The Big Adventure: Part 5

On the 7^th, we rented some more aggressive full suspension bikes to tackle some of Whistler’s all mountain trails. We started from Lost Lake on a recommended route that passes through several trail systems. With nearly 6 inches of travel, Alisha was feeling ready for some more aggressive riding and on my Specialized Enduro I was also feeling confident busting some moves that could not have been done on a hardtail. From Lost Lake, we headed through the Emerald Forest and Cut Your Bars. However, the spectacular trail of the day was A River Runs Through It which is some classic black diamond Whistler singletrack with boardwalks, planks, jumps, drops, and even some crazy things like teeter totters. In many areas, there was often an easy line and a difficult line over obstacles. In many cases, I was able to clear the more difficult line but there were also some sections that were still way beyond my level. Riding some narrow twisting planks five feet off the ground in sections was both unnerving and exciting. The other obstacle to scare/excite me was the teeter totter bridge. The skies were cloudy and we saw almost no one despite this being one of Whistler’s most famous trails. As we headed back for some lunch, the rain started to fall. We went out again in the afternoon when it let up a bit and found out just how difficult riding over wet roots can be. Alisha’s riding was dramatically improved as she was able to conquer many difficult sections of trails. We camped in the Cal-Cheak walk in campground ten miles south of Whistler right by the river and pretty much had the whole place to ourselves.

On the 8^th, we decided it was time to tackle Whistler’s mountain bike park. We rented full on 8 inches of travel downhill bikes, put on body armor and full face helmets, and bought tickets to ride the lifts. Whistler’s DH park is one of the most famous in the world with tons of trails and talented riders. One ride down a “green” fire-road style trail on the first run was enough to make Alisha realize that she was ready for some blue intermediate routes. A good one that we hit first was the B Line which has tons of banked turns and some jumps. However, our favorite for the day was the famous Crank it Up trail which has fantastic flow and lots of jumps. The jumps are such that you can control your speed and roll them without major air if you want. I am not a good jumper and spent the day practicing getting more air. Fortunately, the DH bikes have lots of suspension if you land too much on your front or rear wheel. We also took a higher lift up to some additional trails like Blue Velvet. I tried a black diamond technical trail for one section just to put my skills to the test. It was super burly. Once again, I was very proud of Alisha who rode the DH trails like a champ all day.

Whistler’s high mountain peaks and fantastic trails made it one of our favorite destinations and one of my favorite ski resort towns. However, it was finally time to leave on the 9^th and we spent a long day in the car driving down through Vancouver, Seattle, and then across North Cascades National Park and over to Cour de Alene Idaho. The North Cascades did have some good views, but to be honest I think the mountains in Whistler were actually much prettier to look at than those in the National Park. I told Alisha that we had seen so many amazing mountains and views on the trip that we had gotten spoiled.

We spent the 10^th in Cour de Alene and started the day off with a hike near the campground up Mineral Ridge to get a great view of the lake. Next, we headed into town where we got some lunch and rented paddle boards. We also did a bit of swimming. We were feeling lazy in the afternoon and laid in the park for a while. In the evening, we went to the movies for a rare taste of the civilized world.

We left Cour de Alene on the 11^th for some more driving. However, our main adventure of the day was riding the Hiawatha Trail about 30 miles east of town. This is a famous rails-to-trails section where long dark tunnels and high rising tressels have been converted into a bike path. The longest tunnel was the Taft Tunnel and at 1.7 miles long, it feels like you are riding through a cold mine shaft with no light on the other side and it’s quite an experience. The route was 30 miles and very scenic but completely nontechnical and the opposite of our recent Whistler riding. We continued driving and got some pizza in Missoula and a hotel in Butte which still looks a lot like an old mining town.

 

We drove into Yellowstone on the 12^th and quickly realized what a busy park it is in mid-July. Despite getting there early, many of the campgrounds were already full and we got the second to last spot in Indian Springs which was considerably north of where we had originally planned to stay. Our northern proximity made the afternoon well suited for a trip up to Mammoth Hot Springs near the north end of the park. There are many springs and red and white terraces which are pretty although not quite as exciting as the geysers farther south. We got some ice cream and went to the very old and not updated visitors center in the area as well.

On the 13^th, we drove south to Old Faithful and the main geyser basins of Yellowstone. We arrived just before Old Faithful went off. After checking out a much better visitor’s center than the previous day, we went on a hike around the geyser basin that we timed to catch some of the geysers along the way. We saw Daisy and Riverside as expected, and then as an added bonus saw Castle and Lion. This section of the park is so unique and is like nothing else in the world (and was why Yellowstone was my favorite national park as a kid). We hit the other geyser basins in the afternoon to see huge springs colored by heat and algae, boiling mudpots, and steaming fumeroles.

We spent the 14^th touring the north and east sides of Yellowstone. Right as we were leaving the campground there was a huge male bison standing next to the roadway. Near Tower Falls, we pulled over to see a petrified tree trunk and wound up with the bonus of getting to see a black bear eating roots in the valley below. After a brief stop at Tower Falls, we hiked up Mt. Washburn. The trail follows an old road and so it is pretty wide but there were some nice wildflowers and mountain goats along the way and some good 360 degree views from the top. After having some lunch in Canyon Village, we went out to Artists Point to see the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone which has some very unique yellow and orange sides. We hiked a bunch of stairs down Uncle Tom’s trail to get down into the canyon for views of the lower falls. We went to Norris Geyser Basin on the way back which was nice because it was late in the day and few people were out on the boardwalks. Norris is the hottest of the geyser basins but lacks the regular geysers of other areas in the park. 

On the 15^th, we took the long way out of Yellowstone by heading over to the east side of the park near Yellowstone Lake. On the way we stopped to see a grizzly bear alongside the road. After seeing the grizzly, we encountered a traffic jam as we encountered a huge bison herd crossing the road. I joked to Alisha that you could predict the wildlife by the level of traffic jam that it caused. Elk would be a 10 car jam, bison a 25 car jam, and a grizzly a 100 car jam. At the lake, we toured the geyser basin in the area. It had a lot of nice pools including one called Fishing Cone in which fishermen used to be able to catch a fish from the lake and then dip the fish in the cone to cook in the hot water. In the afternoon we made our way south into Grand Teton National Park. We found a campsite at Coulter Bay, went on a little walk near the bay, and got some advice from a ranger about doing a big hike the next day.

On the 16^th, we were ready for our biggest hike of the trip. We took the shuttle boat across Jenny Lake and started up Cascade Canyon. The glacially carved canyon was gorgeous with tall peaks on all sides and a stream down the middle. We saw a bear near the start of the hike and later a moose eating down by the water. As we got closer to Lake Solitude, the canyon became steeper. We went across numerous boulder fields where lots of marmots lived in the rocks. We stopped at Lake Solitude for lunch which is a beautiful glacial lake that is surrounded by tall cliffs and makes for an amazing panorama. The initial plan was just to turn around here, however we realized from looking at the map that we could take a trail that climbed over the spine of the mountain which eventually looped back to where we started. The climb up the Paintbrush Divide was steep and rocky but the views were incredible. We crossed over the spine of the mountain and across numerous snow banks. The sky was gray all day which offered pleasant temperatures and we got rained on briefly a couple of times. We came down Paintbrush Canyon past other lakes and ultimately looped around past String Lake back to Jenny Lake. The trip was just over 20 miles and we were tired by the end but it was an epic hike.

It rained in the night and on the 17^th we weren’t sure what sort of adventure we would be able to do because the weather looked like it might turn nasty. We packed up and drove south to Jackson Hole and as we traveled the clouds lifted and soon it was sunny and we were thinking that it might even be a bit too hot. We went out on an amazing mountain bike loop in Jackson Hole that goes up Cache Creek and drops down Game Creek. The ascent was moderate and when the downhill started it just kept going and going. We flowed through fields of wildflowers on tight singletrack and alongside a river where we saw a moose. The final five miles were on the paved path that runs through the city and which took us back to the start. It was hot when we returned and we wanted to float the river but couldn’t find a good way to get shuttled upstream or to rent tubes. Instead, we settled for a swim in the river and dinner at an interesting restaurant called the Lotus Café. We camped just south of Jackson in a national forest campground on the Snake River.

 

With the adventures behind us, we drove to Logan on the 18^th to see family. We spent a fun day with Alisha’s sister Mandy, her husband Shane, and their two little ones Brody and Elsie. Kids nowdays love to play on tablets and I taught Brody how to play chess and downloaded him a chess app which he was really interested in (and I was impressed because he is only 5). On the 19^th, we drove into SLC and met up with both Alisha’s family and my family who happened to be in the area at the same time. In the evening, we went to see a cool concert in the Conference Center. On the 20^th, we did a run near the hotel around Wheeler Farm with Alisha’s sister Amber and her husband Devin who have gotten really fit and are into running. After breakfast, the whole family headed over to the Wheeler Farm area for some family pictures which is always an exciting ordeal with lots of young and hyper kids. After the pictures, the kids got to have some fun as Wheeler Farm has a lot of animals for kids to check out. The best was that the kids all got to feed the ducks and geese who came up really close for their food. In the evening, we drove down to Cedar City. We had dinner with my family including my grandparents who were attending the Shakespearian Festival in the area. Finally, 9 hours of driving on the 21^st and our road trip was over. However, the trip was the vacation of a lifetime and quite an adventure. Near the end, we compiled a few statistics about our big adventure.

Miles driven: 6,100

States visited: 10

National Parks visited: 9

The Big Adventure: Part 4

On the 29^th we disembarked the Norwegian Jewel and made our way back through Seattle to our hotel south of town where our car was parked. We did some laundry and a bit of trip planning for the next leg of the adventure and then jumped in the car and headed north. We found a campground near Anacortes called Washington Park and got one of the last campsites. After setting up camp, we took the mountain bikes to a great nearby trail system around Cranberry Lake. These trails were perfect for Alisha because they were intermediate level with some challenges that were mostly doable and they were some sweet singletrack in the dense Washington forest.

We woke up on the 30^th and headed to the ferry terminal in Anacortes to catch the 9 am ferry to San Juan island with our bikes. On the ferry, we met two very nice cyclists from Seattle who were very familiar with cycling in the San Juan islands and helped us to chart out a good course for the day. An hour later, the ferry pulled into Friday Harbor and we were off on our bike island adventure. The island is very bike friendly with light traffic and lots of cyclists so it was a great place to explore. Our route took us clockwise around the island. We climbed through some hills and road along the edge of the island to Lime Kiln State Park where we saw some dolphins in the ocean and had a snack. The next leg took us up past English Bay to Roche Harbor on the other end of the island and we had lunch out on the pier. Finally, we traveled back along a different route to Friday Harbor just in time to catch the afternoon ferry back to Anacortes. 

On July 1^st, we headed into Canada on the Canadian holiday Canada Day which is like the 4^th of July in the USA. Before leaving Washington behind, we did one more mountain bike ride around Cranberry Lake because it was such a great mountain bike trail system. We drove to Vancouver to our hotel in the suburb Burnaby which is to the east of town. After checking in, we caught the skytrain (light rail) to downtown. Canadians have a lot of national pride and the downtown was bustling with people wearing all sorts of red gear. All the Canadians were complaining about how incredibly hot it was. In actuality, it was in the low 80s and felt pretty good by Tucson standards. We walked down to the boardwalk along the harbor and found some dinner in a café next to a grocery store. After a bit more strolling around town, we finally found some seats on the grass in Vancouver’s waterfront park to hang out and watch the fireworks later that evening. It doesn’t get dark until 10:30 in Vancouver in the summer so we had a while to wait. It was an impressive fireworks show with tons of fireworks being shot off from a barge over the harbor right in front of the downtown waterfront. In total, there must have been several hundred thousand people in the Vancouver area watching the show. Afterwards, we made our way through huge crowds of people back to the skytrain. Amazingly, they had trains running continually to transport people out of the city and we didn’t have to wait too long. We eventually made it back to our hotel for the latest night by far of our trip around 1:00 am.

We slept in pretty late on the 2^nd after our big Canada Day evening the night before. However, in the late morning we put on our bike gear and rode our bikes into Vancouver which was about 15 miles from our hotel. The waterfront in the city area includes a bike path that goes on and on for miles. First, we headed around the bay to the south towards Grey’s Point. The bike path was awesome with a lot to see and beautiful views of the water and city along the way. We ate lunch at a bakery along the way and then turned around and headed back along the path to the north. We did a loop around Granville Island along the way and had a rest on the grass at a quiet park there. In the northwest corner of town, the path led us into Stanley Park which is a giant forested park with tons of trails. We took some dirt trails through the park and then did the directional perimeter trail back around the outside. We stopped for some gelato and then made things interesting by selecting a different way to go home through Gastown, the northern waterfront, the Canada Trail, and the Burnaby Heights trail. We arrived back at the hotel around 9 pm after an extensive day of biking. The paths around Vancouver are the best urban bike paths that we have ever done and we had a great time.

On the 3^rd, it was time to head across the river to Vancouver’s famous north shore. We started with a trip to Grouse Mountain up the infamous Grouse Grind trail. It’s only 2 miles long but it is the steepest 2 miles that you will find anywhere with rocks, roots, logs, and stairs that go right up the side of the mountain. The resort offers timing chips, there is a big race there every year, and many of the locals like to blitz up it as fast as possible. I did my best to keep Alisha in check and it took us about an hour to make it up to the resort at the top. The steepness of this hike means that it is an uphill only hike and we took the gondola back down. However, we first had some lunch outside at the resort where we could overlook all of Vancouver. We also took a walk around on top of the mountain and saw some giant wood carvings, the grizzly bear habitat with two bears, and a bird show that was just starting with a bald eagle and some other hawks and owls. Alisha also got her very first souvenir of the entire trip which was a Grouse Grind t-shirt. Next, it was time to try out some north shore mountain biking. However, the north shore is in a league of its own when it comes to the trails with their “intermediate” trails riding like expert trails everywhere else. We hit the bridal path trail which is complete with boardwalks (some are super skinny), log rides, drops, and of course tons of gnarly roots. We were pretty cooked already from a couple big days of adventures but Alisha gave it a good go and we had a good time. To give you an idea of the difficulty of these trails, we got passed by trail runners who were able to do most of the technical stuff faster than we were.

For the Fourth of July, we started the day with some paddle boarding in Deep Cove on Vancouver’s north shore. Alisha has been wanting to try this for a long time and it turns out to be a watersport that I also like because you get to stand up on the board like a gondolier with a paddle and you don’t get wet or cold. We had a good time cruising around the bay and had some pizza for lunch before leaving Vancouver behind and traveling up Canada’s Highway 99 which is the Sea to Sky Highway en route to Whistler. Our big adventure of the day was hiking “The Chief” in the Squamish area. The Chief is like another version of the Grouse Grind meaning that it is straight up with rocks, roots, stairs, granite cliffs, and even some chains and ladders. However, the reward is getting to stand on a massive granite top with 360 degree views of Horseshoe Bay on one side and the mountains towards Whistler on the other side. As usual, we found that the trip down actually felt more challenging on our legs than the hike up. We rolled into Whistler in the early evening and stopped by the visitor information center to get some info on the mountain biking in the area before arriving in our campground out of town to the north at Nairn Falls.

On the 5^th, we headed into Whistler ready for some mountain biking. We talked to a guy at the shop in Lost Lake who recommended some trails in the area and we went out on some of the classic Whistler Valley trails in the area with some great swooping and dropping boardwalks on the singletrack. In one spot, I got to ride a long skinny plank for longer than I’ve ever done before. We returned to the shop for some more advice and he sent us out on a longer afternoon ride on the Flank trail. This trail had a bit of everything: some brutal climbs and painful hike-a-bikes, some sweet flowing singletrack, some amazing views of the valley and mountains, some white knuckle descents, some wood plank bridges over raging creeks, and even some swarms of mosquitoes in the deep woods. We were exhausted by the time we were done and also really smelly. Fortunately, a lake near town had a nice beach, swimming area, and outdoor shower where I smelled bad enough that I was willing to brave some cold water in order to get clean. We returned to our campsite to make some spaghetti feeling more tired in our legs after our last few days of adventure than perhaps at any point so far in the trip.

With tons of strenuous hikes and bikes in the last few days and more to come, we took things a bit easier on the 6^th to try to get some life back in our legs. After a short hike to Nairn Falls near our campground, we headed into town where we saw the finish of the BC Bike Race in the Olympic Plaza. We did Whistler’s beautiful and car-free village stroll up to the top of town. This weekend there is a longboard festival and world cup race in town and we checked out a skateboard show on the plaza and then went up to the longboard track where we watched the quarter and semi-finals as the competitors raced down paved switchbacks in tight groups at high speeds. All the campgrounds were full for Saturday night, however we were able to find a room at the HI Hostel which was built as athlete housing for the Olympics. We finally got a much needed shower and an opportunity to lie down and rest for a few hours.

The Big Adventure: Part 3

On the 21^st, we continued our exploration of Seattle with the CityPass. We went downtown and toured the aquarium which is out on the pier. It was the sort of place that would have been really fun to take young kids and for adults it was still a good time. My favorite part was a giant walk-through spinning circular tank of rotating jellyfish that were artificially lighted with different colors so that it looked like bio-luminescence. Some other highlights include learning about the harbor seals  with their caretakers/trainers and touching some crazy tidepool critters (only Alisha was brave enough). The day continued with a boat tour of the bay and through the locks and into the lake on the backside of Seattle. It was a great tour that we had great seats for right in the front of the boat and it was cool going through the locks as the water rises around you. Next, we walked up from the pier into town where we wandered the always-busy Pike Place Market and got a few treats to eat from the vendors. We saw the vendors throwing around huge headless fish and putting on a show for the tourists along the way. Alisha got some fish and chips for dinner and we headed back to the room to get ready for our cruise the next day.

The 22^nd was the start of our Alaska cruise but since the ship didn’t board until the early afternoon, we decided to use our last CityPass adventure to check out the Museum of Flight. It was like a fancier version of Tucson’s Pima Air Museum and there was a lot of fun stuff to see including WWII planes, fancy jets, and even some lunar/space station stuff. I decided to try the flight simulator at the museum and found that when I yanked on the controls to go after an enemy plane, the cockpit spun and I was completely inverted and held in place by a harness. I spun round and round going after enemy planes but didn’t shoot any down. About 20 minutes later, I felt airsick from all my spinning and realized that it was probably good that I didn’t become a pilot. Next, we headed down for our cruise but rather than paying for an expensive shuttle or cruise parking, we took the light rail into downtown and hiked from downtown to the pier. Fortunately we packed pretty light but I was still carrying a giant duffle bag sideways in my arms, wearing a big backpack, and looking like a pretty stupid tourist. We boarded the Norwegian Jewel (2,500 passengers, 1,000 crew members), dropped our bags at the room, and started looking for the food. It was a nice sunny day and as we sat on the top deck on the 14^th story, it was even a bit warm as we pulled out of the harbor. In the evening, there was fancy dining and a show previewing some of the entertainment throughout the week.

We spent the 23^rd at sea and used the day to be somewhat lazy and also to plan out our shore excursions for our Alaska ports. We explored the ship and found some of our favorite spots to sit and look at the ocean and coast. We did a little bit of eating and a lot of reading. In the evening, we went to a musical show in the theater.

On the 24^th, we arrived at our first port in Ketchikan, Alaska. We signed up for a jeeping/canoeing/walking tour that started with driving a jeep into the wilderness outside of Ketchikan. Next, everyone hopped out of their jeeps and into a 20 person canoe to row to the far side of a mountain lake. On the far side of the lake, we took a walk on a boardwalk showing off some of the Alaska vegetation. Finally, we canoed and jeeped our way back into town. We walked around town including the historic red light district along Creek Street. Finally, we attended a lumberjack show where we watched all manner of timber sports including log splitting, log rolling, log climbing, log sawing, and lots of other log-related activities. The log climbing was the most impressive as we watched lumberjacks scale huge telephone-style poles in second using only a looped rope and then freefall back down into a giant bean bag. During the show and at other times in Alaska, we would frequently see wild bald eagles soaring through the air.

We stopped at Juneau on the 25^th and took a shuttle out to see the Mendenhall Glacier on the north side of town. The glacier was impressive but it was also impressive to look at photographs and see how much it has retreated up the valley in the last fifty years. We did a hike out to view the glacier and a big waterfall nearby and looped through the woods on the way back. In Juneau, we walked through the town and took a look at Alaska’s very historic capitol building. We walked uphill and inland through town and did a loop up and over a part of Mt. Roberts just outside of Juneau. We had to be back on the ship by the early afternoon because we left port to cruise the amazing Tracy Arm Fjord to Sawyer Glacier. This was very impressive as it involved navigating a very large ship up a very small glacier-carved channel with icebergs and high granite cliffs on both sides. Alisha and I sat up on the highest deck at the front of the ship for five hours to ensure that we had a fantastic view of the entire cruise through this area. The fjord ended at Sawyer Glacier which is literally a river of towering ice that breaks off right into the fjord. All around us there were huge icebergs floating that had recently broken off the glacier and the cliffs ran with many small waterfalls from snow melt. In many ways, the experience would be much like driving a cruise ship up a water-filled Yosemite Valley in late winter when there is still quite a bit of snow.

Our final Alaska port was Skagway on the 26^th. We bought tickets on the White Pass and Yukon Railway which is an old narrow gauge railroad that traverses the cliffs up into the mountains and Canada. Skagway is a gold rush town with a lot of history as lots of miners poured into the area in 1947 and endured incredible hardships in pursuit of gold [greed] farther north in the inhospitable Yukon Territory. Ironically, when the railroad was built in 1949, the gold rush was already largely over in this particular area as private claims had left little land available for additional miners. One particularly impressive part of the railway was a huge trestle bridge that we passed over that was carved into the side of the mountain. Back in town, we toured the historic town sites, watched a video about the gold rush at the vistor’s center, ignored an outrageous number of trinket shops, and went hiking in the mountains outside of town. We climbed up to a really cool lake with a loop trail around it. On one side the trail was smooth and easy and on the other side it was a scramble of rocks and roots.

The 27^th was a day at sea as we traveled back towards the south. Alisha let me sleep in late and then we did a bunch of activities on the ship. We learned more about the ship from the captain and officers. We went to a presentation from one of the comedians on using humor to confront difficult moments in life. The crew (which is all international) put on a talent show in the afternoon. We also learned how to fold some of the towel animals that our room attendant Manuel had been leaving for us every evening. During the cruise, we started having some fun with Manuel. He folded us a swan and we left him a note from the swan saying that it had been having fun flying with the bald eagles in Skagway. Next, he made us a rabbit. We used our newfound towel folding skills to make a snake and left the head of the rabbit with the snake and a note saying “Thanks for the delicious room service food” from the snake. In response, Manuel made a towel scorpion that was attacking our snake with its pincers. The next day, we folded a towel penguin that was wearing Alisha’s sunglasses. We put it on the bed facing the scorpion. We took the nearby hairdryer out of it’s stand and had the penguin hold it and point it at the scorpion. We replaced the scorpion’s eyes with black X’s and left a note “Scorpion – you killed snake, prepare to die” from the penguin. Finally, on the last night Manuel made us a towel Eskimo. On the morning, we made a fishing pole for the eskimo out of a long piece of rolled paper and dental floss and had the eskimo catching a paper fish that said “Thanks Manuel.” Ya, I probably got too excited about the whole towel animal thing but it was fun. On the sea day, we also saw the most impressive show of the week which was the Cirq Bijou. There was some very impressive aerial acrobatics and I told Alisha that this was a legit show and not merely standard cruise-fair. Later, we found out one of the performers was a US gold medalist and another had been on the real Cirq and we were not surprised. Cruise entertainment was impressive during the show as was the food and the experience in general. We are now big fans of Norwegian and their Freestyle Cruising philosophy.

On our final day of the cruise, we arrived at Victoria, Canada in the early afternoon. Victoria is a very elegant city and I was quite impressed (maybe it is also snooty but we didn’t hang out long enough to find out). I’m not even a city person and I was impressed by the immaculately kept vegetation, the many parks, the old-styled architecture, and the cleanliness of the city. We walked into town along the harbor and took a shuttle out to the Bouchart Gardens which are probably the most elegant gardens we have ever seen. Our favorite was the sunken gardens which were carved out of what was once an old limestone quarry. Back in town, we did a loop walk back to the cruise ship through the Beacon Hill Park. At the evening show, Alisha was selected to come on stage to help out comedian/magician Jean Pierre. JP liked to make fun of his participants but Alisha got the upper hand on him. He is a short young guy and when he went back to back with her, he said “gosh, you’re tall.” She then got up on her tiptoes so she could tower over him even more. It was a funny end to a great week of sailing.

The Big Adventure: Part 2

On June 11^th we left Lake Tahoe and headed for Lassen Volcanic National Park. In contrast to Yosemite’s 100 degree temperatures a week earlier, we found that many of Lassen’s trails were still covered in snow. We stopped at the visitor’s center to chat with a ranger about hiking and to watch a video about the park. Then, we went hiking out of the Sulfur Works area up towards a lake nestled within the mountains. After about a mile of steep climbing, we started crossing large snow banks and soon we were blazing our own trail with only occasional signs of where the actual trail was. Our hiking poles helped us to navigate the slippery terrain and we eventually made it to the lake which was still half covered in floating chunks of snow and ice. I wanted to make things a bit more adventurous so I talked Alisha into scrambling across the stream running out of the lake so that we could skirt the lake and start climbing towards the ridge on the other side. We climbed up the steep ridge and onto a pinnacle of rock to get fantastic 360 degree views of the park and it turned out to be a really fun adventure that was made even better because we were making it up as we went. On the way down, I suggested that rather than hiking down some of the steep slopes, we just slide them. The snow was melty and squishy and so it was easy to do and pretty fun. After the hike we drove past the snow-covered Lassen Peak to the north side of the park where we camped by Manzanita Lake and had one of the coldest nights that we experienced (although thanks to sleeping bags plus liners we were not cold in the tent at night).

We left Lassen on the 12^th and headed to the coast. After making it through a lot of road construction, we arrived at the visitor’s center in Redwoods National Park. We talked to the ranger and immediately saw the campground that we wanted to stay at. We took a windy dirt road through thick forests that required you to turn your lights on in order to reach the coast for some sweet beach camping at Gold Bluffs Beach. We set up our tent at a site that allowed us to walk out the front door and literally be on the beach. The only downside of the campground was the freezing cold showers. Beach camping in California seems like it would be warm but there was often a cold wind blowing that had us out in our heavy coats as we watched the sun set over the ocean. In the evening, we did a sweet mtb ride that took us first on some lush singletrack, then on the famous Drury Parkway through the redwoods (that for some reason was currently closed to motorized traffic), and finally to the Ossagon trail. Ossagon was quite the adventure. It started like a normal singletrack trail but became increasingly overgrown with a narrow path leading through shoulder high growth on either side, riding right through streams, and boards over muddy wallows. We saw some elk close up on the trail and made it back to the campsite just in time for cold showers and hot soup before the sun went down around 9 pm.

We spent the 13^th in Redwoods as well but began the day with a trip up the coast to the tidepools at Wilson Creek where we found anemones, starfish, and other assorted ocean critters during low tide. A walk north up the beach took us to a cool rocky point to scramble around on behind some rocks. We went into Crescent City for some lunch and grocery shopping (more canned soup, yum). On the way back, we stopped at an overlook where whales supposedly come by. It was high above the ocean and without binoculars we saw something down in the ocean but couldn’t really tell what it was. One thing that I thought I saw turned out to be a rock after it didn’t move for 5 minutes or so. Next, we did a hike near our campground up the famous fern canyon in which there are 40 foot walls that are completely covered with ferns on either side as you make your way up the streambed. On the way back, two bull elk were very close to the trail and we got to take some photos. After a brief rest at camp, we headed out on a mountain bike ride up the Lost Man Creek trail which turned out to be a disappointing uphill road that was relentless. However, on the way back we passed a herd of elk with baby elk that were really cute and made all sorts of elk noises. Back at camp, we tiredly watched the sun set on another adventurous day.

On the 14^th, we continued up the coast on the very scenic 101. We took our time along the way and stopped to walk on the beach at a cool looking spot and at a small little café in one of the towns in southern Oregon. By mid-afternoon, we arrived in Coos Bay and walked around the boardwalk on the bay. At the recommendation of a local at the visitor’s center, we went out and did a hike along the ocean cliffs on the west side of town by one of the state parks that had fantastic ocean views. We also saw a whale and some sea lions. In the state park, there was also a very elaborate flower garden to walk through. We grabbed a pizza on our way through town and tried to eat it at a windy picnic area outside of town to the north. We drove a few more hours and pulled into the Devil’s Lake campground near Lincoln City, Oregon. Oregon has nice campgrounds and this one was no exception.

One thing that we hadn’t had on the trip so far was any cheese because it just seemed too difficult to lug around in our already full cooler. However, on the 15^th, our destination was the Tillamook Cheese Factory and we were ready to eat our hearts out. On the way, we stopped at Cape Meeres Lighthouse, but I must confess that I was thinking more about delicious food than about scenery that morning. We started our tour with delicious ice cream. Then, after seeing how the cheese was made, we went straight to the sampling room. We bought some of our favorite which was a black pepper smoked medium cheddar and yes it is as delicious as it sounds. Next, we got giant grilled cheese sandwiches at the cheese factory café. It was a lot of very very delicious cheese but our next activity was a hike up a mountain to the north and I was moving a bit slowly. We reached to top to find that it was mostly shrouded in clouds and offered only occasional views of Tillamook Bay below. However, we did work off some of that cheese at least. Our drive continued up to Cannon Beach where we encountered a huge crowd on a sunny coastal Saturday in Oregon. We didn’t stay long but headed north through Seaside and finally to Fort Stevens near Astoria where we managed to snag one of the last campsites in the huge campground at this old WW2 military base.

On the 16^th, we went to the nearby beach to see the famous iron hull in the sand of the wrecked Peter Iredale. We then went into Astoria where we attended the ward that I served in ten years ago as a missionary. Things obviously change a lot in that time but I saw a few familiar faces. Next, we went up to the top of the hill where the Astoria Column stands and walked up the hundreds of steps (that make me dizzy) until we reached the top and could see beautiful panoramic views in all areas. We headed into town where the Sunday farmer’s market was going on and walked around. I bought some raspberries which were quickly devoured and we got some cookies and Alisha got a delicious crepe. We caught the Astoria riverfront trolley which may be the most underpriced attraction on the trip costing only $1 for a narrated tour of the waterfront with some friendly old conductor/guides. We got off at the Maritime Museum which is a cool museum about all the shipwrecks in this famous area where the Columbia River smashes into the Pacific Ocean (known as the “graveyard of the Pacific”). We also saw a cool 3D movie about sharks and the 3D effects look really cool in underwater cinematography. Back at the campground, we went biking around the paved trails of Fort Stevens and checked out the old military bunkers. Our not-so-great idea of the day was to try to ride our bikes on the beach because in the morning we had found some pretty hard sand with the tide out. However, the tide was almost completely in and all we managed to do was sink in and for Alisha to get her feet wet.

We left Astoria over the famous 4 mile bridge to Washington on the 17^th. This section of the 101 seemed more remote than in Oregon where we passed through small towns continually and saw much of the coast. We didn’t see much until we reached the town of Forks. The Forks visitor’s center is decked out with Twilight stuff and there are many Bella (or Edward/Jacob) fans who make their way to this destination. When we arrived at the visitor’s center, there was a very excited teenage girl asking questions. When we left, there was a very excited mom doing the same thing. The lady there gave us a map to take the driving tour of all the movie locations but (sorry Twilight fans) we didn’t do the tour. I did drive down one street that had the Cullens’ house on it but to be honest I didn’t recognize it from the movies. However, Forks does have some amazing beaches that were the best we had seen. We took a walk on Rialto Beach out to Split Rock and Tunnel Rock. Then, we took a walk through a lush forest to reach Second Beach which takes the award for most awesome beach of the trip. It is a dark sand beach lined with driftwood in a cove with cliffs on the edges and small rock islands capped with green just off the shoreline. Our campground (Klahowya) was right in what seemed like the middle of the rain forest. Sure enough, we set up our tent and it started raining only an hour later and this continued most of the night.

On the 18^th, we drove out to the Ozette area on the northwest tip of Washington in Olympic National Park where we did a famous 9 mile triangle hike. The first three miles are through forest so lush that the trail is a boardwalk of wood. The next leg is on the beach and the third leg leads back on another boardwalk. The hiking was great, particularly through the woods, and with all the time I had to think, I started multiplying the number of wood planks per hiking step by the number of steps per hour and the number of miles per hour to figure out that there must be something like 50,000 boards laid down to create the trail that we did. I will admit that we were a little spoiled on the beach section which was covered in washed up seaweed and after marveling at Second Beach less than 24 hours before we wrote this beach off as not nearly as exciting. We did some tidepooling with moderate success despite all the seaweed and found some crabs and baby starfish when turning over some rocks. All day the weather threatened to rain on us and on the drive back the rain started. We pulled into the town of Callum Bay and had a pizza while the rain came down. Back at camp, it appeared to have been raining for several hours and our well-used Coleman Instant-Tent was at the maximum of it’s rain resistance. It was doing remarkably well for a tent with no rainfly (it is built into the fabric) and has been great all trip so far. Some of the water had started to pool on top, to drip through one of the vents, and to come up through some small cuts in the floor. The rain that seemed almost fun the night before now seemed less exciting now that everything was saturated. The lesson is that while one day of camping in the rain is fun, two days is when the novelty wears off.

On the 19^th, we packed up our still-soggy tent and left the rainy forest. We first traveled to Sol Duc where we did a short hike to the falls and stopped at the resort to soak in the hot springs. Part of the plan was also to use this as a shower since it had been several days. Fortunately, the facilities also included showers so we got a soak and some soap as well. We drove east to the town of Port Angeles where we had some of the best food of the trip at the Devil’s Lunchbox restaurant. We drove up into Olympic National Park to Hurricane Ride where much of the park was still under snow. We got some good, albeit partly cloud-covered views of Mount Olympus before heading down in more rain. However, I learned that Mount Olympus creates what is called the rain shadow effect because it is big enough that it blocks moisture flowing to some areas of the east side. I realized that this is the area in which I wanted to camp. And so we went to Sequim State Park on the northeast side of the peninsula and set up all our stuff to dry. We got a great campsite overlooking the water and even had a slightly restful evening where we didn’t do any adventures but simply built a campfire for once and sat around as things dried out a bit.

On the 20^th, we did some reconfiguring of our adventure based on the rain. The entire area looked like it was going to get hit based on the weather report and we had just dried out stuff out. We didn’t want to leave for the cruise in a few days with a bunch of wet stuff in the car and it also seemed silly to plan a big outdoor adventure day when it was going to constantly rain. Instead, we headed into Seattle for a city day. We started by purchasing a city pass to get access to many of the top attractions. We started with the EMP Museum which is a very interesting museum specifically targeting those around our generation from 20s to 30s (my mom loves museums and would have hated it). It had music exhibits on Nirvanna and women in rock and roll, fantasy exibits with stuff from Tolkien and others, and sci-fi exhibits with cool stuff from famous novels and movies. My favorite was probably the design of the fantasy part of the museum with a huge wooden door to enter, fake pine needles on the floor of the exhibit hall, a theme as if the rooms had been carved right out of earth and stone, and even a caged dragon in one corner. Next, we rode to the top of the Space Needle for one of Seattle’s over-hyped very touristy attractions that offered some nice views and a good half hour max of entertainment. Then, it was time for the science museum which had some interesting exhibits. Some of them made me feel like a kid, like those with dinosaurs and throwing paper airplanes. Others like the butterfly enclosure were very unique and cool. We saw a short IMAX 3D movie about airplane racing and started back towards our hotel just before 5 pm. I knew traffic would be bad, but I did not realize that Seattle traffic would require 1.5 hours to go less than 2 miles to the freeway. At long last, we made it to our hotel to catch the last half of game 7 of the NBA finals (I had been gone too long and didn’t even know who was playing). Alisha agreed to do the laundry if I would write up a summary of the last week so here it is. Tonight, we sleep in clean clothes and clean sheets for the first time in awhile.