Change of plans II…white water to water falls

Due the cancellation of my rafting plans this weekend (I'm still bitter!) I filled Saturday with a kayak trip but still had Sunday free. Diane wanted to get out so we diceided to take a hike up to Wallace Falls. I though this would be worth the hike since most of the low level snow is now melting (though not enough to let me go boating!) it should be feeding the water falls nicely.

We took off really early since we knew the weather was supposed to be really nice and this is a very popular trail when the sun comes out and it was already t-shirt weather by 9am. When we arrived at the trailhead there were only three cars there one of which was the park ranger (I guess Maggie gets a leash today!). We took off about 9:30 and began the uphill walk to the falls (this trail one of those uphill both ways types of trail). We made it 3+ miles to the top of the and stopped for lunch. Diane made some flat bread sandwiches topped off with a little Baconaisse Lite – talk about a treat!

By this time we decided both ourselves and Lily had enough and we should probably work our way back down to the car. On the 2.5 hike uphill we only passed only one other hiker and no dogs…on the way back we passed at least 40 people wheezing their way up the trail and at least a dozen dogs (looks like a good time to leave!)

Change of Plans...white water to open water

This weekend I had planned on making my first whitewater boating trip of the year. The plan was to meet up with a friend/fellow rafter on Friday morning and make an early safety run down the Cispus which would then be followed by two more on the Cispus with a much larger group. Though I had the Blast Shelter all packed up, time off of work and was eager to get out on the water Mother Nature a different idea and refused to provide us with a water level adequate to run the river (oh the joys of early season boating!)


20 minutes after making the call to cancel the rafting trip another plan to go sea kayaking quickly came together. "Sea kayaking? You don't sea kayak!" That was pretty much true until I met up with Ben this morning. Next thing you know, thanks to Ben and two of his beautiful handmade kayaks (can you believe he built this boat with pieces of an old wood wardrobe!) , and with a brief lesson on getting myself into the boat I was on the water in no time!
We set off from park next to the Mukilteo ferry terminal, on the calmest flattest water I have ever seen in the sound, and made the crossing over to Whidbey Island. After reaching the island we paused to let the inbound ferry pass by us and dock. Though I was anxious to keep going towards lunch I was informed by Ben, in all his great wisdom, that paddling under the ferry dock is highly frowned upon and also illegal (don't ask how he learned this one!) and it would be in our best interest to take the long way around and stay at least 200' off the stern of the ferry. After rounding the ferry terminal we stoppped at the public beach to stretch our legs and enjoy some lunch.
After 20 minutes or so the still flat water was calling us back so back in the boats we went. We paddled north from the beach out into the channel about a mile or so before turning back towards Mukilteo. The passage between the islands here was pretty interesting. The water and the wind were extrememly calm just as it had been all day and the harbor seals made a dozen or so appearances, apparently they enjoy following kayaks around (due to the "happy wife, happy life" clause in our marraige I didn't want to dunk Diane's new camera in the drink so I did not attemp to get pictures of all these cute little guys while paddling-ironic thing is as soon as I got home she wanted the pictures of them!)
So back top the beach we went once again waiting for a passing ferry before making our landing. All-in-all we estimated 8-9 miles and all of it on near perfect water. Thanks again Ben for the great introduction to sea kayking I can't wait to get back out on the water again! Thanks again Ben!
Stats:
Miles Logged: 8-ish

Sakgit Valley Tulip Festival 04/09

A not so adventurous brief road trip…
So the weather looked pretty wet on Saturday morning so we decided to go walk around in the mud. Saturday was the first day of the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival http://www.tulipfestival.org/
So we picked up Grandma and headed north. I didn’t really know where we were actually going so I set the GPS to the most logical place I could think of…..Tulip Town http://www.tuliptown.com/ Once we got to Tulip Town we learned that nowadays it cost $5.00 per person to walk through the muddy field. I must say though the $5.00 did also include access to the gift shops - I thought this was a nice bonus to the $15.00 admission fee. Maybe Nordstrom’s should implement this policy as well…”that will be $5.00 if you would like to come in and consider a purchase” Oh well I guess we did our part to stimulate the local economy.

After leaving Tulip Town we drove a couple miles through the farm country over to Roozengaarde http://www.tulips.com/ Apparently Roozengaarde is attempting to undercut the competition with their $4.00 per person admission fee. We opted out of this one but did take advantage of their free parking and access to the Tulip fields for a few more pictures (mostly of Lily wandering in the daffodils)

After visiting these two tourist traps we decided to call it a day and drove home before the big rain and wind storm that was accurately predicted moved in.

Christmas Cabin 12/08

Chrsitmas ’08 we decided to rent a cabin in the mountains in Plain, WA. We left for the cabin Christmas morning (after opeing Santa’s gifts of course!)

As we hit the road we were in the middle of a beautiful NW snow storm with 8-10 inches already falling by the time we got on the road. We spent the entire drive (about 100 miles) to the cabin in 4wd. Not my quickest run over Stevens Pass but at least there was no traffic! We made it to the cabin with out any issues thanks to the trusty Garmin Street Pilot.

The cabin was beautiful it's parked on the edge of the river and surrounded with a couple feet of snow. In the four days we stayed there we had close to a foot of new snow every night – which was perfect!

Once got situated we entertained ourselves by going sledding, throwing snowballs at Dad and the dog, sitting in the hot tub, eating obsessively and visiting Plain Hardware (www.plainhardware.com/) – that place had some of the best coffee around! Though parking was interesting with all the snowmobiles coming in and out of the parking lot. Friday morning the boys (and Diane) headed out early to Mountain Springs Lodge (www.mtsprings.com/) for a day of snowmobiling with our own guide.

On Saturday we also ran about 40 minutes up the road to the town of Leavenworth to do the Christmas touristy thing – the drive would have been 30 minutes but I had the pleasure of circling back to pulling my dad's new Tahoe out of the fresh snow bank – sorry Dad I couldn’t leave that part out! I will admit it wasn’t really his fault so for “pride’s sake” we’ll blame the snow plow.
Sunday morning we awoke to more fresh snow and worked our way back down the pass back home.

A few other tidbits from this trip:

1. I love owning a 4wd – it made the roadtrip in the snow pretty stress free
2. Always bring more than one drink to the hot tub because you have quite a quandary if you don’t want to get out in the snow to grab another one.
3. This one's important guys....don’t jump a snowmobile with your wife sitting on the back!

Wallace Falls

Well I got up this morning, they weather was thoroughly crappy (and supposedly getting worse) so I decided to take the dog for a walk. I decided to head up to Wallace falls State Park in Gold Bar, WA. Since the local water levels were up due to recent storms so the falls should be nice.
On the drive up there we had a bit of snow falling but not enough to slow down for. By the time I got to the parking area the moderate snow turned into a lovely windy torrential down pour. The parking area was almost empty so I didn’t bother leashing up Maggie when we set off (I’m such a rebel!)

Walking under the ominous power lines for the first part of the trail is always a little creepy and the buzz was even more impressive during the lovely downpour.

We made our way UP the “woody trail” to the Upper and Lower Falls about 2.75 miles each way. After reaching the Upper Falls the rain started changing back to snow which wasn’t a big deal. The bigger issue was the strong wind that picked up. Well then again the wind wasn’t really the issue either – the falling tree limbs were the issue! After hearing the first couple limbs break Maggie gave me the “do you really want to stand here taking pictures right now?” look. So she decided it was time to call it a day and head back down the trail. We made it back down without getting clubbed senseless by falling tree limbs, though I heard several cracking sounds that made me think I was about to.

All-in-all it was a decent little walk in the woods.

The only disappointing part of this trip was after I returned home and unloaded my gear I realized I forgot I had tossed an ice cold beer in my pack and carried it all the way to the top of the falls and back – so much for enjoying a “Miller High Life Moment” – I will expect more from myself in the future.

Big 4 Ice Caves 09/08

Took a Saturday morning drive up the Mountain Loop Hwy, WA. to check out the Big 4 Ice Caves. Finding the parking lot was easy. They had quite a few signs and pictures around telling the history of the old lodge and the area – sounds like it was quite a place before it burnt to the ground!

The hike was pretty easy it took about an hour to get to the base of Big-4 Mountain. There were very few people on the trail when we started out at around 8am; though we passed quite a few people on our way out (I think every one of them asked about the bridge too). Getting across the river was a little tricky since the bridge is out but it was no big deal. I managed to keep my feet dry hopping rocks even with the baby on my back – this was the dog’s favorite part.

Walking through the avalanche area was pretty amazing. Hundreds of trees laying everywhere, not so great for the forest but we got a little sun because of it!

The caves are a pretty cool thing to see and defiantly worth the hike. But as all the warnings say don’t go inside because they are very unstable. I’m planning to go again this summer, but earlier in the season, when the caves are larger just to see the difference (of course this could make the river crossing more interesting!)