Week 70 Dec. 31 - Keechelus Ridge

Total Distance: Approximately 6.4 miles
Elevation Gain: Approximately 2100 ft.
Time: 9:45 am - 2:45 pm
Weather: Cool with clear skies early turning to cloudy skies by the afternoon.

Well, my last hike was a terrific snowshoe up to a ridge line off I-90 in the Central Cascades.  The Cascades had just received a big dump of fresh snow the two evenings before, my friend from the Marmot hike was planning a snowshoe so I was just tagging along, and it was New Year's Eve day.  The whole day was set up for a perfect hike.  The day was phenomenal.  Here is a quick recounting almost half a week later.

We met early and were in North Bend around 8:15 am.  We exited on the off ramp, got a little off track, parked the car, geared up, and were walking on up a snowmobile highway to the top of Keechelus Ridge by 9:45 am.  My friend and I quickly got of the old road, and made our own route through the forest.  We had a topo map, a ton of fresh snow, and now tracks to follow.  We jumped across one creek early, and we both knew the day was going to rock.  Then it was a good long uphill climb, occasionally crossing the snowmobile routes with and without traffic.  We got to the summit were it was so cold.  Ice was forming in y water bottle, my sweaty base-layer that I changed out for the hike down froze while we took a lunch break.  I don't remember when we got there, but we walked down around 1:15 pm.  We bounded down much the way we came up and were back at the car a little past 2:30 pm.

We then rocked Seattle for New Year's Eve later that night.

Orchid: Breaking fresh tracks with a friend.

Onion: Not managing gear well.

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Google Map

Week 69 Dec. 24 - Beaver Creek and Lookout Mountain

Total Distance: Approximately 3 miles
Elevation Gain: Approximately 500 ft.
Time: 12:30 pm - 2:00 pm
Weather: Cool with cloudy skies.

My parents, my sister, her fiancé, and I are spending the Christmas holiday in a cabin near Broken Bow, OK.  It is a beautiful cabin, less than 10 minutes from Beaver Bend State Park, where there is a ton of trails to hike.  This afternoon my sister, her fiancé, my parents' dog, and I took off to do a little 3 mile loop that took us over the top of Lookout Mountain.

We left the cabin at 12:08 pm,  drove to the wrong visitor's center, found a map, turned around, got to the right trailhead, checked in without the rangers, and were walking by 12:32.  This was by far the shortest commute to a trailhead I have had in the last 69 weeks.

We took off on the Forest Heritage Tree Trail, and soon we were walking next to Beaver Creek.  The creek was flowing over these crazy fin like rock formations.  Abby, my parents' dog, was loving the creek and being outside.  The trail was easy enough to follow; the trees were marked with a small, red medal circle hammered into the trees.  After about 30 minutes, we hit a T intersection with a sign indicting we had walked a mile.  The sign read that the Lookout Mountain Trail started to the right.  It was 0.7 miles to the summit and the sign cautioned that it was a "very steep climb." 

We began the climb, and I felt like I was back in the great state of Washington.  A pine forest climb up a decent hill.  All of us began to feel the work that is climbing a steep hillside.  Within a few minutes I was sweating and was ready to take a layer off.  We took a little break near the summit.  We drank some water and de-layered.  The push to the top past the break was more gradual, and the summit was not treeless but had good views between the trees.  The decent was steep and quick, and soon we were at another creek.  The trail continued up another hill and skirted around the east side of the ridge until it finally hit the road we came in on.  The last half mile of the trail followed the road, and we were at the parking lot by 2 pm.

Orchid: Christmas eve hiking with my sister, soon-to be brother-in-law, and Abby, the wonder dog.

Onion: Hard to find one on a Christmas eve hike.

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Google Map

Week 68 Dec.17 - Lake Thunderbird

Total Distance: Approximately 7 miles
Elevation Gain: Approximately 500 ft.
Time: 11:00 am - 2:00 pm
Weather: Warm, mid-50's, mostly sunny with scattered clouds, beautiful day.

Back home for the holidays had this week's hike in my home state of Oklahoma.  I was looking for a hike somewhat close to my parent's house in Oklahoma City, but there were not many options in my Oklahoma Hiking Trails book that were less than an hour away.  I settled on a 7 mile hike about a hour away at a lake named Lake Thunderbird.

My sister and I were on the road by 9:40 am and at the trailhead by 10:55 am.  There were a few cars in the lot, but we did not see anyone there.  I geared up, and we began walking by 11.  We were walking in a trail system that the Bike League of Norman had helped establish and maintain.  The trails are shared with mountain bikers and hikers.  An extensive spider web network of trails covers the area known as Clear Bay in the southwest corner of Lake Thunderbird.

The weather was amazing.  The skies were a brilliant blue, and the sun was warm when we were out of the shade.  The trails meandered through a wooded area near the lake and after about 15 minutes the sound of the traffic was no longer audible.  The trees had lost all their leaves, and the landscape was familiar and made me feel at home.  The dirt in my home state is a red color similar to that of Arizona or New Mexico, a wonderful aspect of the American Southwest.  As we walked, I was so happy to see the beauty of my home state with fresh eyes.  Growing up in a place, it is easy to miss out on what is actually there.  This commitment of hiking every weekend has allowed me a second chance to appreciate the beauty of where I grew up.

The hike was great.  We got to the lake and took a little snack break.  We walked a nice lollipop loop, and we were back at the car by 2 pm.  We saw only 3 other people and had a glorious time.

Orchid: Snack break at the lake, and a wonderful hike with my sister.

Onion: I couldn't find one on this hike.

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Google Map

Week 67 Dec. 11 - Capitol Forest, again

Total Distance: Approximately 7 miles
Elevation Gain: Approximately 800 ft.
Time: 10:00 am - 2:00 pm
Weather: Cool, mostly cloudy skies.

A busy time of year has made it hard for me to find the time to blog.  And now I am left to try and remember a hike from a week ago.  The original plan for the weekend was to go snowshoeing with a friend I met this summer, a young woman who is from Tacoma and attends Savannah College of Art and Design.  She wanted to go hiking with me this summer when we met, but it just never worked out,  Now she is home for the holidays with a classmate who is originally from Florida, and she wanted to show her some of Washington's beauty.  I suggested that to see any peaks that we would need to get up to higher elevation which means we would be snowshoeing.

As we started planning the hike, it became clear that to pull off all the gear for two people in a few days was not going to work out.  We went with a backup plan of hiking in the lower elevations.  I wanted to go to a place that I knew would be snow free, would be close, and would hopefully give us a view or two.  I suggested the Capitol Forest outside Olympia.  We were on the road Sunday morning by 9 am.  We got to the forest by 9:50 and then we were cruising the dirt and gravel roads of a working forest.  I have no idea where the trailheads in this frost are.  This was my second visit here, and I did the same thing this time as I did last time, I drove around until I saw a trail, parked the car, and began walking the trail.

We started in an open area of a recent clear-cut.  The weather was great, cool and clear.  We began climbing and soon we were in a forest as lush as any second or third growth forest I have ever walked through.  We ended up getting to a nice opening at the top of a hill and had a pretty decent view to what I think was the west.  After a short break, we continued on and soon came to a dead end.  We turned around and walked back the way we had came.  Once we got back to the clear-cut where we began, we continued on the other direction past the car, and after about an hour came to the other end of the trail.  Here we had lunch and hot drinks and enjoyed the quiet solitude of the forest.  We packed up and were back at the car by 2 pm.

Orchid: View from the top of the hill.

Onion: Not know where I am whenever I visit the Capitol Forest.  I need a map…

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Google Map

Week 66 Dec. 3 - Hex Mountain

Total Distance: Approximately 7 miles
Elevation Gain: Approximately 2500 ft.
Time: 8:00 am - 2:00 pm
Weather: Cool, sunny, clear skies, beautiful day.

Sometimes I get this great feeling about a hike early in the week.  I know the weather is going to be amazing, I have an awesome hike picked out, or I am excited about those friends of mine who might join me.  On Monday morning, Creighton walked into my classroom, and we planned to hike on Saturday.  We had no idea where, but we knew we would go snowshoeing.  The forecast early in the week was for great weather, but in the PNW that can always change.  With each passing day, the forecast looked better and better.  I spent a lot of the week asking friends about any potential good snowshoe hikes, and I finally found one I have not done in my snowshoe book on Thursday.  Then I asked another good friend, my colleague who was on the Marmot trip with me in August of 2010, to come along and he was down.  This would be our first hike since that trip.  We planned on meeting at 6 am, to be walking by 8 and to be back in Tacoma before 6 pm.

We were on the road by 6:10 am, and we were at the trailhead by 7:55 am.  We were geared up and walking shortly thereafter.  The hike starts out in the winter snowshoeing the road up to the summer parking lot.  It is about 2 miles of road walking, but today the snow was so crunchy and solid we didn't even need our snowshoes on the road.  We walked along at a nice pace and at about 9:45 am, we saw a nice path up to the ridge through the forest.  We stopped, put on our snowshoes, and began walking up the ridge.

I am always glad to snowshoe with Creighton.  He is an animal in terms of pace and endurance, so he took off breaking trail ahead of my friend and I.  My other friend is the cross-country coach at my school, and he too is a mad man when it comes to pace and endurance.  It wasn't long after we started that I was in the back of the pack, following their tracks, and enjoying the forest by myself.  We came up on the ridge and dropped down the other side to a nice big landing.  We could see a nice saddle between some peaks a good distance up from the landing, and we saw what would be a path through the forest and out on the exposed ridge.  We took off together, but soon after I was again on my own.  It was a long steep climb.  I popped out of the forest after what felt like forever, and we were standing below the peaks we had seen below.  The trees had thinned out and the peaks looked so inviting.

We walked up to the first peak together.  When we reached the top, the view north was breath-taking.  We think we were looking at Mount Stuart.  While I may be mistaken with the name, there is no mistaking the beauty of the Cascades.  The gnarly, snaggletooth rock outcroppings covered in snow look so spectacular bathed in sunshine against a blue sky.  I will never get over how beautiful Washington State is.  We could see the other peak was higher elevation, so we walked the ridge over to the other peak.  When we got to the peak it was 11 am.  We took an hour long break.  I had brought two thermoses of hot water and fixed everyone a hot chocolate.  I had two.  We enjoyed some water, snacks, and each other's company.  We took some pictures, packed up, and began walking out at noon.

The way down was a lot of fun, especially getting down off the ridge.  All the elevation we had gained, we got to run down at nearly half the time it took to get up.  The sun was shinning so bright.  It was truly an amazing day.  We were back on the road where we finally put our snowshoes on at 1 pm.  We took our snowshoes off and walked out.  We were back at the car by 2 pm.

Orchid: Hot cocoa and good friends.

Onion: Broken buckle on my pack because I hung my snowshoes on a weak strap.

Picture:

Google Map