The River Wild

The stop at Mt. Rainier on Saturday was on the way to our destination for Sunday: the Tieton River for some whitewater rafting. Cheryl and I had such a good time on the Wenatchee River in July that we signed up with the same guide to raft the Titeton. The Tieton River is benign most of the summer, but in August, water is released from Rimrock Lake through the Tieton Dam, and the river runs at a steady Class III+ in August and September. Rafting the Wenatchee was the perfect thing to do on a super-hot day in July, but the rapids were far and few between; we signed up for the Tieton for a few more thrills. We were hoping for the last of the hot weather but arrived at the river bank to a cloudy, slightly cool day. The Tieton is much colder than the Wenatchee so we geared up in wet suits, and the Tieton runs a lot faster than the Wenatchee, so we donned helmets for this one. No one in our raft got tossed out, but there were a few close moments, and one of the river guides who was accompanying us in an inflatable kayak got tossed out of her IK a couple of times. Cheryl, Wendy, and I, however, along with Shelby and Andy, two other intrepid clients, and Annie who works for the guiding company and who was also in our raft, managed to stay put, as Hudson, our expert guide steered that raft like it was on rails. The river delivered as promised, it was fast and fun and there were some pretty good drops and a lot of whooping! I dug an ancient camera out of a junk drawer, wrapped it in a plastic baggie, tucked it into my life-vest, and managed to get some pretty good pictures, but not as good as the ones taken by the guys on the shore.  

gearing up

Pocahontas?

We spent the night in a cute cabin on the shore of Rimrock Lake.

Next year, the Skykomish!

Or is THIS the Best Hike Ever?!

I didn't think I'd find a better hike than the one Cheryl and I did in July at Hurricane Ridge, until Cheryl, Wendy, and I walked the Naches Peak Loop Trail near Mt. Rainier on Saturday. There's no point in debating, they were both gorgeous, and in the immortal words of David Letterman, "it's an exhibition, not a competition..."  He was talking about Stupid Pet Tricks, but whatever, it works here too, if you consider all the wilderness to be an exhibition. It was a beautiful day, the trail wasn't crowded, the views were spectacular, and although it was warm, the leaves were showing a faint touch of autumn.

click photo for full view

view from our spot for a picnic lunch

Cheryl and Wendy

Rimrock Lake...

... our adorable lake-side cabin for the night

Love is in the Air

Last weekend on Lake Nahwatzel (I'd never heard of it before either), my friend/real estate agent/one time roommate, Gail got married. It was a lovely day, she was a lovely bride, I wish her and Steve every happiness.

Gail and Steve - happy dance!

 

Eric and Christina

Hurricane Hill - best hike ever?

Yesterday we wrapped up our weekend in Port Angeles by heading up to Hurricane Ridge. I remember going there on a trip oh so many years ago before I moved to Seattle. It was the same spectacular destination I remember, down to the deer roaming all over the place. I don't think I did the hike to Hurricane Hill all those years ago but yesterday, it was one of the loveliest hikes ever. It rained a little bit but even that wasn't a big issue. The clouds had rolled in making for dramatic if not expansive views. There were forests and wildflower, marmots, and more deer. It was gorgeous hike on a beautiful day.

Port Angeles - What Happened to all the Sunshine??

view from our room (click photo for full panorama)

We had another full week of sunshine in Seattle last week and wanted to make the most of what we assumed would be another glorious weekend, so Cheryl and I took Friday off and drove to Port Angeles. Originally, we had a great weekend planned in Whistler, but there are an inordinate number of wildfires burning in British Columbia right now and after looking at some live video and reading some news articles (findings: the air quality in Whistler was compared to that of Beijing and the mayor of Whistler was encouraging people to stay indoors - Indoors? In Whistler??) I cancelled the hotel reservation and we decided to come to Port Angeles instead. We arrived at the Red Lion on Friday afternoon, checked into our very nice waterfront room, and strolled around the town.

Cheryl and the rocktopus

Today we got up early and went sea kayaking. The good news: the Straight of Juan de Fuca was calm and almost glassy; the bad news: it rained almost the entire time we were on the water. Oh well, that's what wet-suits (Spanx of the sea) are for. Cheryl and I thought it was a bit of over-kill when our guide Brogan told us to suit up, but it turned out to be a good move. It rained fairly steadily, but the padding was very pleasant, as was our guide, and we saw otters (bunnies of the sea), a harbor seal (puppies of the sea), cormorants (they're just birds, I got nothin'), sea stars, and lots of bull kelp. Nice way to spend the  morning.

After we kayaked, we stopped at a homey cafe for a late breakfast, and then drove to the Lake Crescent Lodge. I've passed by Lake Crescent many times but have never stopped lake-side before. It's a beautiful clear blue lake and lodge looks like a wonderful place to stay. From there we did a fairly easy hike (in the rain but sheltered by the trees) to Marymere Falls which was gorgeous.

Lake Crescent

Back in town we did a little more perusing of the shops and then had Thai food for dinner. When I was a kid, my parents and I used to drive 90 minutes from Sacramento to Berkeley because that's what you had to do to get Thai food back in the old days. Now you can get perfectly good Thai food in industrial port towns in rural Washington. Progress, people, this is progress.