Lines on the Road: There and back again

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#14: Visit the San Juans

Mark and I took a mini vacation up to Orcas Island last weekend to celebrate our third anniversary, so I got to cross #14 off my 100 list! I've heard such great things about the San Juan Islands and I can't believe it has taken me eight years of living in the northwest to visit one. I didn't have a specific reason for choosing Orcas other than I had some friends who had gone before, and I secretly hoped to see an orca whale while we were there. That didn't pan out unfortunately but I have no regrets. This little trip reminded me that while we talk a lot about world traveling, there are still plenty of locales worth visiting that are close to home!

I've posted more pictures after the jump: click the link below to expand the post.

Destination: the peak in the distance

As much as Mark and I say we love hiking, we don't actually make it to the mountains all that much. Part of this is due to the difficulty in finding a completely free Saturday where the weather is half-decent, not to mention mustering the motivation to drive nearly two hours so we can avoid the crowds at the nearer hikes off I-90. But trust me, long drive aside, the views from the hikes in the north Cascades off the Mountain Loop Highway are unparalleled.

The vertical paths cut straight up
the slope.

Mount Pilchuck is a very doable day hike (5.4 miles roundtrip) but it still has plenty of lingering snow even in July, so I'd recommend it in August or September. Apparently there is an actual trail with switchbacks most of the way up but as soon as we got out of the trees, there was no trail in sight. Only heaps of snow! We lost the trail for a bit (actually, we were misled off the trail by another group of hikers) and ended up on an outcropping of snow and rock that we had to carefully backtrack down once we figured out we weren't on the correct path. We did see later that if we would have kept going then we would have intersected with the main trail, but as that wouldn't be advice we would give anyone under ANY circumstances, we played it safe and backtracked. We didn't want to be the *stupid* hikers who had to be rescued out of the Cascades because we thought we'd come out on the trail any minute now! So since there were no switchbacks to follow, everyone forged a path vertically up the steep slope. We were told that this cut down the distance considerably (obviously the shortest path is the most direct one) but boy was my butt killing me by the end.

But oh the view. You could see to Mount Baker, Mount Shuksan, Glacier Peak, and all the other craggy peaks of the north Cascades and on the other side all the way to the Puget Sound and the Olympic mountains. Incredible.

So how did we get safely down these steep slopes? Someone had the bright idea to create a slide (four, actually) so we just had to sit down and push off. We unfortunately didn't get any video of the slides (our phones were safely packed so they didn't get wet on the way down) but they were SO fun. Time-saving too! But snow slides are one of those ideas that are great in theory but less so in practice - we were soaked for the rest of the hike. But it was worth it!

There and Back Again: Goat Flats

We hiked to Goat Flats yesterday, a five-mile ascent to a spectacular view of the northern Cascades. If you go further, you meet up with Three Fingers trail, which will take you up to the Three Fingers lookout atop those jagged peaks. We went with our friends Maile and Brian and saw maybe eight other people throughout the day. Apparently the hike is somewhat busy through the summer but yesterday was definitely not proof of its popularity. It was great to have the trail nearly to ourselves.

The only downside to this hike is the two-hour drive to the trailhead. One hour gets you into the national park and the next hour is spent on an 18-mile gravel road dodging potholes at 20 mph. We weren't sure whether we were on the correct road heading up to the trailhead so we flagged down a sketchy-looking truck heading the opposite way. Mark asked the driver if we were on Highway 41 and the guy replied, "Dude... we're on planet Earth, man!" The passenger in the truck then said something about herb and 420, and it became obvious we'd get no pertinent information from them so we said thanks and drove on (we were indeed on the correct road, by the way).

Word on the street is that tons of mountain goats congregate in the area but we didn't see one... I was very disappointed. If I'm going to be in GOAT FLATS then at least show me a goat!

There and back again: Tiger Mountain

My friend Lori and I did something crazy today. For reasons unknown even to us, we got on the road at 7 a.m. to hike Tiger Mountain. We were craving an outdoor experience but I said I had to be back in Seattle at 11, so Tiger Mountain was really one of our only options unless we wanted to get up earlier.

I hear that on a typical spring or summer day, Tiger Mountain is a freeway of people. Given that it was February and 7:30 in the morning, we didn't encounter nearly as many hikers as we might have in the summer but we still met our fair share. But hey, it was a gorgeous and clear day. Seattle-ites are known to flock toward the sunshine! And they always bring their dogs. We saw SO many dogs on the way back down. Dachshunds, labs, golden retrievers, pugs, greyhounds... you name the breed. Speaking of pugs, I had a standoff with a rather bull-headed pug on our way down. You know if you are approaching a dog (or even a person), obviously one will have to move to get out of the other's way? Well, the pug and I were on a trajectory course for collision but I figured it would get out of my way since, naturally, I am much bigger than the pug and could crush it with my shoe. The pug did NOT get out of the way and when neither of us stepped aside, we came to a face-to-face standstill. For a second, neither of us moved. The pug stared at my shoes and I stared at its ugly little face (sorry pug owners). I finally stepped aside and the pug continued on its way. There are two explanations for why this happened. The pug, that spoiled Seattle pet, wanted to assert its control over me and forced a showdown. OR the pug was too stupid to realize that all it had to do to keep its momentum was take a step to the right or left. It came to an obstacle and its little brain couldn't figure out what to do. I prefer this second explanation rather than a pug bent on domination. I prefer to think they're stupid.

Anywho, it was gorgeous up there and our early morning paid off. We mainly had the trail to ourselves on the way up, even though it started to get busier later in the morning. It's always great to get out of the city and take in a view.