I read a lot of stuff about hiking. I scroll through gear makers’ web pages for entertainment. I linger over the pictures at trail associations’ web pages. I read blogs and social media posts. The majority of the time, the backcountry campsites shown or described are *perfect* – idyllic forest scenes, ridgelines with epic views, above the tree line in good weather. It makes me think of the decidedly not perfect campsites I’ve ended up with.
Continue readingThe Hike I Needed
As soon as I learned I’d be attending training in Wenatchee that ended at noon on a Friday, I began planning a hiking trip for that weekend. I made some ambitious plans, but after reflecting on my current fitness level and the lingering after-effects of my most recent bout of COVID-19, I decided to stick with a familiar trail: the PCT between Stampede Pass and Tacoma Pass.
Continue readingFirst Post-COVID Run
I went for a run Tuesday evening. It was short. It was slow. It didn’t feel good.
I talked myself out of and into doing this run several times. I’m glad the part of me that wanted to run won the argument.
I still have a lot of work to do, but consistently running 2-3 times a week will get me there. And it starts with one short, slow, sucky run.
PCT – Lolo Pass to Wahtum Lake (Oregon)
This past weekend, my friend Jane & I hiked a bit of the PCT in Oregon. Our original plan was to hike along the Washington PCT from Chinook Pass to White Pass, but the weather forecast dissuaded us. (I can deal with days of rain, but my idea of a fun hike is different from most other folks’.) Some last minute scrambling led us to this section of the Oregon PCT.
Continue readingWalla Walla 6-Hour
Yesterday, I joined some friends and a large group of women from all around the Northwest at Bennington Lake for the Walla Walla 6-hour. This is the longest and farthest I’ve run in years, and I had a great time.
Continue readingPleasant Valley Loop & Goat Peak Hike
After work Friday, I drove up toward Chinook Pass for a hike. The hike up to Goat Peak is beautiful and terrible. It’s steep – about 3000′ of elevation gain in three miles – and the trail is not in great shape in some places. (This is largely due to the fire.) It’d be a good training hike — it’s just under nine miles, so it could be done as a day hike and it has a lot of elevation gain & loss — but the trail is in such bad shape in places I’m not sure I want to do it again anytime soon.
Continue readingShorter-than-planned PCT Hike
I headed out to hike the remaining 74 miles of Section H of the Washington PCT. This was a somewhat impromptu hike, as I’d planned to be hiking Section J with a friend. Alas, she contracted COVID-19. I figured I’d go knock out some miles along the PCT I’d not previously hiked. Land of the Cowlitz, Klickitat, Siletz, and Yakama Nations.
Continue readingWinter
I’ve lived my entire life in the Northern Hemisphere, and nearly all of that time I’ve been in the higher latitudes. A fairly consistent complaint I hear from my fellow humans is that they dislike winter. I get it: Not much daylight, and in maritime climates the sky seems grey all winter. The weather isn’t conducive to being outside, and it can make traveling – even just to work – challenging.
I don’t think I’ve ever been a winter-hater. I grew up in Seattle – one of those places where the skies are gunmetal grey from November to April, but where snow was also an infrequent treat. (And we almost never got enough snow to cancel school. Drat!) While I never teased out this thought in my head, I think I recognized the short winter days were a bookend to summer’s late sunsets. Or maybe I just figured there wasn’t much to be gained by complaining.
Continue readingMissing the Trail
I imagine it’s a symptom of how deeply dissatisfied I am with my current work situation, but I frequently find my mind drifting to the trail. It’s close to an obsession at this point.
Continue readingDarkness
This topic has been knocking around in my head for a few weeks now. It started on an evening I was standing in the yard of my suburban home – a yard lit by decorative solar lights and a decidedly undecorative & overly-bright street light. (There’s a 4-lane arterial behind our home.) Despite all this human-created light, there was a quality to the darkness that reminded me of night in the backcountry.
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