I've had a lot of badass adventures in WA, and this weekend is right at the top. Went to Yellow Aster Butte, like 10 miles from the Canadian border, looking south at Mt Baker and Mt Shuksan. Had never seen these mountains from this angle. Spoiler Camped Friday and Saturday night, there were like 5-6 lakes and tons of campsites. Great spots Spoiler Campsite to the left. Mt Shuksan to the left, Mt. Baker to the right Saturday left camp at 9:00 AM, 3,000 ft over two miles. One of the more exposed scrambles I've attempted, but it was so much fucking fun This is the final climb to the summit Spoiler There was a guy in front of us that had done this before, so we watched his route: Spoiler Gnarly AF. My buddy is in the tank top, I'm in the red long sleeve I'm mean come the fuck on. This is heaven Spoiler Took about an hour to climb up, summit was primo The peak is less than 5 miles from the Canadian border. This is the view Northeast. On the far left is Canadian Border Peak, in Canada, next right is American Border Peak, and far right is Mt. Larrabee Walking back with this view the entire time:
I wish I had the skills, fortitude, and flexibility to do stuff like that Nug . Appreciate the posts man
Humble entry. Took the family out to Kirk Creek in Big Sur last weekend. We were looking for cancellations all over the state’s hot spots and got lucky. That place is special and can’t wait to get back. Tempted to grab the starlink mini and work out there for days at a time. Spoiler
Good grief. The national forest I go hiking in looks like the alley behind a Fazoli's compared to you two.
Absolutely. Found another cancellation this weekend at Morro Bay SP. I lived there for two years, have an office there, and hang out there all the time because it’s just down the road. We figured why not but our neighbors on site will all be on big vacations for the most part. Weekend after we’re thinking Mammoth dispersed for my wife’s birthday. What’s home for you?
Bay Area. Should be some good dispersed in the valley near Mammoth. Watch out for a 395 closure north of Hwy 108 in September.
Obligatory fuck Elon and the things that make this service possible, but sheesh, from a purely selfish perspective this thing is cool. Weighs 3lb and is about the size of a standard notebook. I’m in my fairly heavily wooded backyard doing about 150mbps down and 20 up hooked up to an Ecoflow Delta 2 drawing about 30 watts on average. That should be roughly 27 hours of use without charging the Ecoflow. A full charge only takes an hour running the generator. My mind is kinda spinning about the possibilities with a portable lightweight battery. Obviously no service campgrounds for WFH are back on the menu, but I could also easily hike out with this thing too using a smaller portable battery
Heading out to camp on the beach in Olympic National Park in a few hours. Going solo for 3 days/2 nights. Haven't been to the Olympic NP beach in like 4-5 years, it's such a unique experience -- temperate rainforest behind you, tons of bear and deer and elk and seals, sometimes whales, white sand beach + pacific ocean + amazing rock structures. Weather forecast calls for fog and a slight drizzle Saturday PM into Sunday AM. Moody. Bringing 4g of potent mushrooms, plan to go deeeep tomorrow. Not quite a hero's dose, but more than a casual trip.
That's gonna be my son's 1st "out west" backpacking trip (minus the shrooms), likely next year. I wanna spend an entire day exploring tidal pools with him. I'll be asking you questions fosho.
Man it's so special. North Coast (Shi Shi, Rialto, Ozette) is more popular and a bit more crowded, but more accessible. South Coast (Third Beach, Strawberry Point, Toleak Point) is a bit more of a hike (6-8 miles), but much more secluded and definitely my jam. Same topography and terrain, you can't really go wrong with either. But South Coast is definitely less crowded. Only thing with South Coast is you have to monitor the tides because you can only cross certain sections during low tide - the trail is impassable during mid-to-high tide, unless you want to be walking knee deep in the Pacific Ocean. I basically have a 3-4 hour window from approx 1:30 - 5:00 this afternoon where I can cross. Given that it's a 3 hour drive and then 2 hours hiking to the impassable part, you gotta do some math-ing. Spoiler
I’d love to sneak in a Washington trip while it’s still summer-ish up there. Is it like CA in that you still have the Indian summer thing going through Oct? I think the soonest I could pull it off would be like Oct 19
October is a crapshoot, could be clear skies and a bit cold, could be downpours with light snow, could be overcast and dreary. I've had some awesome adventures in early October and also had to cancel some trips. Late October is probably too late, unfortunately.
Ahhh well. Next year it is. Between your shots and a guy in the Solis group posting from Colchuck Lake, Diablo Lake, and Joffre Lakes over the past few weeks, I’m jonesing haha. Appreciate the insight
Man the Olympic Coast is so special. Can't think of many places like it. Saw a bunch of seals (handful of dead ones washed on shore), about 15 bald eagles, tons of starfish and other sea life, no whales and no bears. Hiked in Friday, set up camp and listen to the Braves lose to the Angels, go to sleep pretty early. Wake up at 7, slow breakfast and coffee, hike up and down the beach for a few hours, eat some mushrooms around 12 and have a pretty awesome trip. Did some yoga/meditation, once I come down a bit start walking the beach some more. Great vibes. Pretty bad storm came in about 10 PM, lots of rain and lightning, but my camp was sheltered. Just loud. Woke up at 6 this morning with a super low tide, went and explored some tide pools and hiked out. This scene being just a few hours from glaciated mountains is so special. Spoiler Tide pool shots Spoiler
Patagucci's sales usually suck but they have the down sweater, Nano puff, and the R1 Air at really good prices. The R1 Air is my 2nd fav piece of gear I have. Bought an extra for daily use during the winter. So light and so warm. https://www.patagonia.com/shop/web-specials/mens?page=2
Hiking in and around twin lakes, CO. Went up independence pass. Will post some photos later. heard the gray wolves howling in the distance.
One of the absolute greatest experiences of my life was the hour I spent listening to wolves howling to each other across Isle Royale. There’s something elemental about it that nothing else can match.
Summer winding up. Will try to squeeze in another big summit and have two more big trips planned with friends. Leave Thursday PM to head to Northeast Washington into the Pasayten Wilderness, have never explored. 4 days/3 nights doing a 40+ mile loop.
4 days/3 nights/45 miles/5,500 ft of elevation in North Central Washington, like 1-2 miles from the Canadian border. Middle of nowhere, NE of North Cascades National Park and north of Winthrop/Mazama. Saw two other groups over 4 days. Day 1: hike in 12 miles, mostly in forest. Not exciting. Wake up day 2 and hike over two passes over 7,000 ft. Come out the forest and see this. Cathedral Peak to the far right, our path is Cathedral Pass right below it, you hug the ridge the whole way: Spoiler My buddy right before the pass, underneath a false summit of Cathedral Peak Spoiler View from the pass at 7,600 ft: Spoiler
Main goal was Cathedral Lake, big alpine lake with a 900 ft face coming straight from the lake. Takes 20 miles to reach, all uphill, but so worth it. Fucking incredible Spoiler Day 3: hike 12 miles, downhill 3,200 ft, thru a burn field from a huge 2005 forest fire. Zero coverage, mid-80s, it was hot as shit. Really cool views because it was so different, but a freaking slog. Spoiler
Repost from the Space thread, but worth it: Camped in Northern WA this weekend, in the Pasayten Wilderness. Absolutely zero light pollution Spoiler View attachment 233384 Took this pic with my GoPro on Saturday night Spoiler
Missed out nearly all summer thanks to recovering from spinal procedures. Still not 100%, but off to Montana (Missoula area) and then the Bighorns (N. Wyoming) starting tomorrow. Partial business trip for the wife, so mostly paid for by her clients. Hoping for some of this action, should be a lot of moose. First time to the Bighorns. Spoiler
Another hiker mentioned this to me but before that I hadn’t even noticed. I could clearly see the Rockies. Some awesome viewing spots up there.
Start a three-part mycology course tomorrow. A lot of hiking, mushroom foraging, then identification. Once-per-month for about 5 hours each https://www.northwestnatura.com/fieldtrips/p/naturalist-fall
Missoula was a total bust for me early last week, blanketed in heavy smoke. It was cool to see the city again since we're looking at places to retire. We left there after few days (wife was working) and headed to the Bighorns in N. Wyoming near the border with Montana, just west of I-25. We only had one full day there, but were really impressed with the area due to light crowds, nice views, and some pretty stout trails for day or overnight hiking. We camped Wednesday night in a series of thunderstorms that rattled the tent all night, but the reasonable amount of rainfall was no problem for the Big Agnes. Thursday morning, we started up the 11 mile round trip trail for Lost Twin Lakes, with about 2000' elevation gain and a few lumps that left 700' of that climbing for the way back. 2000' is pretty typical for a Colorado hike, and we live at 5000 feet, but this was both our first hikes in months. Spoiler Our first view at the end of the first long climb. Nice place for some calories, and skies were foreshadowing. From that view, we immediately descended to this meadow, which would be a recurring theme of meadow, climb, meadow, climb, meadow the rest of the way. Tons of small trout in the stream. Fall colors popping as we reached 9500' climbing between meadows. Transitions from meadow to climb were pretty direct as we walked this meadow the base of the wall, and up. Views from the meadow above that wall were great, but two moose right on the trail turned into our turnaround point. I didn't like the weather trend, we were both tired from lack of hiking miles this year, and the moose weren't budging. Felt like I was too tired to dodge two angry moose, if needed.
Spoiler Moose zoomed in Turned around at a good time since we got back to a perfect shelter for the graupel. Definitely planning to go back, hopefully to climb Cloud Peak next year. Bighorns were a breath of fresh air vs. overcrowded Colorado. We did a little over 10 miles. Four days later, got some quality time doing another 10 mile, 2000' hike at RMNP.
Maybe the last trip of the year, 4 days/3 nights up to Tuck and Robin Lake, with a summit of Granite Mountain. Had to work Thursday, so take off around 4, drive 3 hours, night-hike 3 miles to an easy campsite. Friday wake up and climb 3,400 ft over 4.5 miles, super steep. Last part wasn't really a trail and just scrambling over rock. Friday night slept at 6,400 ft, got down to 22 degrees that night. Summited on Saturday AM, hiked down to a lower lake for Sat night to make Sunday easier, had an incredible sunset and campsite. My buddy brought his Google phone and holy shit the quality of the pictures was incredible Spoiler Have a free weekend October 11, but weather will be dicey.
Tried to solo summit Ruth Mountain today at 7,100 ft. Turned around with about 500 ft left, would of had to cross a big glacier/ice field for the true summit, was a bit too sketchy to do solo, even with gear. This is about where I turned around: Spoiler Did 6 miles and about 3,600 ft in less than 3 hours, I was flying by myself with only a daypack. Trailhead is less than 1 hour from my house, right in my backyard. So nice Spoiler
My wife and I hiked up to where SC, NC, and GA meet. Saw a bald eagle today. Spoiler Nice lunch spot Barefoot fishing This tree refused to let being knocked over kill it The surveyor's etching for the spot from 1813.