Pacific Northwest Week #3 and #4

After having a slow start to the summer with very few adventures, Ginny and I have been packing things in the past couple weeks. Ginny went on a bike trip on the Olympic Peninsula and the San Juan Islands and then went to Denver for a girls trip. See her write up below for more details. 

After wrapping up our housesit in Portland, I headed out to the Hood River area to stay with my old friend Rachel for a couple nights. It was great to reconnect with her and see the beautiful area of Hood River/White Salmon. Rachel took me stand up paddleboarding a couple times and I did alright for a newbie with only one major wipeout to speak of. After visiting Rachel, I headed up into the mountains for the weekend to get some last minute training in around Mt Adams. I stayed in the van near Takhlakh Lake in Gifford Pinchot National Forest and it was a really peaceful spot to spend a couple days. I ran up to the PCT a couple times which skirts the west side of Mt Adams and provides impressive views of Mt Rainier to the north.

While Ginny was away in Denver, I had the perfect window to get away to Mt Rainier National Park to run the Wonderland Trail which is a 93 mile trail that circumnavigates the mountain going over many ridges for a cumulative gain of 22,000 feet. I had been planning to do this trail run for quite some time and had sent food caches to two different spots along the route so that I wouldn’t have to carry as much food as I ran. I also borrowed my friend Kevin’s SpotX GPS emergency beacon in case anything happened to me during the run. Since I wasn’t trying to break the fastest known time of completing the loop in 16 hours 40 minutes, I decided to do it in a pedestrian three days camping near my two food caches at Mowich Lake and White River. I got a little bit of a late start on my first day as I had to drop Ginny at the airport that morning and then head over to the wilderness office at Longmire in MRNP to get my backcountry permits. Despite the late start, I still managed to get to camp at Mowich Lake in the daylight after completing 34 miles. I was carrying a very lightweight sleeping system of a bivvy sack, sleeping pad and down quilt. I was so tired each night that I had no problem sleeping despite the minimal sleep setup. My second day was supposed to be the easiest as it was only 28 miles to the White River campground. Despite the shorter day and fairly early start, I was feeling lethargic and uninspired as I trudged through some of the most amazing scenery on earth. Then my old friend Bruce, who I had met nearly twenty years ago through an LA running club, joined me for the last 12 miles of the day. My energy levels immediately rose and it was great to have Bruce’s company who’s summited Mt Rainier 11 times and knows the mountain like the back of his hand. We saw mountain goats along the trail and Bruce had seen a mama and baby bear on his way to meet me. The next and final day had me going 31 miles back to Longmire where I had started fifty seven hours ago. I felt strong throughout the day and was able to run a good percentage of the trail. All in all, running the Wonderland Trail was an incredible experience through some of the most majestic scenery that I’ve ever seen. Thank you Tahoma (Native American name for Rainier) for smiling down on me while I completed this journey!

After a quick visit through Seattle in which I picked Ginny up from the airport and caught up with a couple other friends, we headed north up to the North Cascades where we were planning to go backpacking for a few days. We were planning to do a loop trip called the Copper Ridge Chilliwack River trip but discovered that some of the loop was permanently closed due to a wildfire last year. We were still able to get a permit for a modified version of that trip so hit the trail last Sunday for Egg Lake where we were booked to camp for two nights. We had some unbelievable views of the peaks and glaciers of the North Cascades on our way into camp but also had to contend with some ferocious bugs. The mosquitoes, flys and bees were unrelenting so we spent a fair amount of time in the tent safe from the bugs. Yesterday we were hiking to Copper Creek where we were supposed to be camping for two more nights when we met a group of other backpackers who shared a recent weather forecast with us. The forecast was for heavy rain for the next two days so we decided to bail on our last campsite and just hike out early. I ended up getting stung by a bee really badly on my right ankle hiking out and then I got stung again today on the same ankle while I was out trail running. My ankle has swollen quite a bit and I’m only slightly exaggerating to say that it’s the size of a small watermelon. I think it’s time to escape the killer bees of the North Cascades!

[Ginny here] The last time I did a trip with my dear friend Mona was a backpacking trip in Oregon for her 40th birthday. Since then, I moved to NZ and back to LA, while she moved to Vietnam and back to Portland, missing each other in SE Asia by a matter of weeks along the way! Needless to say, I was stoked when she asked if I’d be interested in joining her, her daughter Lila and Lila’s friend Linden on a 7-night bike trip through the Olympic Peninsula and the San Juan Islands. Despite a rocky start (lost drivers license, wet weather, etc.), we got through the first very wet day of riding/camping and then had a glorious week of riding through forests and countryside, mostly on bike paths with short stints on busy highway with every ilk of recreational vehicle blasting by. Admittedly, we weren’t the most prepared in terms of planning, but mostly because we wanted the flexibility. Plus, we figured we could just lean on our combined years of camping and bike touring experience (heh heh). And sure enough, everything went swimmingly, with some aid from friendly locals and lots of candy to fuel us. Highlights: market on Lopez Island, homemade pizzas from Mona’s family friend, lots of laughs and being back on a bike!

After a quick night to swap my sweaty bike shorts for some finer attire, I hopped on a flight to Denver to meet up with two of my favorites: Heather from Brooklyn and Natalie from Salt Lake City. We’re old friends from our Ultimate Frisbee days in DC and try our best to meet up when schedules allow. We were loaned a condo with pool by a friend who jetted off to NZ/AUS for the Women’s World Cup (“Football is life” - Danny Rojas) and spent the ensuing days trekking all over Denver hitting up breweries, consignment shops and a Rockies game, where we were treated to a tour of the facilities from Heather’s bro-in-law. After binging “Ted Lasso” (Heather and me on our second go around!) and eating our weight in cheese, we parted ways…until the next meet up!