Playing Hard In The Northwest

We certainly aren't bored here in Washington. We are still finding great places to go just about every weekend, and as mentioned by my lovely counterpart in her previous post, I CAN'T WAIT TO TELL EVERYONE ABOUT IT!!!!

With rapid fire speed I'm going to get you all caught up with what we've been up to. Enough of this lagging behind. No more playing catch up. Here we go!

After our amazing trip to Mount Rainier, we decided to stay local for a weekend. Luckily we had the Benton-Franklin County Fair going on here in the Tri-Cities. So Saturday afternoon we headed to the fairgrounds to "Rock with the 'stock". This fair comes complete with big name music acts, carnival games, rides, livestock shows, and a smorgasbord of food. The food was calling us, and it did not disappoint. We got burritos, bacon wrapped hot dogs, ice cream, and kettle corn. Unfortunately we didn't have room for the ever popular elephant ears, which are basically fried dough covered in sugar and cinnamon. Our bulging stomachs and quickly clogging arteries thanked us for passing that one up. However, the highlight of the fair ended up being the Dock Dog Competition. This involved trained dogs jumping off of a makeshift dock into a pool. I know it sounds weird, but we sat there for a good half hour watching these dogs launch themselves into the air. The current world record holder can jump over 31 feet. Watch the video below and tell me you aren't impressed.

After a nice weekend in the Tri-Cities, we were ready to hit the road again for Labor Day Weekend. This time we were off to Portland, OR. Amanda wanted to hit up an outdoor art festival, and I was more than happy to tag along. Portland is the kind of city that just has a really nice feel to it. Sure there's a bunch of hippies running around who may or may not shower, but it's safe, clean, and has most anything you need right within walking distance. Assuming you know where you are going that is. We got hosed on a cab fare because we thought the area we wanted to be at was near our hotel. Oops. Two $30 cab rides later we learned our lesson.

Following our unexpectedly pricey night on the town, we drove north, back into Washington, for a kayaking and wine tasting tour. This unique adventure was Amanda's brainchild, since she discovered it on Groupon. First, we enjoyed 2 hours of guided kayaking on Silver Lake, which is just west of Mount St. Helens. Here we learned about the 1980 volcanic eruption, how this lake was formed from a previous eruption, and all sorts of other fun facts about the area's wildlife.

The view from Silver Lake

Here's our crew cruising along

This was immediately followed by a private wine tasting at Mount St. Helens Cellars. When I say private, I really do mean private. We were at the owner's house, literally doing the tasting in their garage. All tolled, we got thirteen wine samples, which was completely ridiculous.



Welcome to the garage...
I mean tasting room

Amanda checking out
the wine making process












As an added bonus, we even made some new friends on the trip. Kayla and Nate are a couple from north of Seattle who, like us, enjoy a good adventure. Needless to say, we got along quite well. We are currently planning some trips with them, so you'll be sure to hear more about them in the future. This day though, Nate stole the show. The owners of this winery were looking for someone tall to don a Bigfoot suit and pose for the label of their newest wine, Sasquatch in a bottle. Nate was a natural and played the part perfectly. Everyone is eager to see what the label will look like, but here's my vote for which photo to use:



Nate: Part Sasquatch, part stud

That night we set up camp deep in the woods of Gifford Pinchot National Forest. We were nowhere near civilization, in complete solitude, surrounded only by the enormous evergreens Washington is known for. It is such a welcomed escape to find places like this.

Yep, that's the view we woke up to

That being said, we immersed ourselves in the hustle and bustle of big city life by travelling to Seattle the next weekend. We were attending a physical therapy course on shoulder rehab, but it also worked out that our good friend Kate Rook was visiting Seattle at that time too. She used to live in Seattle, but now works in Philly at MossRehab. So after sitting through hours of lectures and lab work, we met up with Kate and she gave us quite the tour of Seattle. She was full of all sorts of facts including history, geography, economics, and current events. You'd be hard pressed to find a better Seattle tour guide. Plus, it's always nice to see a familiar face from home.

Best. Guide. Ever.

Unfortunately, on the drive home from Seattle, we came across a wildfire. It was crazy. We just turned a corner and saw a whole hillside in flames.

Just one of over 200 fires

As of this posting, there are over 200 wildfires actively burning in Washington. There are some mornings we wake up to what smells like a campfire, ash might be laying on our cars, or we see a haziness blurring the skies. This is all a result of the thousands of acres currently burning up. It is a very different place we live in here.

It is also a land of dramatic contrasts. While you have fires consuming forests, you also have glaciers feeding ice cold rivers. Last weekend we decided to take advantage of the latter by going whitewater rafting on the White Salmon River. Once we arrived at Wet Planet Whitewater we got geared up and ready to hit the water. However, we noticed we didn't quite fit in with the rest of the people there. This was even more evident when they had roll call, which went like this:

-Guide: "O'Malley, group of 2?"

-Us: "Here."

-Guide: "Chi, group of 28?"

-The Chi Family: "HERE!"

Yeah, that's right, Amanda and I were the only white people on this rafting trip. There were two other couples rafting as well, but they were a mix of Indians and Asians. So all together our rafting group consisted of 29 Asians, 3 Indians, and 2 Caucasians. Go us.

It ended up being a great group though. We paired up with the other couples while the Chi family divided themselves up and we headed down the river. This river consists of Class III and IV rapids, with one Class V rapid. So yeah, it gets rough at times and you definitely get wet. Oh, and did I mention the water temperature is only about 40 degrees? The splashing of the rapids will definitely wake you up.

At one point along the trip, there was an area where we had to get out and hike through the woods to avoid a waterfall that was too dangerous to raft over. Once you hiked to the top of the waterfall you had two choices, jump off a cliff about 30 feet above the water into the frigid river and swim to your raft, or keep hiking to get back to your boat. We made the obvious choice that any sane human being would make, we jumped!

Luckily, they don't even give you time to think about it, they just say "1-2-3, JUMP!" and off you go. Next thing you know you hit the water and are being swept down the river as you struggle to swim back to your raft. It was pure exhilaration though. And yes, the water temperature is still only 40 degrees. It's only after you get back into the boat and you see other people doing it that you think, "Maybe that wasn't such a good idea."

At the end of the raft trip, you are given one final choice, you can either hike back to the Wet Planet headquarters or ride over the only Class V rapid in this section of the river. This rapid is known as Husum Falls. It's not so much a rapid, as it is a 12 foot drop.

File footage of Husum Falls

Of course, Amanda, myself, and our group agreed to attack Husum falls. The guides do a great job of preparing you for how to brace yourself and reduce your chances of falling out of the raft. No one from our boat fell out, but it is scary because after you reach the bottom of the falls, your whole raft literally goes underwater before you pop back up and continue to float downstream. It was one of those moments that leave you speechless because you can't possibly describe what just happened. I have always wanted to go whitewater rafting and this trip was everything I hoped it would be. I loved every second of it. It was easily one of the best experiences we've had thus far.

We haven't gotten the pictures from this trip back yet (we took a waterproof camera), but we will post them as soon as we get them. In the meantime, you can check out Wet Planet's video about the White Salmon River trip to get an idea of what we experienced.

As a little something extra, here is a great video I found on YouTube that is a compilation of rafting groups going over Husum Falls. Thankfully, we were more successful than the groups featured in this video. Enjoy!

Well, there you have it. All caught up. We've been trying hard to keep you in the loop with where we've been going and what we've been doing. Every time we thought we gained ground, we just kept slipping back. But finally, you are all caught up with our adventures. Hopefully we'll be able to stay on task and give you up to date information, as opposed to old news. Thanks for being patient while following us on our journey.

National Park #5

After another sunny day in eastern Washington, I'm ready to reminisce about our 1st big experience west of this high altitude desert.  So sit back and relax...here we go!

We wanted to take advantage of a 3 day weekend we built into our contract knowing that it would take us longer to drive to weekend destinations then it did in the Midwest.  With so many outdoor wonders in these parts it was hard to know where to start, but we made the decision to head west (& slightly north) toward the 5th National Park on our American adventure - Mount Rainier.  As it turns out, our 5th National Park was also the United States of America's 5th National Park, established in 1899.

Mount Rainier's peak stands at 14,410 ft.
10,643 people attempted to climb to the peak in 2010,
4,920 people actually made it to the summit.

Mount Rainier is considered an active volcano approximately 50,000 years old, young compared to the surrounding Cascade Mountains that are estimated to be at least 12 million years old.  It last erupted in the early to mid 1800's, thus it poses risks that are associated with the volcano as well as its glaciers, i.e. mud flows (lahars) & glacial outburst floods. 

With it still being summer, the park campgrounds fill up quickly so we did some research and decided to try a "rustic" campsite just southeast of the park boundaries.  A patient of mine recommended this site as well, so we felt good about it, but hoped it wasn't too much of a hot spot as we deviated from the paved road in the direction of Summit Creek campground.

Much to our (my) surprise 5 out of 6 campsites were open!  I say that I was surprised, not Charlie and myself, because Charlie seems to think I'm a pessimist, I think I'm a realist.  Anyway...it was a relief to get our site set up and then take our time to explore the area a bit and eat our lunch by the flowing stream just below the campsite before heading to Mount Rainier.

Charlie, one with nature.

By early afternoon we were entering the park via the southeast entrance and quickly learned that Mount Rainier National Park has a lot more to offer than just the giant mountain in the middle of it. We spent our first afternoon in the Ohanapecosh area, which is not accessible during the winter months due to road closures. Ohanapecosh (please don't ask me to say that out loud!) is teeming with green forest and the refreshing smell of pine. We learned this area is an old-growth forest made up of multi-layered canopies with Douglas firs, western red cedars, and western hemlocks.  With the guidance of a park ranger we found ourselves on a 5 mile hike that followed the Ohanapecosh River.  The river originates from a glacier on Mount Rainer and has stunning clear water appearing turquoise in color. 

Look at that water!
(Don't mind the awkward girl in the picture.)

We passed a variety of water falls and then found ourselves crossing a very precarious suspension bridge with a sign that suggests only one person at a time walk on it.  This took us to Grove of the Patriarchs, a small island that is home to thousand year old trees and feels somewhat magical, like stepping back in time.  Trees this old are big, very big.

I told you they are big.

Evening was approaching so we headed back to our wonderful campsite, cooked dinner over our open fire (easily started thanks to Aunt Betty's fire starters!) and hit the sack excited for what our second day in Mount Rainier National Park had to offer.

We headed back into the park nice and early on Saturday with Paradise being our destination.  Paradise is centrally located at the base of Mount Rainier, has the park's main visitor center, and is the hub of winter activities in the park as it averages 53 ft of snow per year.  We were unsure of exactly where we'd be hiking because we're finding the best place to get a detailed map of National Park trails is from a visitor center in the area you'll be exploring.  Another ranger led us in the right direction as we set off on Skyline trail, a 5.4 mile loop to 7,100 ft (not even half way up the 14,410 ft mountain).  We were once again in awe of nature's beauty as we were surrounded by subalpine meadows and forests, interspersed with creeks running down the mountain from the many glaciers above.  Parts of the trail were covered with large amounts of snow from the precipitous winters.  We were glad to be wearing hiking boots!



We decided to veer from the Skyline trail to ascend a bit further and and make contact with a portion of the Muir Glacier, a snowfield where avid skier & snowboarders will hike to get a summer ride in.  This type of skiing takes a bit too much effort in my opinion.  Charlie went a little further than I did, hiking a bit up the snowfield and loving it.  It was a strenuous but gratifying hike and truly put perspective on how mighty this mountain is. 

We hope to return to Mount Rainier National Park this winter and experience it from a whole new perspective wearing snow shoes or cross country skis.

We've had additional adventures since visiting Mount Rainier, which Charlie is very eager to blog about, so keep an eye out for another post in the near future.

Summertime at Mount Rainier