I was really up for a weekend of camping in the North Cascades over Labor Day weekend, but I knew that there would just be too many people out. All of the last few holiday weekends have led to careless behavior and surges in the pandemic. The responsible thing was to stay away from the throngs. So I hoped that on Labor Day itself, people would be heading home and I could get in a…
I only have evening duties at the monastery on Mondays so I often try to get out for most of the day. Primarily I have been doing day hikes on Fidalgo and Whidbey Islands, but every so often, if I leave early enough, I drive to the edge of the North Cascades. On this Monday I did a popular hike up Sauk Mountain which is pretty much the Westernmost peak of the North Cascades. Getting…
Growing up on Fidalgo and Whidbey Island the North Cascades were frequent destinations. Skiing on Mount Baker, hiking in the North Cascades, rafting on the Skagit River, camping around Baker Lake. In my teens we would waterski on Baker Lake and the other lakes in the area. Over the years my forays into the outdoors shifted from the use of the outdoors toward being in the outdoors and as I’ve moved back to the Islands I’ve been…
Late October 2018, returning early from a trip to the City I decided to go up Highway 2 toward Stevens Pass and look for a short hike. This is an area very familiar to me from my skiing days as Steven’s was a favorite, but I have never done much hiking off of 2. Like I-90 hwy 2 is dense packed with trails into the Cascades and the foothills as it rises from sea level…
I ended up with a few unanticipated days off in early January and on one of those days I hiked up onr of the trails up Tiger Mountain. One of my favorite bicycle routes passes this trail which heads up to Poo Poo Point where hang gliders launch off on windy summer days and I’ve wanted to tackle it for a while. Tiger Mountain, in the so-called Issaquah Alps, is close to Seattle and thus…