The pacific northwest has been stuck in a pretty rough heat wave lately, with temps in the upper 80s. It’s definitely in contrast to our usual June temperatures, which we PNW-ers both begrudgingly and endearingly tend to call June-uary.
18 Miles of fun! An out and back on the PCT from Snoqualmie Pass to right before the drop to Joe Lake.
First 9 miles = I had major LBS and legs wouldn’t wake up. Read more →
Not long after Katy and I got married, we met up with our fellow PNW-Hoofers for a beer at one of our favorite watering holes. We thought it’d be just another weeknight drinking yummy brews, but it was strangely different: most of the time we can barely make schedules align for a weekend, let alone for a weeknight, and here were 6 of our friends and us all around a table.
We sat down, ordered beers, and a couple minutes later an orange envelope was placed in front of Katy and I.
Back for more running and climbing! This time with a ton of friends in tow as well.
No snow in the mountains, so we’ve been driving even further east to get some climbing and trail running done at Vantage.
We’ve had President’s Day weekend circled on our calendar for a couple months now as a time in which we’d go take some epic overnight tour. However, the low snowpack and friend-availability had us change our plans from a multi-day hut tour in BC to a more mellow, snow-guaranteed weekend: Mount Rainier.
It was a beautiful high pressure weekend, so Christian, Kyle, Katy, and myself opted to tour up the Muir Snowfield and stay overnight at Camp Muir. We figured we’d get in a mellow tour, set up Kyle’s new tent at Camp Muir, and enjoy some homemade Chili and a growler of yummy beer.
Katy and I got engaged last year in British Columbia, at Revelstoke, on our 5-year anniversary.
One year to the day, on our 6 year anniversary, we tied the knot in Leavenworth, WA, surrounded by some of our closest friends and family. It awesome.
We first explored the Hannegan Peak and the surrounding area last year, when we took a weekend backpacking trip with Katy’s brother, Mitch.
All three of us were struggling with some injuries back then, and we couldn’t get permits for the entire Chiliwack River loop. While we saw some amazing terrain, we didn’t fully experience it.
As a result Katy and I have had this trip firmly planted on the “to-do” list. However, in the year since we were last here, we started trail running, so naturally this shifted from the “to-backpack” list onto the “to-run” list.
Prior to our weekend to Goat Rocks, countless backpacking loops sat on the shelves of my mind collecting dust due to, mostly, lack of vacation days and good weather windows.
However, now that we figured out we can cover a lot more miles by running the loops, Katy and I restarted our tick list of trips to check out here in the PNW.
Given how my legs felt running last time, I figured I should still ease into this, so we chose a popular and beautiful loop in the Olympics. The plan was to do the High Divide Trail (also known as Seven Lakes Basin loop), and camp outside the reservation-only area to split the loop up into two days.
Read more →
Matt’s an amazing friend and was my roommate at UW-Madison my Junior year.
Among other things, he and his fiance Greta were there when Katy and I first met at Grand Targhee, and we’ve all been snowboard and adventure buddies since. Plus, they definitely helped influence our decision to move to the PNW!
So when it came to planning Matt’s bachelor party weekend, I wanted to make sure we had all the elements that would keep the stoke high all weekend.