8/28/2011 Posting

I really hope everyone got out this weekend—even it wasn’t hiking related. It was so beautiful and warm. I headed over to Lopez Island in the San Juans to hang out and camp with a friend of mine. We did only a bit of hiking—walking on a few short trails in our sandals to get to wonderful viewpoints. We found one viewpoint of Mt Baker that showed still how much snow is still there. I don’t think that the Mt Baker area is going to melt out this summer.

Like you, I’m itching to get into the real high backcountry hikes—the ones that may still covered by some snow even this late in the season. But the hiking challenges of this year has really helped underscore that there are a number of reasons why I hike and getting to high alpine places is just one of them. I figure the more reasons I have for why I enjoy hiking, the more I will enjoy any trip I go on regardless of destination and distance. I enjoy hiking for the following reasons in order of importance: beautiful scenery; spending time with family and friends—both old and new; enjoying nature and solitude; getting to the destination; minimizing stress in my life; eating tasty food before, during, and after a hike; and it’s good exercise. Notice that I put the exercise reason last. I would hike even it didn’t provide good exercise.

I encourage you to think about the reasons you like to get out and walk in the wilderness. If there are only a few reasons and they center around either the exercise part or getting to the destination, then you’re going to find yourself frustrated on many days when you can’t meet those needs. You can’t always get to the destination you had in mind, or the hike that you’re going on isn’t the most strenuous thing you can do to exercise your body on any given day. Enjoying the company of your hiking partners, scenery of all kinds, and eating food that isn’t always good for you are the pleasures of hiking also. Be open to enjoying all of the opportunities available to you during any given hike, and you’ll have fun on any hike you go on regardless of destination or difficulty.

8/21/2011 Posting

I spent the last week hanging out in the Wallowa Lake recreation area in northeastern Oregon with my family. My folks rented a cabin and Matt and I stayed in our trailer in the state campground. The sun shined every day and the temperatures were in the 80s. We did a couple of hikes in the Eagle Cap Wilderness, spent a day in Hells Canyon, hung out at the lake, walked around the cool town of Joseph and got lots of reading done. It was a relaxing and wonderful week.

The best thing about it our trip was that the Wallowa Mountains (which are in the Eagle Cap Wilderness) are pretty much all melted out—at least in the places where the trails are. Most trailheads start around 4000 feet and we were able to get up to over 8000 feet on one of our hikes. No snow to impede our hiking progress like we’ve encountered here in the Cascades. It was nice to finally make it to a destination without having to worry about snow!

I’ve done a bit of domestic and foreign travel to some cool places, but it never fails to amaze me what wonderful travel and relaxation opportunities we have here in Washington and the rest of the Northwest. In just one day’s drive or less you can hike in lots of different cool mountain ranges, ski at several world-class destinations, visit one of several National Parks and Monuments, paddle (or zoom) around in thousands of lakes, walk in the ocean surf, or hang out in the hot desert.

Several years ago, I was planning a trip to New Zealand with Matt and some of our friends. We had another friend couple that lived in Australia and had been to New Zealand several times helping us plan our trip. Early on in the planning, the husband of the Australian couple mentioned that while beautiful, the New Zealand mountains and forests looked a lot like the Washington Cascades. And you know what—he was right! There were some different flora and fauna to look at, and I had blast driving on the left-hand side of the road, but the actual hiking destinations weren’t all that different than what we’d left behind in Washington.

So while it may be exciting and perspective broadening to travel to destinations thousands of miles away, don’t let the exoticness of foreign places blind you to all of the wonderful and unique places close by to visit. If I’ve only got a limited amount of time to vacation, I’d rather spend the time vacationing than trying to get to get to my destination—especially if it means cramming myself into an airplane seat!

8/7/2011 Posting

A couple of weeks ago I met up with a friend at a climbing gym to attend a beginning bouldering class. If you’re not familiar with bouldering in a gym, it’s using handholds and footholds screwed into walls to figure out the best route to free climb up the wall. No wall protection or climbing harnesses are used and thick pads are placed on the floor to protect from falling.

I had a lot of fun doing it but discovered I have very poor upper body strength. My legs and lungs can climb any hill, but my arms, legs, and shoulders are pretty weak and I couldn’t hang onto the handholds for as long as I needed to in order to complete some of the climbing problems. My plan is to start working on building my upper body strength and continue working out at the climbing gym. I am interested in doing some rock climbing in the future and need to build up my climbing skills and desensitize myself to being higher up on a vertical wall.

Perhaps you are also looking into taking that next step in your outdoors education. If you enjoy hiking, but think that you would eventually enjoy doing trips that require route-finding, walking on snow, and some rock climbing, then I would encourage you to look into some of the other courses that The Mountaineers offers. Many folks take the Scrambling course to increase their skills and confidence when traveling off-trail on rock and in snow. As part of the course, you learn navigation and ice axe arrest skills, and the ability to walk over steep icy/snowy areas in crampons. Unlike climbing, you don’t need to carry ropes and special devices to climb, but you do learn how to rock climb using your hands and feet up to summits and other destinations without trails. I’ve learned some of these scrambling skills through hiking with friends and can say that it has increased my hiking confidence and opens up all sorts of new trips to me. You can also just take the Navigation course by itself and improve your ability to route-find off-trail.

I would encourage you to keep pushing your limits in your outdoors activities. Whether it’s trying new and harder trails or signing up to learn new outdoor skills. You’ll keep your passion for the outdoors fresh and exciting.