Backpacking: Marmot Pass

Yet another couple days off, and another backpacking expedition. Actually I shouldn't say expedition as we only stayed for one night. David and I got together with our two good friends Ross and Ryan, and unfortunately Ross had summer school so that limited us to one night. After checking out the weather reports to several hikes Ryan had found around Washington, we threw it all out the window and just looked outside. Rain was predicted for most areas, but when we looked west, the clouds looked the lightest of all of the foreboding skies around us. Olympic Peninsula or bust!

We darted through traffic in Belltown and were on the ferry to Bainbridge Island in minutes. We set out for the Big Quilcene River trailhead. We stopped to grab some snacks in the little town of Quilcene, drove a long way down a dirt road (that seems to be the trend with backpacking) and finally reached the parking area.

photo by David Duffy

Our hike to the campsite was about 5.3 miles. It started out pretty mellow, weaving in and out of old growth trees next to the Quilcene River. It was very lush and green, with a jungle feel to it. It was my first trip to the Peninsula, and I could definitely tell the difference between the forests there and the forests that I'm used to in the Cascades.

photo by David Duffy

The trail description on Washington Trails Association's website described a part of the trail called the "poop-out drag". It's about 2.5 miles in, and climbs pretty steadily with no remorse for two more miles. I will be the first to admit that I became pretty exhausted during parts of that, especially since I was trying to keep up with three quick-moving, long-legged (at least compared to me) dudes. David was nice enough to stay back with me during parts of it.

photo by David Duffy

It wasn't until we were pretty close to the campsite that I was rewarded with gorgeous views of the craggy peaks surrounding us. It was pretty cloudy, so the mountains were fading in and out of the cloud cover. It was eerie, but beautiful. I've never seen anything like it. I instantly fell in love with the Olympics!

photo by David Duffy

photo by David Duffy

photo by David Duffy

photo by David Duffy

Pretty soon, we passed another couple who told us the campsite was just around the corner. Of course, I had fallen behind, so the guys thought it would be funny to tell me that we had two more miles to go. I thought "NO WAY!" and I can't even tell you how frustrated that made me. Little did I know, I was only about 50 steps away from our destination and I was utterly delighted to see little rushing springs located conveniently next to clearings with fire pits as we rounded the last corner.

We set up in our tents in a cozy little clearing in the woods right in between two streams. I had gotten pretty hungry on the hike so I used our little stove to whip up some salmon pesto pasta, our staple for backpacking!

photo by David Duffy

photo by David Duffy

We spent the rest of the night catching up, reminiscing, and telling stories. I love camping with just the two of us, but stuff like this is always more fun with friends.

On a side note, I also just wanted to mention that Ross is quite the beast when it comes to camping. I know Ross from when I was the feature twirler at UW, and he was the drum major. He never gives up at anything, whether it's perfecting a trick, beating me in a toss competition, or...chopping wood. See example A:

photo by David Duffy

That was a massive log. The next day, we wanted to hike the rest of the way up to the top of Marmot Pass. We passed through a meadow and then hiked further and further up until we reached a huge overlook and the top of the pass where the trail split.

None of us were satisfied, seeing that there were many peaks around us still to climb. We decided to take a hard left and follow the trail along a ridge line. It was a little slippery, but that's probably David and I were hiking in skate shoes and not boots. I think Ross was the only one that had footwear that was truly appropriate for hiking. Oh well, I ordered one of the least ugly pair of Keen shoes that I could find (and afford) so that next hike I will avoid the whole traction problem. The theme of the trip seemed to be "hard climb rewarded with astonishing views," and this short jaunt was no exception.

We were above the clouds, taking in sweeping views of peaks and meadows below us.

I decided to set up a group shot, using a rock as a tripod.

We really should have camped up there. Not only were there gorgeous views, there were little wildflowers everywhere. Purple, orange, and...fuzzy? Seriously, straight out of Dr. Seuss.

After taking in the fresh mountain air, it was time to pack up camp and head home. We stopped and got some much deserved pizza in Quilcene, and hopped in the car, us passengers dozing off the whole way back to Bainbridge. When we got on the ferry and saw the city again we were all exhausted, but what a great adventure it was.

photo by David Duffy

I'll leave you with that gorgeous shot that David took when we neared the city. I hope you enjoy my stories and photographs. As always, I have a few more on Flickr. Please check them out!

Backpacking to Spider Meadow

When winter ends, there is only one thing ski and snowboard addicts can do -- find a new outdoor activity to entertain yourself until the snow falls again. I used to like mountain biking more than I do, but after slicing my ankle open and watching my boyfriend get the gash in his forearm stitched up, I've decided I would rather stay grounded. The consequences due to failure in such an activity are much greater than what I'm comfortable with. If you fall, you will undoubtedly get hurt.

After picking up a copy of Backpacker at the airport on my trip to Florida, I came across an article outlining a trip to a place called Spider Meadow. The photograph was beautiful, and the trip seemed doable for our first real backpacking trek. Only 14.1 miles, and we had three days to do it. After getting my shift covered last minute, we headed out around lunchtime last Monday. Two and a half hours out of the city, we turned on a dirt road that wove along the Chiwawa River. We spent 22 miles on that rough road, and finally reached the trailhead. Phelps Creek Trail. We had about five miles to go before we hit our first campsite. It turned out fine, but we were definitely doubting ourselves as the sun slipped behind one of the surrounding peaks. The trail crossed several creeks, some of them proving to be much trickier than others. After hiking a little over five miles, we reached the first series of campsites around dusk...right at the edge of a meadow surrounded by thundering peaks. It was gorgeous, even as night was falling. I couldn't wait to see it in the sunlight. We set up camp, ate some freeze-dried spaghetti (that stuff actually tastes pretty great!) and enjoyed the evening together next to the fire under the star-studded sky.

It was kind of a rough night of sleep. The wind was howling, and pine needles were pelting the sides of our tent. As always, I had that slightly dormant fear of large game sneaking around our campsite, but we had hung our bag of food a great distance away from the campsite so I wasn't that worried. Even still, the wind kept me up for most of the night and I breathed a sigh of relief when I realized it was morning.

Now, I knew that the view in daylight of the valley would be incredible, but I had no idea how incredible.

I was in awe. After freezing through most of the night, we decided to pack up camp and head out to find a better campsite, hopefully sheltered from the relentless wind. We set off hiking through the meadow.

The meadow was beautiful, but it seemed that an avalanche in late season winter had ripped through part of the bowl, tearing down most of the trees and creating large piles of debris, and now melting snow.

After hiking about a mile across the meadow, we reached another small group of campsites. One of them was very small, but seemed just big enough for us to pitch a tent and make a fire in the pre-established fire pit. As we were exploring, we saw what we thought was a beaver sunning itself on a rock.

Turns out it was a marmot, which is a large ground squirrel. We saw a few others along the trail, and they make really loud whistling sounds. You would never guess those sounds come from large rodents.

We pressed on, planning to set up camp later, and tried to hike to Spider Glacier. The glacier was spread across one of the large towering peaks that are so common to Glacier Peak Wilderness.

The trail description told us that we would be hiking through some forests, cross Phelps Creek, and then climb sharply up the mountain to the glacier where the melting waters would rush right to our feet. It turns out that early season backpacking can be deterred due to large amounts of snow still covering the trail. After hiking around a snow field for about half an hour staring longingly at the glacier above, we decided it would be better to just turn around. The trail was completely covered in snow, and so was the creek. There was no way to determine where it would be safe to cross. I suppose it would be best to go back later in the summer if we wanted to camp up near the glacier. Both of us were frustrated.

We hiked back to our original campsite and packed everything up in order to move to our new site. After setting up, we realized we made a great decision. We were at the edge of the meadow, overlooking the entire valley, set up right next to a creek.

It had gotten pretty warm outside and we were able to sit out on a rock right next to the creek where we ended up cooking dinner.

All around, we could see waterfalls cascading from the bases of the melting snowpack. It was quite a site, and more waterfalls than I've ever seen in one area.

We enjoyed a dinner of salmon pesto pasta (I took my love of cooking into the backcountry) and went to bed satisfied. We woke up the next morning to another beautiful sunny day, although it was bitter cold. It had dropped below freezing during the night and we woke up to a layer of frost slowly beginning to melt off.

Once the sun started coming out though, we were able to thaw out and start packing up camp for the six mile hike back to the truck. I was sad to leave the meadow, but I was excited to take a shower again.

The hike back left nothing to be desired. We had spent most of the hike to the meadow racing the setting sun. This time we had plenty of time to explore. There was a waterfall that we could see about a hundred yards upstream from one of the creek crossings. We hiked up and found quite a beautiful site in front of us. It would be a perfect spot to stop for lunch on a day hike here.

As we neared the parking lot, we came across this incredible view.

Backpacking is something that really puts me in place as far as my size compared to the rest of the world. There are so many peaks to climb, valleys to explore, rivers, lakes, waterfalls, and forests, that I have never heard of or may never get a chance to see in my lifetime. Being out in nature really gives me time to forget about the real world and all of its annoyances. I can't wait to go on my next trip.

Camping + New Job = Best Week Ever!

What a wonderful week this has been! David got his cast off on Monday, and we left the doctor's office and went straight over the pass to go camping. After pondering where to go, we decided upon Owhi Campgrounds on Cooper Lake. You have to pass through Roslyn, an old mining town, and then drive a ways along Cle Elum Lake. Finally we reached the campgrounds where we packed all of our gear on our backs and hiked down to the lake. It was beautiful! We were especially excited to try out our new tent that we bought off of Steep

& Cheap - only the greatest source ever for outdoor gear.

Owhi Campgrounds

It's a pretty great little tent. After we set up camp, we started the fire. David and I have both been into "Out of the Wild" on the discovery show, so we decided to try out some new backcountry techniques. David bought a magnesium flint with us to see how it worked. It's a little tricky (at least for me) but he had it down by the end of the trip.

We made some chili for dinner and enjoyed a peaceful evening in the woods. The next morning we woke up to a beautiful sunrise, and almost dream-like lighting coming through the trees. Photos had to be taken, it was gorgeous!

We picked out a trail on the map of the area and started an attempt to hike to Pete Lake. Unfortunately, this was a failed attempt. We hiked on a trail right along Cooper Lake. It was a beautiful trail, and we even found some hidden campsites to save for a future date. The problem was that the entire trail was loaded with fallen trees, overgrown brush, and tricky navigation where sometimes the trail wasn't visible. It was pretty frustrating. After we reached the end of Cooper Lake, the trail was no longer visible so we had to turn back. It was sad, but at least we were able to help clean out the trail by chopping down twigs and branches that were in the way for future travelers.

Despite the fact that we didn't make it to our destination, the hike along Cooper Lake was beautiful. Large sweeping views of mountains towering above the lake, reflecting onto the perfectly still surface of the water.

David on the hike.

We returned to camp and decided to play catch and relax for the rest of the evening. I noticed this plant near our campsite with the sun shining through the leaves and took a few shots of it.

We relaxed the rest of the evening and proceeded to make a massive fire that was fueled mostly by pine cones. We had people camping relatively close to our site, and it seemed as if we were having a competition to make the biggest fire. Unfortunately I didn't get a shot of the final product, but I did get the glowing embers.

That night, we heard some bottle rustling around while we were in the tent. I don't think I can imagine anything more terrifying while camping than knowing that there is something lurking right outside your tent. From the sound of the animal, I concluded that it must have been a deer, but it was pitch black outside, and I was half asleep, so I can only imagine the worst at the time. It made me start thinking about what we would do if there was actually a bear outside. We don't have any form of self defense for an animal like that. I've read up on some tips in Backpacking magazine and I think next time we can have a better set up of where items are placed within our campsite. The next morning we were sad to leave, but we were ready to take a shower. I had to be back in Seattle for a working interview, the final interview of the hiring process at Teatro Zinzanni.

For those who don't know, I've been working as a cocktail waitress at the Red Door in Fremont for two years. While I love the staff and all of the cocktail knowledge I've gained, I can honestly say that I'm over it. I don't want to serve frat boys anymore, I don't want to clean up piss or puke, and I don't want to deal with drunk college kids who won't even tip a dollar on a 10 dollar drink. Lame. The good news is, after an amazing night of watching cirque and acrobatics and trapeze while shadowing a cocktail waitress, I got a job offer and gratefully accepted! I can't wait to start there. I can't wait to see the new show, and I can't wait to wear a costume, fishnet stockings and feathers in my hair at work! It's a beautiful place for a date, an anniversary, a birthday, any celebration, and I'm so excited to start a new page of my work experience. I will miss my friends at the Red Door, but I always know that I am welcome there.

Days at the Beach

So let me just say that the weather has been absolutely gorgeous up here in Seattle. I have truly spent the last couple of days enjoying it too! David and I decided to go to Golden Gardens on Tuesday. Neither of us had any plans so it was a really nice relaxing day. Of course I brought my camera and took some shots of some items that truly mean summer to me. I hear that Seattle has the highest rate of sunglass sales. It's probably because we only wear them about three months out of the year and they get lost.

What could illustrate summer more than baseball? Mariners anyone?

Golden Gardens


I'm excited to be getting tan!

David.

After having so much fun on Tuesday, we decided it would be a good idea to come back on Wednesday and have a BBQ. After sitting through a terrible amount of traffic, we got settled next to a fire pit and started cooking. We got out there around 4 so we could eat, play, and enjoy the sunset right before we left. (The sun sets around 9 in Seattle!) If I hadn't mentioned it already, David used to be a cheerleader at University of Washington. That is actually how we met! Baton twirler falls for cheerleader hehe. These next few photos are ones I took of two of the UW cheeleaders. David A is on the left, and Brandon is on the right. I took them right before the sun was going down, and I think they're beautiful!! I wish I could do a back tuck like that. Unfortunately, I never really excelled in the tumbling department. Regardless, I'm pretty happy with these shots.

Tumbling in the Sunset.

I think I'm going to leave you all with one last photo. I really didn't even feel like I was in Seattle yesterday. My family and I do BBQ's on the beach when we go to San Diego, and this whole day felt just like that. I'm so happy that I've found a place to spend my summer nights watching the sunsets.

Summer is Here!

Sunshine, 90 degrees, blue skies...am I living in Arizona again? The weather in Seattle has been ideal for summertime fun. I have spent the past couple of weeks juggling shifts at work and trying to find some free time to go on bike rides and work on my tan. (After all, I am going to Florida soon, and I don't want to look like I've been living in a cave!) After working 10 out of 11 days between jobs, I finally had the last two days off. I was pretty excited on Monday because I received my new lens in the mail. (Or should I say: Le Lundi, j'ai reçu mon nuvel objectif dans le mail. I'm always trying to think of how to translate my thoughts into Français.) It's a Canon 15mm fisheye lens. Not only will this lens give me some ridiculously wide angles, it will allow me to express my creativity. Since snowboarding photography is my goal, it's going to be a great addition to my bag of tricks. On to the results.

The first photo is one I took of David when we were just messing around with the lens to see what it could do right out of the package. After a little tweaking in CS3, it looks pretty sweet.

I decided to go on a bike ride to Golden Gardens, and took a few shots when I got there. I was really amazed at how wide this thing goes. Even on a cropped sensor, I'm getting some really great images.

Arguably the best beach near Seattle

My bike

I love the last one out of that set. I'm realizing that the more I work with black and white, the more I love it. It has a classic look that really appeals to me.

Yesterday, we decided to take advantage of one of the hottest days so far this year and head over to the arboretum park at University of Washington. There is a part of the 520 bridge that is disconnected, and on any given summer day you can find several college kids hanging out in canoes and hucking themselves off of the 40 foot bridge. David and I headed out to the park to work on our tans. We didn't have any intention of jumping the bridge (David has a cast on his leg) but it was entertaining to watch the kids egging each other on - some attempting back-flips, resulting in back-flops. David's brother Daniel headed out, and I got a some pretty cool shots of him jumping.

Daniel taking a leap of faith

David, with Daniel in the distance walking to the jumping point

Beautiful Seattle Day (and night!)

Wow! What a beautiful weekend it has been! Sunny skies, warm temperatures, it seems like summer is right around the corner. It's Memorial Day Weekend, so that means I've been having to pick up some extra shifts at works since everybody is trying to get out of town. Wish I was one of them, but I guess I have three days off every week. I usually have the beaches and campgrounds to myself being that those days are Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Despite the fact that I spend over half my weekend serving people mojitos, margaritas, and summer ales, I did find some time to get out and about. I got off work around three yesterday, and my boyfriend and I drove over to Kirkland (he grew up there). We grabbed a small pizza and took it to the park. Being the fact that he has a big cast on his foot for another three weeks, he's been trying to find ways to stay active. That's why he wants to play catch. Not only does he get out of the house during these so-called "catch sessions", it really forces me to work on my accuracy. Now, I haven't spent much time dabbling in the world of sports. I spend my childhood and many of my teenage and college years throwing batons through the air and doing leaps and gymnastics across a gym floor or a football field. Let's just say I definitely throw like a girl. But I'm learning :) Regardless of the fact that I'm not that great at it, I still had a good time playing catch and we were at a beautiful park right on Lake Washington.

After that, we headed back to Seattle and stopped by Ivar's. Our good friend Ross was working there, and Ivar's on the water is the perfect place to stop on a summer day. They have seating on a floating barge, and their happy hour is among the best in the city. When we had finished up at Ivar's, it was just past sundown. I decided I would go try out my new tripod and take some pictures up at Kerry Park. While the photos I took are pretty common among Seattle photographers, I have to say it's a great place to practice long exposures and figuring out ways to get the city lights to look just right.

It was a zoo up at Kerry Park, with at least three other photographers with tripods and about a dozen high school kids who were probably out because it's Memorial Day weekend. Luckily, I found a little spot to shoot from and the end result was great. I know there are ways I can improve, but for my first night shoot, I'm pretty satisfied with the way these photographs turned out.