Saturday, September 24, 2011

Mt. Pilchuck Hike

Mt. Pilchuck Hike

Saturday, September 24, 2011

The best part of this trail is its summit is 1 mile (5280 feet) above the surrounding countryside overlooking the area from the western edge of the Cascades. At the summit is a historic, now abandoned fire lookout tower. The trail is just over an hour from our house. We stopped in Lake Stevens at Subway for a foot-long sandwich to share on the trail. After passing through Granite Falls, we turned onto Mt Pilchuck road which was a bumpy ride up the mountain on the gravel road. This trail is an extremely popular hike in this area. There were plenty of others with the same idea as us on this beautiful and clear Saturday.

If the view at the parking lot says anything, the summit was going to be amazing.
The first portion of the trail was through a mature forest through the base of a former ski area that has rapidly grown in. This trail was great because it was in the Mount Pilchuck State Park and Chance could do the hike with us on a leash.
At the 1 mile mark the trail turned into a rocky climb, but we finally got a small taste of the scenic view that lies ahead.

A peek at the peak of Mount Baker to the north.
Three Fingers.
Finally we could see the area and what we had left to climb. It’s a good thing we got our hiking poles in time. There is still snow on the northern side of the mountain. My body was really wearing on me after hard, long workouts this week so we took it slow for the 3 miles up for my comfort. I twisted my knee at one point in the hike so I was really taking it easy finding the right footing before putting all my weight on that leg.





And now the panorama. Lake Stevens, Everett, Puget Sound, San Juan Islands & Olympic Mountains.
Cascades and Mount Baker.
Finally we see the fire lookout.
There was a line heading up to the tower and we were starving so we found a secluded rock to eat our lunch. This was our view the rock edge where we ate lunch: Three Fingers & Shuksan.

It was too tough of a climb up the remaining rocks and boulders up to the lookout for Chance which then had a steel rung ladder up into the lookout tower so we had to take turns going up while someone stayed with Chance. It was beautiful. It made the 3 mile hike up completely worth it.



I could make out the profile of Mt Rainier in the distance.
I could have stayed there for a long time taking pics, but I didn’t want to make Joe wait forever.


To the north there was a high rock cropping you could climb out on. There was a group there taking pictures of each other out on the rocks and they offered to take my picture for me as well and I’m so glad they did.

I took a video of the view since it’s hard to capture the whole surroundings in pictures.
The descent was hard on our knees. Joe was really, really thankful for our hiking poles now. His knees really hurt when going down.
A lot of people commented on Chance carrying her own gear. She doesn’t really carry anything, but she’s a much better hiker with her backpack on. She wanted to see the view too. She did this a lot on the way down. I joked that she wanted to stop more on the way down than I did to rest on the way up.
This might be TMI for some, but I have a proud announcement. I have voluntarily pooped in the woods for the first time in my life (that I recall). I know feel like an official outdoors girl. They just might think about letting me in the club now. But they might not since I will always shave my legs and wear deodorant. We’ve adjusted to life well out here, but we won’t ever go that far.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Cascade Sunrise

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

It’s been nice that I hardly ever drive anymore. I take the bus every morning 50 yards from our house. The perk this morning was watching the gorgeous sun rise over the Cascade mountain range transform the sky by my bus stop.

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Mobile Food Rodeo & Magnuson Park

Saturday, September 17, 2011


Seattle had a festival called the Mobile Food Rodeo which rounded up some of the best street food wagons in Seattle and Portland gave us an opportunity to sample many different foods from 26 mobile food trucks. We got to the parking lot in Interbay Whole Foods 10 minutes before the gates opened. There was already a long line. It was misting out and in the 50s. This event was poorly organized. It took an hour to get through line and into the parking lot with the trucks. All they were doing was collecting our tickets, giving us our food tickets and putting on wrist band. Usually efficiency like this drives Joe crazy, but it was so extreme that even I was upset. I was cold and starving. Joe ran to a close truck with a short line. I head straight for Skillet, serving gourmet burgers and fries (known for their famous bacon jam) from their silver airstream. Joe had a really good taco and I had poutine (French fries and cheese curds covered in gravy-staple in Canada). I ordered a small serving for $5 which was monstrous. Shortly after I found out Skillet had run out of all their food so I’m glad I went there when I did. Next we went to the longest line in the place for some creole food. While I was waiting Joe got some Kobe beef sliders. We had some jambalaya and hot beignets with coffee from the creole mobile truck (Where Ya At I think). Marination Station was not at the event yet when we were there, which made me sad because I’ve been wanting to try their Korean-Hawaiian fusion tacos, sliders and kimchi bowls. I bypassed Maximus Minimus pig truck serving pulled pork since they are often at 2nd and Pike near my office. If we still had room I would have tried Bigfood truck. They were more high tech than the others with a flat screen mounted on the exterior of their truck featuring their menu. They serve roasted meats on float bread. It looked delicious and popular.
They weather still wasn’t that great so we decided to give Chance some exercise and took her to Magnuson Park, which is supposed to be one of the top 10 dog parks in the nation. It was huge. 9 acres! We took Chance down to the shoreline of Lake Washington, the only allowed beach access for dogs in Seattle. It just so happened while we were there the sun decided to peak out from behind the clouds.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Pike Place Market, Underground Tour, Mariners Game, Alki Beach & Dumplings

Sunday, September 11, 2011

We booked tickets to do the Underground Tour of Pioneer Square in Seattle Sunday. Before our tour we stopped at Pike Place Market for breakfast. We had Mee Sum Pastries and Piroshky Piroshky Russian pastries. I love the flowers of the market.

The guys got some smoked salmon. Beautiful fresh vegetables.


The Pioneer Building, where the Underground Tour begins.
The tour begins in Doc Maynard’s Public House, a 1890s saloon.  The city had a chance to remedy the town being founded on soggy tideflats after the Great Seattle Fire of 1889 burned down 25 square blocks of wooden buildings. They raised the roads by building retaining walls 8’ or higher on either side of the old streets, filled in the space between the walls and paved new roads over top. Property owners couldn’t wait for the street to be finished so they rebuilt their structures with their first floor display windows and lobbies in an area that would become basements. The old sidewalks are now hollow tunnels, preserved beneath the streets and sidewalks of Pioneer Square. Discussions of early streets filled with sawdust and toilets becoming backyard flowing fountains made you really appreciate modern convinces.

It was interesting hearing the story of the totem pole in Pioneer Square. It was originally stolen from a Tlingit village in Alaska where the City of Seattle’s prominent citizens claimed it was taken from an adandoned village. When it was subject to arson years later, a costly replica was carved by descendants of the carvers of the original totem.
In addition to the totem pole, a wrought-iron Victorian pergola and a bust of Chief Seattle were added to the park.
There really isn’t that much to see in the abandoned underground, but it was interesting to see and HEAR all about. The coolest part was the glass tiles in the sidewalks in the underground of Seattle. It really makes me what to explore shops in this area to see the spaces that have been utilized as usable space today.
Smith Tower, once the tallest building west of the Mississippi River.
After the tour we head over to Safeco Field for the Mariners vs Royals baseball game. Wes & Lauren were practically skip/speed walking. They could barely keep in their excitement.

Wes got the sea dog, Safeco’s signature hot dog. It’s Ivar’s 10” fillet of cod, battered and fried, then stuffed in a bun served with tartar sauce and lemon.  
We ate garlic fries (and chicken wings) and had some killer breath for the rest of the game.

The grounds crew broke into a dance at 2nd base.

#51 Ichiro.
Today’s baseball game, America’s pastime was a great way to spend 9-11.
We drove over to West Seattle where we had a great view of downtown Seattle.

We tried to will Mt Rainier out of hiding on a hazy day, but to no avail. We head back to the house of have homemade dumplings for dinner.