Pacific Northwest Seasons: January 2023

We're starting off 2023 by taking a quick look back at the year just past. For this local, there were lots of walks, some hikes in the Cascades, a bit of kayaking and skiing, foraging for mushrooms, lots of ferry rides, and many swims in the Salish Sea near my home.

2022 was one of the very few years in my life that I didn't get down into Oregon. Except for that quick trip to New York City, I didn't travel farther north than Bellingham, farther east than Leavenworth, farther west than Quilcene on the Olympic Peninsula, and farther south than Vancouver, Washington. For this wanderer, that's quite remarkable!

January

For someone whose teenage passion was downhill ski racing, I unusually missed two years of skiing (due to injury and covid). But in January I had a marvelous start to my ski season at Crystal Mountain, where I was a ski instructor back in my relative youth.

Crystal still feels like my home mountain now, and I usually spot someone I know on the slopes or having lunch in midmountain Campbell Lodge.

Here I am posing for that classic top of Rainier Express shot with Mount Rainier/Tahoma in her full bluebird day glory in the background. I can't tell you how many shots I have of myself or friends taken with that view, which never fails to be awesome.

February

One of the first signs of spring each year are the snowdrops blooming in Carkeek Park. These non-natives, which have spread in the woods from a former orchard, were probably originally planted over a century ago. You have to know where to look for them, since they're off the trail system a bit.

I start watching for them around the first or second week in February, and take shots of them every year despite having many shots of them already.

March

I call Seattle Sunset City, and often they're especially spectacular in the winter or shoulder seasons. On the early March evening I took this shot from Golden Gardens where I often swim, a friend was visiting from Maine. I was happy to be able to share such a glorious evening on my home beach where I spend so much time.

April

In April, I joined the Alpine Trails Book Club for a luscious hike along the Lower Big Quilcene River Trail through lush old growth forest on the eastern edge of the Olympic Mountains. I'd had the good fortune to spend the night before at a cabin on Hood Canal, and my gracious host joined me kayaking along the shoreline. All in all a perfect Northwest spring weekend.

May

In 2022, we had a cool, damp spring, which led to gorgeous wildflowers. While early paintbrush and wildflowers are easy to spot at Deception Pass State Park on Goose Rock, this shot was taken on a rainy Memorial Day weekend hike just south of Anacortes to Whistle Lake.

June

Due to our damp spring, wild morel mushroom foraging was still good well into June and early July of 2022. While I can't name specific locations, I was lucky to be invited to go twice with an expert forager friend. We tramped through forest that had burned the year before, a bit east of the Cascade Crest. While the trail that passed through the burn was closed, I found a few stretches of intact trail that offered solitude and spectacular views. And the foraging was excellent too. Hmmm, nothing quite like fresh wild mushrooms sauteed and spooned atop pasta, eggs, risotto, wild salmon, or steamed veggies.

July

We jumped straight from cool and damp to hot and dry after Fourth of July, causing us to seek shady, forested trails. And to be honest, I tend to hike the less popular woodsy hikes now instead of the super popular hikes with spectacular views. It keeps the crowds down.

Some friends and I did the always pleasant Granite Lakes Trail in July off the Middle Fork Snoqualmie River road. While this trail passes through mostly second-growth forest that was likely logged within the last 75 years or less, it's still a nice green hike.

And then there was that incredibly magical late July night swimming in a cove in Chuckanut Bay in the sparkly bioluminescence. You can read about that in a blog post from last year.

August

While I'd done a few shorter kayak outings earlier in the year, I managed to find some friends to join me for just about my favorite kayaking day trip - upper Skagit Bay, with stops at Hope and Skagit islands. It's never crowded, parking is free at the put-in (thank you Swinomish Tribe!), it's beautiful, and the swimming in the bay afterwards was marvelous.

September

During prime hiking weather, a friend and I escaped to the high country for a cool hike on a hot late September day to the very popular Naches Peak Loop Trail at Chinook Pass on the edge of Mt. Rainier National Park. We made the loop longer by hiking down to Dewey Lakes (and lost some of the crowds on the trail).

Tahoma was out in all her late summer glory.

October

Into mid October, with freakishly warm temperatures lingering well past the old normal, the open water "wild" swimming was fantastic. The Salish Sea/Puget Sound stayed relatively "warm" (mid 50s Fahrenheit versus mid 40s right now) later than usual in the year. At its warmest, I was staying in 25 to 30+ minutes.

A big treat was meeting up with a swimmer from Scotland, who was passing through Seattle, and taking her to the beach for a swim. Cheryl was a hoot and clearly thrilled to join us in the water.

Also, the mountain lake shot at the top of this post was taken on another unusually warm October hike to Snow Lake, a classic trail that had just reopened after a seasonal closure for trail upgrades.

November

With winter coming, we swam a lot still in the Sound as temps started to drop. I took the shot above right before I waded in and swam in this lovely, quiet cove at Manitou Beach on Bainbridge Island the morning before a happy, tasty Thanksgiving dinner with family at my sister's home. The brisk, cold water was an exhilarating way to start the day as the fog was lifting.

December

With a good hit of snow before the Christmas holiday in the lowlands as well as the Cascades, some friends and I dashed up for some cross-country skiing east of Snoqualmie Pass at Cabin Creek. This friendly favorite Sno-Park is tracked and groomed all winter for Nordic skiing, which truly is one of the best total body and calorie-burning workouts.

While we're not hard core speed skate skiers, it was fun and a great 90-minute workout. Next up: back to Crystal Mountain and a trip to Whistler/Blackcomb in B.C.

As always, there are just too many photos and too many adventures to pack into one annual year-in-review blog post, BUT...you can find more Pacific Northwest photos on FaceBook, Twitter (hanging in there for now), and Instagram (links below).

Wishing you a great 2023!

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.