Stateline Lookout

Stateline Lookout (Off Hwy 28, near Crystal Bay CA) -

Distance: 1 mi / 2.2 km (Round Trip)

Elevation Gain: ~500 ft.

Highest Elevation: ~6831 ft. / 2082.2 m.

Dogs: Allowed

Difficulty: Easy

I originally picked out this hike because we needed something easy and short to do with Chris' Mom when she visited us back in October.

Can't Say I was disappointed...

Most of the hikes we do in California come from my copy of Foghorn Outdoors: California Hiking by Tom Stienstra and Ann Marie Brown. I had the Foghorn for Washington and Oregon and loved it, so when we moved I gifted my copy to Katie and naturally picked this up as a replacement (you should too). Aside from the occasional issue with directions and mileage these books are outstanding. They have spot on ratings for difficulty and beauty, and have pretty much all the relevant information you need as far as permits, location etc.

The Stateline entry caught my eye for a couple of reasons: the ratings and mileage were exactly what I was looking for, and when I read the first few sentences of the description I was all in.

"For years we avoided this trail because we thought it was just a tourist attraction, located at the lookout tower that straddles the Nevada and California state line. It turns out that we were the dumb tourists, because this little trail is great." (Pg. 222)

You basically hike up an old access road, but don't worry, the pay off is so good you might cry. This is a great spot to hike up to and eat some lunch if you're tooling around the northern end of Tahoe. There's some cool plaques with cultural information about the area, including timber, mining etc.

But I have to say my eyes were otherwise occupied...
 

East Peak via Rattlesnake Ridge Trail

At only 35 miles from downtown Seattle, Rattlesnake Ledge is one of the most popular hikes in Washington and definitely offers unquestionably the best visual payoff vs difficulty of any hike this close to Seattle.  We decided to do a modified version of the traditional 3.8 mile hike to Rattlesnake Ledge, tacking on an additional 5 miles and 1600 ft of elevation gain to reach East Peak.  The view in the picture above can be reached just above Rattlesnake Ledge and is one of the best views I've seen anywhere in Washington.

Unfortunately, because this hike is very close to Seattle and relatively easy, compared to other hikes in the region, it is also very popular.  The main parking lot was almost full when we arrived at 11 a.m.  We passed throngs of other hikers on the way up to Rattlesnake Ledge.  Amazingly, Allison and Katie have done this hike before and assured me that the crowd was actually much smaller than it had been on their last outing.  Despite the population density, we had a great and quick hike up to the ledge.  We hung out for a few minutes, had some food and then continued our way up hill.  Most of the hikers only go up to the ledge, so we got a nice break from the crowd for the majority of the middle section of the hike.

  About half way up to East Peak, we ran into patches of snow which continued sporadically all the way to the peak.  It was an absolutely a beautiful day during the entire hike, and we had seen pictures of a view of Mt. Rainier which was supposedly taken from East Peak.  Unfortunately we were slightly disappointed with the view, which did not rival the view from the Ledge and did not contain Mt. Rainier, when we finally reached the peak.  We had a nice hiking lunch, chatted a bit with a fellow hiker and headed back down the mountain.  The trip down was fairly uneventful except for a small detour where we ventured out onto a rather precarious ledge a little above Rattlesnake Ledge.

This ledge was surrounded on three sides by a several hundred foot drop.  It has been a long time since I have been near the edge of something like this, and I have to say that I'm a bit more afraid of heights at this point in my life than I remember having been in the past.  Needless to say I was relieved when we made our way off the ledge and back onto the trail.

Overall this was one of the groups favorite hikes, despite the crowds, especially the Rattlesnake Ledge portion of the hike. It has great payoff, the trail is graded well, and it's a very manageable drive.

WTA Link

Deception Pass State Park Redux

Location: Whidbey and Fidalgo Island
Difficulty: Easy to Easy-Medium (couple of short steep sections)
Dogs Allowed: Yes
Mileage: Variable
Passes: Discovery Pass for Day Use,
Season: Year round, but I recommend off-season

So we went back out to Whidbey Island and this time we brought friends. We had such a nice time camping out there last year and were so ready to have our first camping trip of the season it seemed like a great fit. The weather was not as cooperative this year, but we still had fun. I won't go over all the stuff we did, since we did a pretty similar set of hikes. In fact: here's a link to our original post. So read that if you want.

Mostly what I'm going to talk about are the differences, and some things unique to this trip.

1st: big difference Jaxx did not run away in the middle of the night. So thank goodness for that. He did fake that he was completely paralyzed when I put his coat on in the morning and proceeded to walk in backwards circles, which I really ought to take a video of cause it's HILARIOUS. He had everybody in camp just cracking up.

Instead of the Lower Loop campground (near Cranberry Lake), we camped at Bowman Bay. UPGRADE. This campground is way awesome. The views are gorgeous. You're a quick walk out to the point, and an even quicker walk to Bowman Beach. There are great views of Bowman Bay, whereas the Lower Loop your best chance for a view is looking into the forest and you're much more likely to have a view of somebody else's camp. The map is a little misleading cause it makes it look like the sites themselves are much more spaced out, they're not, don't believe it. The campground is much more open as well, which allows for views but don't expect a ton of privacy.

As I mentioned earlier, the weather was not entirely cooperative. It sprinkled off and on during the day and was pretty wet and rainy in the evening. Because the weather was kind of nasty we sort of invaded this little picnic shelter place. Technically this place is by reservation only, but since it's the off-season and we were pretty quiet nobody told us to leave, and we were there from maybe 4-5pm till about 10:30. We made pie-iron pizzas and s'mores, the pie-irons were awesome! And 3 people out of our group (who weren't raised in America and are consequently not huge fatties) had never had s'mores so that was pretty exciting. There are two keys to good s'mores: HoneyMaid graham crackers, off brand is not acceptable, they don't taste right. Good chocolate, my personal favorite is to get the Ghirardelli dark chocolate and caramel dudes cause that's just a delicious combination. Nick played guitar and we sang some songs and told ghost stories.

Around 9:45 a very nice gentleman came down to let us know we were not supposed to be there, but since there was no demand and we hadn't been making a ruckus he just asked that we be out and have the place straightened up by 11 pm.

The only not so good thing that happened on the trip was that Jaxx got kind of sick at the very end of the the hike on Sunday. Hey kept on throwing up, I carried him for a bit, but I ended up sitting with him while the others walked the last mile or so to get the car.

Overall it was a very good weekend. I love doing stuff like this and I especially enjoy it when it's combined with hanging out with awesome people. The whole weekend was perfectly capped off by getting some really god-damned delicious burger. On the way north on Hwy 2 there's this little shack with a sign advertising oysters and other sea food. It's right across a small road from a fire station and holy god is it delicious. I got a crab burger and Chris got the Big Kahuna Burger (beef patty, fried spam, pineapple and an onion ring). Everything was awesome. I'm a little bummed I didn't get the chance to try their milkshakes. Next time!

Golden Gardens to Carkeek Park Beach Hike

April 3rd, 2014
Mileage: 4 miles
Elevation Gain: 0 feet
Seattle
Not Dog Friendly (Although there are often dogs)
Difficulty: Easy

A few weeks back, Katie and I decided it would be a good idea to start doing a weekday hike once a week to stretch our legs and get in better overall shape both for our health and so we could comfortably do more strenuous hikes on the weekend.  We have mostly been doing Poo Poo Point (hehe) for our weekday hikes but decided to change it up on the 3rd and do a nice beach hike from Golden Gardens city park to Carkeek city park.  Both of these are beach parks located 2 miles away from each other on the same stretch of beach on the Puget Sound in Seattle.

You have to do this hike during low tide or you will either have to swim instead of walk or climb up to the train tracks in the picture above and walk along those, which is trespassing on railroad property, which is illegal.  Koko, our friend from Amsterdam was able to join Katie and I for the hike.

We arrived at Golden gardens about half way between low and high tide with the tide coming in.  Part of the reason we wanted to do the beach hike is because of the usually beautiful view of the Olympic mountain range on the other side of the Puget Sound.  Unfortunately, it was overcast and raining, and for most of the hike the mountains were completely obscured.  We walked along the beach and Katie and Koko helped me play the pretty stuff game which involves collecting pretty shells, rocks and glass to ad to the cool fountain Allison and I built to help us get better quality of sleep by providing some ambient noise.

By the time we got near Carkeek Park the tide had come in far enough to where we had climb over boulders instead of walk on the beach.  This did not bode well for the trip back, but we pushed onward knowing that we could always scramble up to the train tracks if we felt things were getting unsafe with the tide coming in.

We spent a minute at Carkeek Park and decided that we didn't want to scramble on the boulders a second time on the way back and decided to climb up to the train tracks.  Luckily, we only had to go a few hundred feet on the tracks to bypass the boulders and no trains came, so we didn't get in trouble!  About 15 minutes after we got off the track, a long cargo train came zooming by.  We got some cool pictures and the conductor was nice enough to humor me by blowing the whistle when I did the hand motion!  As we neared Golden Gardens, the tide had come in far enough that the beach was totally gone, so we had to walk another half mile on the train tracks and then scramble down a really steep 30 ft tall hill to get back down to the park.  Even though we had to push our luck with the railroad, the hike went well and no one besides us was privy to our trespassing!

Tiger Mountain West

Tiger Mountain West - March 16th, 2014

Mileage: Various
Elevation Various
Issaquah Alps
Dog Friendly
Difficulty: Various (mostly easy-med)

Tiger Mountain is similar to Soaring Eagle and Cougar Mountain in that there are a lot of well signed small individual trails that can be mixed and matched together depending on your own preference. Today for instance: We were all kind of hung over from our awesome St. Patrick's day dinner. So what we wanted was to be asleep. I actually told Chris on the way to Katie's that if she said anything about staying home and watching movies all day I would say "YES!!" I found out as we started our hike Katie had the exact same plan. Luckily neither of us said anything.

Out of the parks I mentioned above, this is by far my favorite. The trails are in pretty good condition. Bonneville trail has some small lake-sized puddles, but other than that it's all pretty nice. This would be an awesome park if you were into mountain biking or trail running. We did the Around the Lake trail, Bus Trail, Bonneville trail and High school trail. Around the Lake trail is something of a misnomer since it really only goes on one side of the lake, but it does provide you access to trail options if you do, in fact, want to go around the lake.  Which is basically what we did, with one important/terrifying extra. Which I'll get to later...

Around the Lake and Bus Trail are both in forested area, it's really pretty in here. Despite the fact that it was cold and wet, the weather gave a really nice ambiance to the surrounding forest. Then all of a sudden there's a freaking bus. What?! That's right, a bus. It's all rusted up, with bullet holes, and it's been totally gutted. It's creepy as hell. Katie and I are both convinced it's haunted by dead children. There's just something unsettling about gutted machinery in the middle of the woods. 

At first we thought we were going to go up Nook trail, but then when it started to climb uphill we decided that was for another day. So we went back down and back along Bus trail and found the connecting trail to Bonneville trail, which is mostly not terribly pretty as it runs under huge power lines, it is pretty when you're near the lake, but we didn't do that until later.

There aren't a lot of maps throughout the park and we weren't thinking terribly straight and we just sort of glanced at one on the way out. We figured we'd just keep making rights-ish. But we turned left onto Bonneville, but that's not where the trouble started. 

We got onto High school Trail. Katie and I wanted to take Adventure (Time) Trail. Chris didn't want to but we did stop for a photo op. By the way if you don't watch Adventure Time you should probably do that. NOW.

So we continued down and just planned on taking our next right. Then, suddenly, we heard a loud popping noise that sounded a lot like gunfire. Nah, must just be metal scraping metal or something and the trees are just filtering the sound. Then it happened again. And again. HOLY FUCK THERE IS SOMEBODY MURDERING PEOPLE!!! We heard a bunch of sirens and emergency vehicle noises headed in that direction and pretty much freaked out, not full blown panic though. Have you ever heard the phrase "They turned and fled?" Yuuuup. I was actually more scared when the shooting stopped because I figured the shooters were now on foot racing through the trees and they can't leave any witnesses!!! We met some people coming along the trail and freaked them out with our crazy tales of gunfire and sirens. A very nice old lady, who was now pretty concerned, told us that it was most likely just the gun range that was down there. So now we felt a lot less frightened, though perhaps a bit sheepish. While it was just a coincidence that the sirens happened at the same time it was enough to scare the bejeezus out of us. Why on earth there isn't a sign saying "Don't worry it's just a gun range!" is kind of beyond me.

The rest of the hike was pretty uneventful, we went back the way we had come, just going around the backside of the lake, which was quite lovely in a late winter kind of way. The viewing area that we took a picture of is going to be perfect for a class that Chris and I are going to give for our friends on survival, basic forest first aid etc. All in all, despite the ill effects of Irish whiskey, it was a good day. And it ended with some of the best Chinese food I've had (China Gourmet in Shoreline) I'd highly recommend this as a nice early season hike with a lot of options and variability. 

Cedar Butte

At the Trail Head

Cedar Butte - March 9th, 2014
Mileage: 3-4 miles
Elevation Gain: 900 feet
Olallie State Park: I-90 Corridor
Dog Friendly
Difficulty: Easy

A little over a month ago I decided I was going to try and get some of my other friends to go hiking with Katie, Chris and I. In an effort to facilitate that, and also to get some of them in shape for an upcoming trip to the Hoh Rain Forest, I created a hiking group called: Allison Pushes People Up Mountains. Now that we've completed our first hike I am almost concerned at how appropriate that name is.

Katie Admiring Rattlesnake

WATER!

I forget that not everybody likes being outside and in nature. The first hike we chose, to my mind, was easy-peasy, even with it being the first official hike. The undergrowth was beautiful and even though the views weren't as awe-inspiring as some of the other hikes I've done I thought it was a good start. I don't think everybody enjoyed it as much as I would have liked, but I definitely converted at least one friend. So I'm chalking that up as a win.

Cedar Butte is basically across the street (literally) from Rattlesnake Ledge. Which is kind of awesome because you drive past Rattlesnake's parking lot and see the 10 billion cars in the parking lot and then you go into the Cedar Falls trailhead and there is nobody. Maybe 4 cars. I'm sure this changes once summer is in full swing but at this point in the season it's pretty solitary. We saw 4 people on the trail total.

One thing I really appreciated about Cedar Butte is you get a warm up. So many times I get out of 1+ hour car ride and then have to go straight up a hill. That is totally mean. I always wish they would move the trailhead like a half mile further away on flat ground so my legs can get warm. For this hike you walk in along, what I'm guessing, is a service road. Even though it definitely doesn't quite feel like you're in nature yet, it's still pretty. There's some swampy marshland and a couple of small creeks.

I'm OUTSIDE!

After the easy walk in you start ascending the mountain. I really enjoyed how misty this hike was. That kind of weather really suits the mossy undergrowth that you see around North Bend at lower elevations. The grade isn't terribly steep but it is pretty consistently up. Occasionally it flattened out for a bit but not often. When you consider you're gaining about 900 feet in about 1.25 miles it's really very reasonable.

Mediocre views!! And so much more!

The views were not incredible once we got to the top. There's a clear view of the valley below but it's still just looking down on North Bend... As much as I love walking in the mist, I kept hoping it was going to clear by the time we got to the summit. If it had been clearer I know you can see Si, Teneriffe and some other surrounding mountains, but the weather was not cooperative.

All in all I think this is a very decent season opener and a very nice beginner hike.

Guest Post: Chris hikes in Discovery Park cause the Mountains are covered in Angel poops.

Discovery park is a very unique place.  There are very few city parks in the country where you can be in the city one minute and then be transferred to a completely remote, incredibly naturally diverse setting in literally about the time it took me to write this line.  This is the magic of discovery park.  Located on the property of a former US Army base, Fort Lawton, Discovery park at 534 acres is the largest city park in Seattle.  It is located on the Puget sound in the neighborhood of Magnolia and is easily reached in 20 minutes or less from about any location in the city.  The park offers expansive views of the Puget Sound from atop high cliffs overlooking the water, an incredible view of Mt. Rainier (on the five days of the year it is clear enough to actually see that far), hikes through fern laden forests and access to several miles of Puget Sound sea shore.

Katie, Amber and Eric were fortunate enough to accompany me on this trip to the park.  It was a perfectly nasty, cold and rainy Pacific Northwest day, but that didn't stop us from going and in my mind only served to increase the neat atmosphere of this park.   Katie and I have spent lots of time in Discovery park but Amber hadn't been there for years and Eric, who is new to the area, had never been.

We started at the main visitor center, then after getting lost because of my flawless sense of direction and orienteering training through BSA, we finally made our way out to the cliffs overlooking the Puget Sound where we were luck enough to capture Epic Eric epicly surveying the landscape.  

After seeing a couple of people who we though were our friends Kevin and Jamie, but turned out to not even be the same nationality once we got closer, we made our way down to the beach and the lighthouse (photo: David Unger, 2006).  Unfortunately because of the weather, we weren't able to see the great view of Rainier.  Here is what it would have looked like.  

After the lighthouse the friends went exploring tide pools and messing with sea anemones, we hopped back into the forest and began the ascent back up to the upper part of the trail.  We also during the beach part of the hike were able to see several seadog saltwater merpeople (Sea Lions) playing around in the water.  I don't know about everyone else, but for me, it is always a treat to see large animals of any kind in the wild instead of captivity.  After much huffing and puffing we finally got to the upper trail and had a relatively flat hike for the last mile.  We hiked the loop trail (3.5 miles).  Our total mileage, because of getting lost and exploring, was closer to 4 miles.  For anyone who is interested, there are another four miles of trails besides the loop trail in the interior of the park.  If you have some time to kill in Seattle and want to get into nature fast I would highly recommend you checking out Discovery Park. 

Twin Falls

Twin Falls - January 12th(ish), 2014
Mileage: 3 miles
Elevation Gain: 500 feet
Olallie State Park: I-90 Corridor
Dog Friendly
Difficulty: Very Easy

So this post is going to visually look a little confusing, because in some of these pictures you'll notice it's gray and rainy and in some of them it's sunny and beautiful. That's because when we hiked in January it was raining enough that we didn't use our cameras very much at all. Most of the pictures are from when Chris and I hiked this back in October of... 2012 maybe? Eesh.

The pictures from our hike in January were taken by our friend Eric (pictured above far left). So thanks to Eric for covering our lazy butts. So! On to info about the hike...

So Twin falls is a super easy, very pretty day hike just outside of North Bend. It's one of the few hikes available outside of the Issaquah Alps in the cascades that's pretty much open year round. The amount of pay off for the amount of work is also pretty great. It's really pretty throughout the hike, and the trail itself is in very good condition.

The trail itself starts off at a very, very easy grade going along the river. Great opportunities for photography. The whole area is very damp. The North Bend area actually gets a lot more rain than Seattle, so it's often very damp out here. Despite that the trail had minimal water on it, even considering it was raining when we were there last.

I always tell people when they go hiking in the pacific northwest they should always carry at least one compass. Not only is that just very good advice in general, but especially in the North West you are pretty much up shit creek if you get lost and don't have a way to tell what direction you should be going. Depending on the time of year (read: most of the year) you might have no visibility from the sun in order to get your bearings. As for that who "moss grows on the south side" business, anybody who has been in the Central/North Cascades, and definitely on the Peninsula can tell you that moss just grows everywhere. You would hardly ever be able to use this trick effectively.

Anyway, after a while you leave the river, but it's always close, and you start climbing some small hills. There are a couple of really nice vistas from the tops of some of these. After a while though you'll come to a point where the trail splits. Go to the right first. This will lead you down some steps (try not to think about having to walk back up them) and on to a very pretty viewing platform which let's you look at the bottom of the bottom most falls (very top photo). The view from the plat form is very nice. Now go back up those steps!

Very shortly after you rejoin the main trail you'll come to a very nice bridge that spans the canyon and offers you some very nice views of the river canyon and the falls themselves. You have the option to continue up the trail from the bridge. The first time we hiked it Chris and I went on for about 1/2 an hour after the bridge, but didn't really see anything worth continuing on for. Nice, short hike, good for beginners, with very decent payoff.

View from bridge looking up the canyon toward the falls

View from bridge looking down the canyon

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