Ford and I back in 2003 – he was 5 at the time:

It was good we did it back then – we never got back…other trails called to us. Then in 2006 both trails disappeared after the flooding. A “trail” was picked through to Glacier Basin, through the river bed, so that climbers could get access. The WTA (Washington State Trails) stepped in to help the realization of a new trail that would be permanent. Read this link to see what was going on last summer in 2009. The first third or so is done now and is an absolute dream to hike on.

The trail begins as the old one did, the parking being at the picnic area/climbers parking lot near the end of the White River Campground Rd. You have to road walk a tiny bit and then jig through a path in the woods where you come across the trailhead sign. The new trail pulls up above the river, getting out of the flood path. It is so smooth and evenly graded that you can walk without looking down. No twigs, roots or rocks! Well built bridges cross the streamlets pouring down.

Kirk and Walker before we got on the trail:

Ford and Kirk:

Walker and I in the woods:

Ford hanging out, he was carrying the gear for both him, Walker and I…nice to have the help!

After a lovely mile or so in the woods you start getting views of the mountain:

About where the trail used to hook off to the left to Emmons Moraine is this open area:

The good trail ends here, where the trail clips down the Inter Fork River. It is flagged and you skim the side on the rocks. There is though a whole new section of trail being built here, it isn’t open yet and we passed a worker. You can see right before the water where the new trail will switchback to go up and around this area.

We followed the flagging (yellow and pink ribbon) and kept going. But realized that while I could go uphill coming back downhill with the baby strapped on to me was not so easy. The trail here is a rough boot path, zagging through the woods and boulder fields. So we didn’t make it. Oh well! Going to where it clips the side of the Inter is a lovely turn around.

When the work is finally done this trail will be as nice or nicer than Summerland. Even then, it offers views and more without the crowds that swarm Summerland, just down the road.

We headed back and had a picnic in the trees above the White River, along the Wonderland Trail. A last look at Rainier from the river bed:

~Sarah

When we moved there it was culture shock, we had lived in an area with a bustling city and suddenly I was living 10 miles from town, no transit buses…nothing but eagles, coyotes, a vast state park to roam (it was across the road!) and a zillion jets from NAS Whidbey screaming over at odd hours. I may talk a lot about Rainier but one of my true loves is the islands – all of them, from the San Juans to the ones in the Puget Sound. The state owns a lot of land and much of it is open to the public. North Whidbey though is easy to get to…being that there are bridges connecting it to the main land. The park receives many visitors a year and it boasts 38 miles of hiking, much near the water.

But as we sat there, enjoying the views I could see Mt. Erie in the distance, across the water. And I knew where I wanted to go on the way home. Mt. Erie is on Fidalgo Island, which sits between the main land and Whidbey Island. Many people drive onto Fidalgo and don’t realize they are even on an island, the crossing is very narrow. Fidalgo is home to the town of Anacortes but beyond it lies a number of small peaks (and yes, small they are but wonderful none the less). The Island boasts many lovely lakes to go with the peaks. It is also home to the Anacortes Community Forest Lands (ACFL) with over 50 miles of trails and which is where Mt. Erie resides, the high point of it and as well of the island (at over 1200 feet). Sitting up so high one gets a birds eye view of the area spread out below them. Mt. Erie is one of the places where one can either walk up to or drive a steep but short road up to. When Ford was little he and I walked (and also him riding in his jogger on the bike friendly trails)

Below lies Campbell Lake with its tiny island, beyond is the water of Deception Pass, Cornet Bay’s marina is visible. The tan-ish area to the right is NAS Whidbey, which lies on West Beach. There are many little islands off of Hoypus Point on Whidbey.

Walker and I checking out the views below us. The viewpoints are varied – there are a couple of them, all worth checking out:

Walker hanging out with mom:

Looking across at Whidbey with Campbell Lake, Pass Lake and West Beach stretching in the distance. Across the Strait of Juan De Fuca is the Olympics:

Ford having fun climbing on the rocks:

Just a nice break in our drive before we headed back inland….

~Sarah

We drove up to Ft. Ebey State Park and went to the Gun Battery area to jump up on the Bluff Trail. The Bluff Trail is one of the few trails in the area that is hiker only, much of the rest of the vast Kettles Trail System is bike friendly. When Ford was little we walked every trail numerous times with him in his jogger stroller. There is well over 30 miles of trails in the area not including beach walking so it is a not-so-well-known gem.

It had been I realized way too many years since I walked on the Bluff Trail – so long that now the trail bears Pacific Northwest Trail signs, as the PNT goes through here.

Walker in his pack with me:

Looking South down the Island with Perego’s Lagoon in the distance (and Ebey’s Landing just around that corner!)

Another view:

Kirk coming down the Bluff Trail at its other end, going North near Point Partridge:

We headed onto the trail to Lake Pondilla, a lake set in a kettle (a kettle here being pockets left by the glaciers of long ago – the area is riddled with them, some quite deep that to stand above they are dark even in the sun, though most don’t bear water). Lake Pondilla is a treat though – a lake set just feet from a bluff, the trees bowed over from years of raging winds in the winter. It is a neat windbreak to hide at the lake.

A quick hike uphill takes you through coastal forest to the bluff:

Walker and I on the bluff above Pt. Partridge. A lonely cargo ship was cutting through the water, the Strait of Juan De Fuca. Port Townsend sits directly across the water, on most days you can see the lighthouse of Ft. Worden blinking. On sunny days the view is of a surreal bigger-than-life view of the Olympic Mountains.

I lived on this Island for nearly a decade and half and when I visit on a cold summer day I remember why I loved it so much. You just have to hope that a jet from NAS Whidbey doesn’t fly over and break that spell though. Of which it did….so we knew it was time to go warm up and head home once again.

~Sarah

Looking at Burroughs backside from the lake:

If you walk around the lake you can see Little Tahoma and the top of the mountain. By then though the clouds were rolling back in:

Walker wasn’t enjoying the sun here. For most of the hike I carried an umbrella over him to protect his pale skin:

For a quick lunch I made up a batch of Packit Gourmet’s Cheddar Jack spread:

We had it served on Triscuit© crackers…yum! Walker was hanging out wondering where his share was….

Ponderosa, children and hubby:

Me and Ford, Walker in front looking out at Rainier that was slowly being covered by clouds once again:

A last look at the Mountain:

~Sarah

I knew then I had to go. My friend Tori and I set out with a tiny Ford toddling behind us. We went the “long” way from Sunrise that trip. It was a hard dayhike. By the time we barely entered the park we knew we had to turn around to be done by dark.

Ford and I with Skyscraper Mountain and Rainier behind us:

It was a long 5 years till I came back and we came up via the “backdoor” way. We encountered a lot of snow that time but it was worth every step.

This morning Jared and Jeff picked me up. Kirk pushed me out the door and gave me a ‘kid free’ day. How could I say no to that? We met two ladies from our local hiking forums at the trailhead, HikingQueen and TrailDiva and for once outnumbered the men. Hah!

Being curious I ran Kirk’s fab GPS, a Garmin GPSmap 60CSx and plotted the mileage. I had wondered how long the unofficial trail from the NF logging road was to Lake Eleanor. It was .99 of a mile, a lot longer than I had thought.

Lake Eleanor was still in the morning…though the bugs were not. Yeesh. I knew the bugs would be pesky but overall as long as one kept moving they stayed mostly off.

Water was still to be found down low, the first open meadow had its lake but the trail was dry which was nice. Last time here we encountered a wall of snow not much longer and had route finding fun. Rainier was just starting to pop out of the cloud cover, we have been having foggy/cloudy cool mornings and warm sunny afternoons – which I love!

From the meadow the easy trail stops and it shoots up classic Rainier style – that is getting somewhere quickly without much ado. It shoots up a wooded ridge and then pops out into subalpine forest. The lilies were just starting to open. This area holds snow often late and it had only recently melted out.

Avalanche Lilies in bloom:

I love how just as you wish the endless climb will end you come into subalpine and then as you blink you come over the rise to see her:

Jared and Jeff always far ahead of me:

We went to the far side of Grand Park, to the Northern Loop trail junction and decided to check out a viewpoint I had heard about and that Jeff confirmed that was worth going to. As we hiked we encountered the first Bear Grass of the day:

You head up and down a forested/meadowed ridge and suddenly pop out onto a rocky corner with a view I had not seen before. Far below is the confluence of Winthrop Creek and the West Fork of the White River. The large gray area is the massive Winthrop Glacier which is also visible from the back side of Skyscraper Pass on the Wonderland Trail.

The peak on the far left is Fremont. The lookout is visible to the eye.

Jeff dwarfed by the Sluiskin Mountains:

I was loving the hike even if I was huffing and puffing :p

We headed back to Grand Park and started our walk out:

Looking back at her:

A last shot:

We did a shy 9 1/2 miles and outside of the massive flies (they were at least an 1″ long) it was great. The flowers were not quite at prime though the color show was starting with Lupine and Magenta Paintbrush.

~Sarah

The Ohana was running fast and cold:

Ford and Kirk in the shadows on the bridge over Laughingwater Creek:

Walker was awake and enjoying the ride – and kicking me good as we hiked:

Walker passed out not long after and missed Silver Falls:

Passed out and missing the best part of the hike:

Me and my boys:

Kirk ahead of me on the way back:

Just a nice few hours in the woods with all my men.

~Sarah

One of the bigger changes was an actual bridge over Ipsut Creek – in 2007 it was a log, planed on the top with a hand rail. The other thing I am now picking my brain about is did the old ranger station cabin get removed? I remember it being there in 2007, it had barely escaped the floods but I don’t remember seeing it this trip?

We went through the old car campground and headed up the Wonderland Trail (or also called the Carbon Glacier Trail) and took the side to Ipsut Falls. It had provided water to the car CG for many years. The old building that housed the pump-house that I had last seen in 2003 – with a tiny Ford hiking behind me – is nearly gone now with a couple trees through it (you can see the trail in the shadows to the left):

Ipsut Falls is a sweet treat to see. I can actually say that it is a worthwhile hike to just go there. My photo sadly does not show it well. The falls sit at the end of short gorge of sorts. It is shaded and about 10° cooler than 200 feet away on the WT. The waterfall takes a couple turns and drops around 60 feet in total. The other significance is that the creek is clear till here. Just s a few yards down a section of the glacial till full Carbon River jumped its channel at some point. It ripped through the WT and now dumps into the Ipsut. At the CG the creek runs milky in color, not clear like it did in 2007. Definitely worth the extra 1/5th of a mile or so to walk up there for water if one is camping at Ipsut (which has been a backcountry camp since 2007).

We got water – while it wasn’t as hot as this past week was (we had a mini heatwave last week where it topped 95° at our house. Yech. No like. Today it was 55° – more my idea of nice.) and headed up the WT. About a mile in you come to the end of the trail and a series of bridges built over a channel of the Carbon, 3 bridges in total. They cross the river twice and once over a snagged pile of trees. It is actually quite inventive of the rangers in “fixing” the issue. The river has eaten that section of trail clean off  the wall.

We went as far as the Northern Loop Junction. The trail on this side of the river is closed not far beyond, one of the after effects of the 2006 floods was the trail was wiped away clean. It was on the bottom of an unstable slope. Now to go to the Carbon Glacier you must cross the Carbon River on a couple channels (2 shown below), go through the island of trees and cross more. It varies by the year on how many crossings! Jared and I had not seen anyone until this point when a couple groups of young guys caught up to us.

Looking upriver:

Keen trail runners, OR low gaiters and a seat along one of the wildest rivers I love:

Heading back down – the trail varies from deep forest to many open (scoured) avy slopes that are full of thick vegetation – including enough blooming Cow-parsnips for the summer (I have never been a fan of the sickly sweet perfume they let off on hot days but I am sure many others love it…..)

Very low growing Cloudberry that caught my eye near the junction to Ipsut Falls. It would be very easy to not see it but what a loss to not see it!

The section where the Carbon sent a small channel through, near the junction with Ipsut Falls. It is now a massive tree graveyard. You can see the WT on the right.

Unalaska Bunchberry (Canadian Dogwood) flowering about 6 feet up on this cedar tree (An Alaska Yellow?):

As we came back through the Ipsut Creek campground what caught my eye was this food bag hanging from a bear pole. While the bear pole provided safety for the food….said picnic table being right under it didn’t bode well – all a bear would have had to do is step up on it and have a free snack with no sweating. Doh!

We stopped in the CG and had lunch and a break knowing we had another shy 5 miles to do.Jared had started rehydrating his lunch back at our turnaround – his mix of beans and chicken:

He made it into a sammie – since he found out he had no tortillas upon getting his pack ready:

My lunch was…well….different to say the least. I had some leftover commercial meals from the late spring presentations and wanted to clean them out. I grabbed one without quite reading it – it was the new Mary Janes Farm Tex Mex Organic Beef Casserole. I put my MSR Quick 1 Ti pot into service this trip with my Snowpeak Giga stove.

Upon opening it was a normal MJF meal with the addition of a very large plastic bag inside, I found that odd – considering that the company prides itself on more enviro choices.

The beef was in the plastic bag, which being plastic was covered in the dry sauce mix. So after flicking off as much as I could back into the bag I opened up the bag…only to find that the beef was…..JERKY! It wasn’t that it was bad but frankly I had envisioned ground beef, not jerky. It is from eyeballing it about 2 Tablespoons of meat in a diced/shred size. For $13.50 (yes, I paid that much) the bulk of the meal is pasta and lentils with a few vegetables and a little beef. You would do better to buy the vegetarian Chili Mac and stop at a sketchy truck stop on the way to the trailhead and buy a container of jerky snuff (it looks like a plastic tub of chew but holds finely shredded jerky). For about a $1 you would get 2-3 times the meat. OK, OK….it isn’t organic but I like meat these days and mini portions don’t do it for me!

With the meat added:

It is an easy meal to make, just add in 1 cup boiling water and let sit. I have found that MJF meals do best if you can give the pasta ones an extra 5 minutes sitting time and be put in a cozy it will be less soupy. The flavor/texture wasn’t bad and it made a nice lighter lunch (easy to digest while hiking on) but yes, it did need more meat

Jared munching on one of his bars that he made from one of my recipes, Cran-Mac Caramel Bars:

Salmon berries just coming into ripeness:

On the way back the wind was blowing up valley, towards Rainier. It was very nice. In the sections on the river it kept us very cool. In the deep forest, well not so much.

It is always odd no matter how many times I hike this trail to be able to see the road across a gaping maw of river and know that it used to be there:

A last look upriver before we headed into the forest for good:

The GPS showed a shy 15.40 miles. It isn’t horribly hard elevation wise (you only gain about 500 feet to the campground) but the road part does do one’s feet in by the end.

~Sarah

With Western Washington still in the throes of freaking winter our options for hiking have been well noted as being minimal. On Saturday Kirk and I took the boys out for an easy local hike on the Green to Cedar River Trail. Perfect weather for walking – cold and overcast. On Sunday I wanted to try out the new front carrier that we had picked up for Walker, Kelty Kangaroo Infant Carrier which is a discontinued model, but still sold new on Amazon.

I have talked recently about my frustrations with getting a carrier that Walker would like. He howls almost instantly when put in carriers. And more so, I needed a carrier designed for hiking, not for “baby wearing” which most slings, packs and wraps are. I happened upon a mention of the Kangaroo online when I remembered about the Kelty Wallaby Infant Carrier. The Wallaby is a good pack as well but for hiking the Kangaroo is hands down a fantastic design. It is too bad that Kelty discontinued  them and is now only making carriers for older babies (back carriers). The new pack came about 2 weeks ago and after a couple local test runs I felt secure enough in using it on a real trail so off to the mountains we went. We crossed one mountain pass to get to the trailhead and it was a balmy 44° outside. As we headed to the pass we drove into the clouds. At the first trailhead it was 45° and misting. Perfect summer weather, no? We didn’t do any big trails nor anything remote but we did get out and have a great hike – and the new pack passed with flying colors. The back support was comfy for me, Walker was happy in his well padded cockpit style seat. He was fascinated by the trees and spent much of the hike wide awake looking around.

We visited the Box Canyon area, which yes, is a tourist spot but a worthy break on a rainy day. The Wonderland Trail is most of the short loop trail. It is an are full of glacial scoured rock. Just seeing the rocks is worth pulling off the road.

The Muddy Fork of the Cowlitz River cuts through a very deep canyon. Half way you cross the river on a bridge. The river is 115 feet below you.

A web in the rain:

Photo © Kirk Kirkconnell.

The loop takes you back to the road where you cross the river on the car bridge, well over 130 feet above the water. There is also a tunnel a few feet away on the road that is neat to walk through. It brought back memories of doing the Wonderland in 2004. We camped our first night at Nickel Creek, short .8 of a mile past Box Canyon (also a nice way to extend a very short hike). There was a large raven loitering around the parking lot. I have a love for them and really enjoyed watching it.

We headed back downhill to Ohanapecosh and found parking for the Eastside Trail and Grove of the Patriarchs trail (check out the dayhiking page on the Rainier website as well).

Walker and I heading up the Eastside Trail:

I hadn’t been on the Eastside Trail in a few years. The last time I was there we had done a one way downhill walk from Chinook Pass to Ohana – in the rain, in fall. A gorgeous hike though if one gets the chance. I had been out to the Grove but neither had Kirk or Ford. In the flood of 2006 the wide fixed suspension bridge had been wasted and twisted. It had been a great bridge – it didn’t bounce at all. The new bridge is well built but is a bouncer. Walking across it isn’t bad as you are pretty low to the water and the Ohanapecosh River is a pretty clear one to look down at (it doesn’t have a lot of glacial till in it, so it isn’t cloudy).

Photo © Kirk Kirkconnell.

The island you walk out to has recovered nicely as well from the flood. The Grove is a very popular hike but is worth waiting for your turn to walk the bridge. The highlight being the two trees that are over a 1,000 years old:

Ford in front of them:

Photo © Kirk Kirkconnell.

Checking out the big trees:

Photo © Kirk Kirkconnell.

Walker was very much enjoying the ride and drifted off about here:

Photo © Kirk Kirkconnell.

It was a nice hike and it helped us feel comfortable using the new pack.

~Sarah

Food layed out:

Cooking gear taken:

Closeup of meals:

And from the summit of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park (and featured on our Cozies On The Trail section as well):

Thanks Erich, love them!

~Sarah

I was rolling light and used my not-so-great 3 MP cell phone camera – ooh….the grainy photos! Ooh the purple hue!

We started at Cedar River Trail Park and caught a side trail up to a trestle over the river. This section was interesting, you are in the middle of a city surrounded by one side of either chain link fence or concrete walls, the other by the Hwy below. But in that they had planted wild roses that were thick in growth and blocked most of the highway view. The smell was fantastic.

Walker was happy as usual in the BOB and we zipped along.

The first couple miles were exposed, no shade and a straight line.

How far till home? Only 10 miles? Hey, why not keep going till we hit the ‘Claw?

The trail has sections that go under the highway or major roads and are done in cloverleaf style. The first one curved under the highway and was a chilly shaded respite where the swollen river raged by. The next one you curved under a tunnel and popped out into a forested section:

As we left the city behind us the views of the Cedar River opened up. The river stayed near most of the way.

One section was well below the highway, fully forested and with the river below. It was very tranquil and I saw almost no one. This section I could happily do again.

The last two or so miles are on an elevated section, above the road. It is similar to walking on a dike.

A look at the river as we passed over the last trestle in the section we were on.

My entertainment was this man below with his acoustic guitar…..

It was a good fast 9 mile “hike” (is it hiking on pavement?) and a nice morning with Walker. For now, my kit seems to be pretty well dialed in on what I carry and how we use it. I get him out every couple miles, spread out a blanket and let him have a good stretching, then back for more walking. It is different but definitely rewarding!

~Sarah