossoms in bloom. This has become a tourist pilgrimage now, so the rainy day kept the crowds down.

Another destination that's especially brilliant in the spring around here is the Bloedel Garden on Bainbridge Island. On the way there in April, we stopped and visited the grave of Chief Seattle (Sealth, Suiat'l) in Suquamish on the Kitsap Peninsula.

I was moved thinking about what this region was like in his lifetime and how it has changed. I felt connected in a small, not-so-nice way, as I've been told that his daughter worked as a maid for my great-grandparents on Alki in West Seattle.

May
Our heavy rains abated, and May brought beautiful weather for some great hiking in western Washington. Besides another hike with the Alpine Trails Book Club to Boulder Creek, rich with waterfalls, I rambled along the Mid-Fork Snoqualmie River Trail outside North Bend east of Seattle.

Years ago this was harder to reach with miles of dirt road; today much more is paved. But the reward is still great. You can walk miles through a lovely forest with occasional views like below.

June
To help a longtime friend celebrate a milestone birthday, a group of us journeyed south to the central Oregon coast for a weekend. When I moved from Portland to Seattle for college, I used to miss what I called "real beaches," the dramatic Pacific coast beaches along the Oregon coast.

I snuck out for a hike at Cape Perpetua Scenic Area just south of Yachats, where the views southward are stunning. Well worth a visit, and if you go, plan to spent a whole day exploring if you like to hike.

July
With snow retreating from the higher elevations, I joined a friend for an exhilarating hike up to Third Burroughs on Mt. Rainier. If you do this hike, you must go on a clear day for the brilliant views.

 
At about 10 miles round-trip from the Sunrise parking lot, this hike is a great workout. As always, go early!

Several friends joined me for a fantastic hike up Beckler Peak on Fourth of July, just below Stevens Pass.  En route below the summit, we passed this little guy.

August
I used to say that August was my favorite month, although these days I trend toward October. But ah August, the rich, well-seasoned later summer, is a great time here in the Northwest.

We were plagued by intensely smokey days from forest fires raging throughout the region, but on early morning of the total solar eclipse day, skies cleared for perfect viewing in western Oregon. What an absolutely awesomely amazing thing to witness!

We were camped at a farm near Silverton, Oregon, and also got in a lovely hike in Silver Falls State Park. Go if you can...early.
 
September
Some say September is the shining star month here in the Pacific Northwest. Often we have Indian summer conditions, the pesky summer bugs have mostly gone away for the year, and it's a fantastic time to hike, kayak, or whatever outdoors pursuit you like.

A highlight for me was a gorgeous, invigorating hike up Mt. Townsend on the northeastern edge of the Olympic Mountains. 

On a sad note, the Eagle Creek Fire engulfed large swaths of our treasured Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area forests.


October
A nice day in October is a treasure. I now claim October as my favorite month for the fall colors, the touch of winter sometimes creeping into the air (skiing!), the end of the fall harvest (Washington apples!), and much more. 

In 2017 I got over to the Leavenworth area and beyond to Stehekin on the upper end of Lake Chelan. I love north-central Washington for its drier climate but beautiful rugged mountains. Great hiking too.

November
Usually our first snow in the mountains comes in November, and 2017 was on target as usual.

On a chilly clear November day, the Snow Lakes Trail above Icicle Creek outside Leavenworth was pretty much all ours. In the summer this trail is full of hikers and climbers, some en route to the Enchantments or just the Snow Lakes above. But again, off season is the time to go for more solitude. (If that's what you like.)

 
December
And here we are as I write this. It has been a hectic, whirlwind of a month with the holidays. 

I've not gotten out much except for a few good walks in Seattle's Discovery Park. Not a bad place to walk, really. In fact, I'll get more enthusiastic and call it an urban treasure featuring a lowland forest, prairie bluffs, beaches, and stunning views.

It's time to think about skiing, which I hope to be doing over New Year's. But also, for me,  the turning of the year is a time to take stock of the year past and the year ahead. 

What will 2018 bring? Stay tuned for more Pacific Northwest (and beyond) adventures.  Wishing you and yours a happy, fulfilling, fun, and peaceful new year.


Happy trails and thanks for visiting Pacific Northwest Seasons! In between blog posts, visit Pacific NW Seasons on FaceBook, Twitter, and Instagram for more Northwest photos and outdoors news.

 

Thanksgiving 2017: Elemental Gratitude

As an especially beautiful autumn here in the Pacific Northwest begins its slide into winter, I'm thinking about gratitude. For this year's annual Thanksgiving blog post, I'm keeping it simple. 

Last year at this time I was still recovering from the shock of an accident, so I was simply grateful for my life.  Now I'm paying homage to nature. 

If you've been here before, you know Pacific Northwest Seasons is in large part about our beautiful environment. I'm nourished by being outside in our mountains, forests, national parks, or on our waterways. I'm convinced it's essential to good health and well-being.

So I'm grateful for mountains, which have presented many opportunities for adventure and growth. After living on the East Coast for a few years post-college, I was drawn back home in large part because I missed "real" mountains, craggy and layered with glaciers.
 

My gratitude is great for trees, especially western red cedar (thuja plicata). These trees literally sustained and nursed me as a little girl who lost her mother far too young. I grew up surrounded by them in our yard in East Multnomah County, and their presence was a soothing balm.

I'm thankful for water. Of course! Stream, rivers, the Salish Sea, and the Pacific Ocean, they've all coursed through my life. I've reveled in jumping into cold freshwater mountain streams, kayaking the sea, playing in ocean waves, swimming in sun-warmed lakes, slaking my thirst on long hikes with fresh cold water, and much more. 

I could go on, but these are my iconic trio. They are elemental to our life here in the Pacific Northwest (as many places of course, but especially here.)

I'm sad for the degradation I've seen to our forests from past/present logging and development that displaces former woodlands, for pollution that still affects our water quality, and for global warming that is causing our glaciers to melt.

Many good people and organizations are working in support of the health of our many and varied ecosystems here. For them I'm also grateful. Most nonprofits could use our support, like homegrown Conservation Northwest and Save Our Wild Salmon, the Sierra Club, the Nature Conservancy (Washington and Oregon), and lots more.

And while I love alone time in nature, I also am grateful that being outdoors together has created and cemented many great friendships.

So today, I salute what's still here, beautiful and majestic. For all this, I am thankful.

I hope you have a lovely Thanksgiving and holiday season, whether you celebrate with family and friends, in nature, alone, or any other way.

I'd love to hear what tops your gratitude list this year in the comments below.

Happy trails and thanks for visiting Pacific Northwest Seasons! In between blog posts, visit Pacific NW Seasons on FaceBook, Twitter, and Instagram for more Northwest photos and outdoors news.  

 
 

 

Weekend in Stehekin: Celebrating Autumn and Community

Want to really get away from it all? No wifi/cell reception, traffic, and streetlights, and quiet-except-the-sounds-of-nature away from it all?

It's getting harder since the Pacific Northwest has become a magnet for the thousands moving here the last several years. So a recent weekend getaway to Stehekin, way up in the mountains at the northern end of Washington's Lake Chelan, was a balm to my city-addled soul. 

No roads lead to Stehekin. You can only get there by boat, small plane, or walking in over mountain passes (which I did many years ago). Any way you go, it's a journey.

The Voyage North
Friday morning we caught the once-a-day ferry at Fields Point Landing north of  Chelan for the 3-hour cruise up lake on the Lady of the Lake. We snagged two seats in the fore bow, but spent most of our time out on the back deck in the breezy sunshine.

Lady of the Lake

Along the way up the lake, it was disheartening to see the formerly forested mountains hugging the lakeshore now mostly bare with stands of dead snags, remnants of the many forest fires that have raged here the last two decades. After about 3 hours and a few stops along the way, we arrived at the collection of wood-framed low-rise buildings that are more or less "downtown" Stehekin.

The Arrival
Our lodging over the weekend was at the North Cascades Lodge (pictured above) adjacent to the boat landing. We came for a "Fireside Circle" weekend with Washington's National Park Fund (WNPF), a great nonprofit that raises funds to supplement projects in our under-budgeted national parks here in Washington. 

WNPF had a full weekend of activities planned, so after settling into our rooms, most of our group of about a dozen hopped on a park shuttle to Rainbow Falls for a short walk, followed by a stop at the famed Stehekin Pastry Company. For a cookie monster like me, it's a dangerous place.

Lower Rainbow Falls

The Main Events
Our weekend was organized around the annual Buckner Orchard Harvest Fest, which started with music Friday night at the one-room Stehekin School. While a couple of the amateur musicians stumbled on lyrics or chords, the easygoing crowd sang along in encouragement. A highlight was the school kids singing and a sweet father-daughter duo.

Saturday morning before the cider squeeze, some of us hoofed about 1,000 feet up the Purple Pass Trail behind the lodge before heading back down to catch the shuttle to the orchard. (Would like to go all the way up to the pass next time for even better views.)

A few miles beyond the head of Lake Chelan lies the Buckner Homestead, a designated Historic District inside the boundaries of the North Cascades National Park complex.  Our destination was the the organic orchard, which is so isolated that no pesticides are needed. 

naturally organic

Everyone was welcome to pick beautiful apples to take home, but the real focus was the cider squeeze. Local musicians played as we feasted on the community potluck. Of course everything was homemade because there are no grocery stores anywhere near Stehekin. We filled our plates with delicious chili, cornbread, salads, flaky fruit pies, and cookies.

In this beautiful setting surrounded by mountains and exceptionally friendly locals, I was sold on the benefits of living in such a remote community many miles away from strip malls and box stores. It's a throwback to a simpler, rural American small town way of life that is sadly disappearing.

The Last Morning
When I awoke before sunrise after another night of deep quiet and a restful sleep, I grabbed my cameras and ran out to shoot the sunrise from the lakeshore. Although it was chilly, we were treated to a lovely show of changing light on the snow-dusted mountains above.

After breakfast at the lodge, most of our group caught the national park shuttle up the dirt road beyond Stehekin as far as it goes (about 12 miles). First we stopped at a Stehekin River crossing to see an abundance of crimson red kokanee salmon heading upstream to spawn. 

At road's end, with about 15 minutes to hop out, I shot a few photos a short way up a trail. 'Twas indeed another beautiful day in the North Cascades, freshly frosted with new snow that fell over the weekend.

Before departure at 2 pm when the Lady of the Lake headed back south, several of us took full advantage of our last hour in paradise with a walk along the Lakeshore Trail as far as we could go. Then it was time to leave.

Too soon.

The pace of life in Stehekin

Cramming a beautiful weekend of fun, great people, and more photos into one blog post is tight, so I'll leave it at that. You'll just have to see for yourself sometime.

We'd love to hear your Stehekin/Chelan/North Cascades experiences or answer your questions in a comment below. 

Happy trails and thanks for visiting Pacific Northwest Seasons! In between blog posts, visit Pacific NW Seasons on FaceBook, Twitter, and Instagram for more Northwest photos and outdoors news.  
 
When You Go
While you can visit Stehekin year-round, things do slow down in the winter. The Stehekin Pastry Company just closed last weekend for the season; look for it to reopen next spring. While we stayed at the convenient North Cascades Lodge at Stehekin, there are other options, like the cool Stehekin Valley Ranch. Here's the link for ways get to Stehekin. Hiking into and around Stehekin is my favored activity, but there are lots of other things to do.
And last but not least, think about getting involved or donating to Washington's National Park Fund. These days our parks especially need extra support.

Hiking the Olympic Peninsula: Panoramic Mt. Townsend

When a friend from the East Coast asked me to take her on a Pacific Northwest adventure a few years ago, I wanted to plan a quintessential Northwest experience. We only had a couple days, so it couldn't be too far from Seattle.

Since I consider a ferry ride across the Salish Sea a must for visitors (sometimes you see whales!), I decided an overnight in historic Port Townsend then a hike up Mt. Townsend would be perfect. On a clear day, this mountaintop ridge at the northeastern corner of the Olympic Mountains offers sweeping, magnificent 360 views. 

From the summit, you can see downtown Seattle and the Cascades Mountains across Puget Sound to the east, Mt. Baker floating above foothills and islands to the northeast, Vancouver Island in Canada across the Strait of Juan de Fuca to the north, and the craggy Olympics peaks to the west-southwest-south. 

Well....on a cloudy mid-July day, the higher we hiked up the mountain, the thicker the mist and fog. By the time we got to the summit, visibility was only about 20 feet. 


But still, it was lovely in its own damp, enveloping way. We Northwesterners don't cherry pick the nice days to get outdoors.

Fast forward to a recent beautiful September day—the best kind of hiking day around here. It's not too hot, not too cold. Pesky bugs are done for the year. Our days on the trail before the snow flies at higher elevations are numbered, so a fall hike is especially sweet.

And even sweeter if it starts with a ferry ride during a colorful sunrise.

Edmonds to Kingston

From the ferry terminal at Kingston, the drive to the trailhead off Highway 101 near Quilcene took about 90 minutes, some of it on gravel Forest Service Roads. When we arrived at the upper trailhead around 8:30 a.m., a group of volunteers from the Washington Trails Association tried to recruit us to help with trail work. Another time.

Rich green forest thick with rhododendrons encompasses the first mile or two of the hike, although we noticed the rhodies looking droopy, no doubt due our driest summer ever. (Come in May for a spectacular rhododendron blossom display.)

Within a mile or so, the trail starts moving in and out of the woods, revealing views up mountain and down valley. After about 2.5 miles, we cleared most of the forest, and the rest of the hike is through meadows, subalpine trees, and occasional krummholz to the top.

I remember thinking the switchbacks were brutal when I hiked here on a some backpack trips to Silver Lakes, but none of it is very steep. (I think the trail has been regraded a bit since my earlier trips.)

As we crested the up-and-down ridge that runs along the mountain top, we're out in the open, with unobstructed views.

Final push to the summit.

We found some rocks to sit on and eat lunch at the summit, and Betsy and I grabbed extra layers from our packs in the cool breeze.  Then we rambled to the northern end of the ridge for the views north of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the San Juan Islands/British Columbia beyond.

End of the line. Looking north, Salish Sea.

 

View northwest. Strait of Juan de Fuca to the right.

On our way back south along the ridge, we saw a low layer of mist rolling in and wondered if it was fog or smoke from our many forest fires. As it got thicker and brownish, we could tell it was obviously smoke.

Looking southeast, smoke to the left.

This is earthquake country. The Olympic Mountains are the result of a large uplifted and folded section of oceanic crust that has smashed into the continent and been thrust upward over the last 40 million years, at the margin of the Cascadia subduction zone. 

Some seismologists posit that the subduction zone is locked on the eastern side of the Olympics - that is, directly beneath Mt. Townsend. When the stress builds up too much, the plates will slip and produce a megaquake (9.0 or greater).

I'm glad it didn't during our hike. :)

With the smoke and morning clouds, we weren't able to see downtown Seattle nor much of the Cascade Mountains. Mt. Baker was barely visible above the smog. But no matter, it was still an exhilarating hike and workout.

And on the ferry ride back to Edmonds, I was lucky enough to notice something dark just above the waterline not far north from the ferry. Definitely not a boat. As it submerged I saw the unmistakable fluke tail of a humpback whale thrust up out of the water right before it disappeared. I've spent most of my life here and never before have spotted a humpback in my home waters.

Excellent cap to  a splendid day.

Happy trails and thanks for visiting Pacific Northwest Seasons! In between blog posts, visit Pacific NW Seasons on FaceBook, Twitter, and Instagram for more Northwest photos and outdoors news.

When You Go
Elevation gain on this hike is just a tad over/under 3,000 feet (depends on whether you trust your GPS or the WTA trail guide), and mileage is about 8 miles roundtrip. There are several trailheads for hiking up Mt. Townsend, but we chose the upper trailhead, accessed from Quilcene to the east. A lower trailhead starts a little over a mile below and goes through some impressive old growth forest, which I did some years ago.There is also access from the western/Sequim side, but it's a steeper trail.

To access the upper trailhead, take US 101 south from the Quilcene Ranger Station 0.9 mile, the take the slight right onto Penny Creek Road. In 1.5 miles, take the left fork onto Forest Road 27 and follow it 13.5 miles before turning left onto FR27-190. The trailhead is at the end of this spur road, and there's a vault toilet there. Since this is in the Buckhorn Wilderness, east of Olympic National Park, no passes are required to park.