Fat Tire Bike to Serenity Falls Hut

I was invited by friends to join them for a weekend at the Serenity Falls Hut at the back of Eklutna Lake.  The invitation for this early december trip came months in advance when there was no snow on the ground.  In fact, there was so little snow in November that it wasn't until a day before the trip that I decide the best mode of travel would be on a fat tire bike.  It is about twelve miles to the hut so riding bikes saves a lot of time compared to walking or skiing.  I don't own one of these fat bikes so I rented from a local bike shop in Palmer.  I took friday off from work and we hit the trail at about noon.  The temperatures were in the upper 20s and I had no trouble staying warm.  After mile 6 or so we had to break through a few inches of snow so it took about three and a half hours to reach the hut.

This hut is amazing and much different than other mountaineering huts I like to visit in the spring.  For one thing it is huge, with bunks to sleep 13.  There is a wood stove and wall made mostly of windows we grand views toward the Eklutna Glacier.  All this comes at a price though.  This hut is notoriously difficult to heat.  Luckily, someone had left a good supply of dry spruce and with the mild temperatures were were able to get the hut warmed up to the upper 50s in just a few hours.
More friends joined the group on Saturday and I headed out by myself to join Molly at party in Anchorage.  With a little lighter load and better packed trail I was able to make it back to the parking lot in 2 hours and 20 minutes.

This is nice hut and I would like to visit it again in the fall when there are nice colors on the trees.

Inside the hut

View of the hut from the river

My rented fat bike equipped with panniers.

Taking a break on the trail

No ice on Eklutna Lake yet

"Camping" in Cape Disappointment State Park

Ryan, me, and Jennie on the beach

Jen, Jay, Jennie, and Ryan embarking on our 0.6 mile hike

This weekend our friend Jennie had the awesome idea to rent a yurt in Cape Disappointment State Park at the mouth of the Columbia River. Even though the weather was fantastic yesterday and we hung out outside around the campfire until we went to bed, the yurt was a good call. Not only did it have electric heat and beds for five people, it also rained overnight and we didn't have to pack up a wet tent in the morning!

We went on some short walks around the park yesterday before sunset - the first one we went on was 0.6 miles. After that, we joked that we would only do hikes that were no longer than that. Since all five of us are former Alaskans, we brought our Xtra Tuffs and had a long discussion about the universal functionality of Xtra Tuffs before setting out. I have to admit though, I wore my sneakers even though all the trail head signs warned of mud. It turned out all the trails were either gravel or pavement. No mud.

We caught an awesome sunset on the beach where we had fun taking silhouetted photos. Perfect end to a beautiful day.

Jennie and I

Jen, me, and Jennie

Camping in Vantage

Mike, Sarah, and Ryan playing cards in the pop-up camper

Ryan staying connected on his blackberry while Sarah cooks us breakfast

Sarah cooking us a real breakfast

Mike, Sarah, and Ryan in Ginko Petrified Forest State Park

Mike and Ryan checking out a petrified tree in a cage

Ryan, completing his tourist experience by touching a petrified tree

 On Friday night we headed out of town to camp in Vantage, WA (where I-90 crosses the Columbia River) and meet up with Ryan's cousin Sarah and her husband Michael. They just got married and our road-tripping across the country for their honeymoon with an awesome little pop-up trailer that they found on eBay. It was beautiful but very windy in Vantage. After attempting to have a fire, we moved inside their camper to play cards until we went to bed. It was awesome to have a place to escape the wind! Our gigantic car camping tent did survive the wind and we picked a spot that was a little protected. Shortly after we got in bed it completely died down though.

I believe this is the first time I have ever slept in a tent without a rain fly. I remember when I was ordering the car camping tent we have, some of the reviews said that it didn't have much privacy (mesh walls) unless you have the rain fly on. I thought "Why wouldn't you have the rain fly on?" Being from Kodiak, AK and then Seattle you can imagine why I always need a rain fly. Since Vantage is actually in the desert of Eastern Washington and there was a ZERO percent chance of rain, we decided to leave the rain fly off. And we did stay dry of course.

When we got up on Saturday, Sarah made us a yummy breakfast - definitely  more fancy and delicious than the instant oatmeal we would have eaten if we were alone! We did a short hike in Ginko Petrified Forest State Park where we saw petrified logs in cages. I suppose they want to protect the logs from vandalism and people taking them home, but it was not at all what I expected. After I completely exhausted myself by hiking a mile and a half in 80 degree weather (that's pretty much unbearably hot for a girl from Kodiak), we jumped in the Columbia River at Wanapum State Park. A fun start to my birthday!

Anniversary weekend at Mt. St. Helens

Hiking at Coldwater Lake

Me messing up Molly's photo of the bright red Indian Paintbrush

Coldwater Lake

Water droplets on Lupin leaves

This weekend Molly and I celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary by hiking and camping near Mt. St. Helens. It has been over thirty years since the volcano violently erupted, but the eruption and resulting destruction is still very evident. Perhaps one of the most interesting facts I learned this weekend was that the landslide that took away nearly half of the mountain was the largest land slide in recorded history!

Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate. It was so foggy at the Johnston Ridge Observatory that we couldn't see anything. We enjoyed the visitors center and lack of other tourists nonetheless.  We did an out and back hike along the shores of Coldwater Lake and again found ourselves in near solitude (quite a rarity for a weekend in June). Perhaps the best part of the weekend was the camping its self. We enjoyed sitting around a camp fire away from the distractions of work and facebook, thinking about the 9 years that we have known each other and where we will be in a another four years or decade.

Weekend Camping in Winter

Winter camping might sound cold but in Washington that is not always the case. We have had rather warm weather for the last week or two so rather than pout about the bad snow conditions we decided to go camping. After our recent new years trip to Olympic National Park I was eager to go back. Our destination was the Olympic National Forest the east side of the Olympic Mountains. This is an area I had never explored before and I was enticed by the fact that it is only two and a half hours from home. I think I have a little fascination with the rain forest. I particularly like the the way if makes you feel so small.

A day spent hiking in the rain forest can sort of put you in your place and remind you that as an individual you really are just one more animal trying to survive. This feeling is not only realized in the size of the trees but in the length of time they can live. The trees in a coniferous rain forest can live many centuries and is some cases more than half a millennium. Just image that a tree sprouted the year you were born could be alive for 25 generations after you. Even in the middle of winter the rain forest is amazingly alive, it would seem that not one photon of light is wasted for photosynthesis. The moss ensures that everything is green and alive, covering the fallen down trees, boulders and even steep cliffs. Of couse non of this would be possible without the water. Even though our rain coats were hardly necessary, water dripped from every branch and leaf and could be heard trickling or thundering everywhere in the mountains.

--Ryan