This weekend was all about winging it. We decided to go camping at 7:30 in the morning on Saturday and spent about 5 minutes deciding where to go, with very little information. Sometimes the most haphazardly planned mini vacations are the best there are! On Sunday morning we awoke to a glorious day in the Olympic National Forest, having camped in Campbell Tree Grove Campground. We had the whole day to do with whatever we liked! We had noticed a trailhead on the dirt road we took to get to the Campground the day before and decided to give it…
Campbell Tree Grove Campground
Camping is one of my favorite things to do. It brings back many happy memories of my childhood and the numerous camping adventures we would take that would define my summer holidays. Our family vacations involved cramming my parents, six kids, enough gear to house and feed all of us, bikes for each person, and sometimes a canoe into our fifteen passenger van with a homemade trailer for the bikes and canoe attached behind us. The back seat of the van had been removed and was replaced with a large wooden storage box that my Dad had custom built that…
Monte Cristo Ghost Town
We’d been back in the United States for five days after our whirlwind adventure in Ireland and it was time for another outing in the beautiful Cascade Mountains. Saturday, June 8th was National Get Outdoors Day. Many agencies, including the U.S. Forest Service were allowing access without passes. According to the National Get Outdoors Day website it is a day that occurs annually to encourage healthy, active outdoor fun. Our bodies were still recovering from the 108 miles, primarily my sore ankles, so we decided to look for a low impact and fun hike. Bobby has had his eye on the…
The Kerry Way: Day 8
We awoke to unbelievably sore muscles. The short 13 hour break we had from the trail wasn’t nearly enough to rest our aching muscles. With both my feet in complete agony as I hobbled around our small room I began to doubt whether or not we would even be able to go 1 mile today, let alone the 16 we were supposed to accomplish… We made ready and went to get the breakfast being made by our charming hostess, Julia. She had taken our meal orders the night before, mine being pancakes and Bobby had opted for the omelet. We…
The Kerry Way: Day 7
Due to not being given the password to the wifi at our B&B we had spent the majority of the evening in town at a small pub that offered free wifi. We had originally ordered drinks, it was only 5:00, and hadn’t planned on eating dinner there. We have had our full of pub food but when our hunger and dinner time rolled around we still weren’t finished creating and fine tuning the latest blog post so we decided to eat there. We got dinner menus and ordered an appetizer and an entree to split. The ‘Bruschetta’ appetizer was crappy…
The Kerry Way: Day 6
The alert of our alarm went off a little early for our liking, but we wanted to get a good days start for the 11 miles ahead that was on the schedule for the day. The morning was dawning bright and sunny, just as the day before had and we once again we were smiling at the idea of yet another sunny day along The Kerry Way. We had packed our bags, eaten breakfast, and checked out before 9:00 and were back on the trail! Today was a rather uneventful day along the trail. The sun was our constant companion…
The Kerry Way: Day 2
We awoke at 8:00 am in our cozy B&B, Hillcrest Farmhouse, to the sound of the wind still howling away and the sheep bleating. I had had a rough nights sleep due to the thin walls and noisy neighbors. They had decided to stay up and keep their tv on until 1:00 am. We went down for breakfast at 8:30 and were greeted by Robert, the host we had met the previous day. “Good morning to you.” He said in his, somewhat, monotone voice without a whole lot of enthusiasm. We greeted him cheerily as we were filled with excitement…
Travel Day to Ireland
4:15 AM (Pacific Time) – Our alarms, set the evening before, go off simultaneously, jerking us out of a fitful nights sleep. I was barely able to sleep a wink throughout the night due to anxiety and excitement. Bobby claims he slept well but having been restlessly awake for the majority of the night, I can tell you his sleep was anything but soundless. Still, the of the day had us up and excited in no time. After packing a few last items we were ready for the walk to the light rail station. 4:55 – Thankfully, I had watched…
Iron Horse Trail
Sunday morning was going to be a big day. As we made ready for the journey we had chosen for the day, Latigo lay on the rug in the living room, unmoving. Looking at me with an expression on his face that clearly stated, “You have got to be kidding me.” He was clearly exhausted from the previous days outing and we opted to leave him at home to enjoy a good rest. The trail we had chosen for the day isn’t the most dog friendly so we knew it would be all around better if he didn’t come along.…
Granite Lakes Trail
We decided to start things out right with a solid breakfast of bacon and made from scratch banana pancakes before heading out on a hike. We packed our backpacks with roughly 20 pounds of gear (continuing to train for our upcoming backpacking trip to Ireland) and headed out with Latigo in tow. Bobby found this hike while visiting one of our favorite trip report websites, Hiking with my Brother, it was their “Hike of the Week”. With 2200 feet of elevation gain and 11 miles total trip distance we thought the Granite Lakes Trail would be an excellent choice to continue the mission of…