Father/Daughter Hike

Brad and Kylie planned a "last hurrah" backpacking trip, thirty miles over four days, up near Staircase.  They ended up doing 20 miles in less than 24 hours!  Kylie got an eye infection the first night and they had to turn around and come home.

 

Here they are, blissfully unaware of what's to come! 

Crossing the bridge at Staircase.

 

Made it to the first night's camp site!

Next morning, ready to head back.

Brad's favorite spot!

They said there were all kinds of berries everywhere.

Notice Kylie is now wearing sunglasses, the light really hurt her eye.

They met up with another hiker and enjoyed his stories for a while on the way down.

Back to the river, almost there!

They made it!  Exhausted, for sure!  They were pretty disappointed not to be able to do the whole trip.  Maybe next year. 

Covered Bridge Regatta

  Brad and I went down to Eugene, Oregon to watch Kylie row in the Covered Bridge Regatta, held on Dexter Lake, and to celebrate our 21st anniversary.  It was a beautiful Spring weekend, and we enjoyed a stroll through the Mt. Pisgah Arboretum before heading out to the lake.

 

 

 

 

How can we possibly have been married for 21 years?  Do we even look old enough?

 

 

 

 The Covered Bridge Regatta is named for an actual covered bridge at the top of Dexter Lake.

 

You can't drive across it anymore.  It's been turned into a museum, which unfortunately was closed when we were there.

Team bonding before the race.

Their 8+ boat won 1st!

 

 

It's tradition to throw the winning cox into the lake!

And their 4+ won 2nd.  A great regatta and a beautiful weekend!

Mt. Hood on our way home. 

We also saw Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Rainier, but I wasn't fast enough to get pictures. 

1-5 is a volcano corridor!

Weekend get-away at Westport

Mid-fall isn't the most logical time to go to the beach, especially in Washington, but it's still beautiful! We went to Westport with the Olivers and had a very relaxing weekend full of walks on the beach, playing games, eating good food, and long, uninterrupted conversations!

When we arrived it was low tide and we went for a walk while the sun set...

and the moon rose!

The Westport lighthouse peaks out over the trees.  I was surprised it was so far away from the water.

The next day the clouds rolled in and we knew it was going to rain, but braved a walk anyway.  We set out along a nice, 2 mile paved path along the beach.

At the end is a big observation tower, which we climbed to get a better view.  Then the rain started. We walked into town, which was virtually deserted, and escaped into a small diner.  After a few minutes, we realized the rain was coming down harder.  We debated about calling a taxi or walking back in the pouring rain.  Brad jokingly offered one of the diner employees $5 to give us ride back to our condo, and he said, "Sure!  I'm just getting off work, anyway!"  Small tourist towns in the off-season do have their virtues!

Ozette Triangle Hike

Brad and I have wanted to take the kids on a backpacking trip for a long time.  We finally made it happen this summer.  The Ozette Triangle is a 9 mile hike, 6 miles of it along a mostly boardwalk trail and 3 miles along the coast.  We added about four miles to the hike by going up the coast two miles to a more secluded spot.

Starting out...very excited!

Still at the very beginning...

About a mile in it opens up to a nice meadow area.

And after three miles, we reached the coast!

These markers show where the trail is.

The view towards the coast from the end of the first leg.

And the lovely bathroom facilities...this was pretty plush, some of them only had half walls!

Heading up the coast.

 

Kylie loves to climb! 

Taking a break.

Scrambling over the rocks was one of the hardest parts of the hike.  Ben was a natural and sprinted ahead of us (you can barely see him up front with the blue pack.)  We gave him the nickname "mountain goat."

We were worried about bears, but these deer were the only wildlife we saw.

We missed the window for low tide, so we had to climb up and over at the very end to get back to the beach.

Trying to start a fire.

Preparing dinner.  We precooked chicken and couscous, then warmed it over the fire.  Delicious!

 

Here's our first night's camping spot.  The weather turned drizzly and cold in the evening, so we went to bed early hoping to wake up to sun. 

Unfortunately it wasn't sunny when we woke up, but the rain had stopped and it was warmer. 

Heading back down the coast.  This time the tide was low and we were able to walk around the point.  I think it was easier to go up and over!

 

A dead whale...yuck!  I wanted to take their picture and they said, "Hurry up! It stinks!"  I wonder how long it had been there...

Going around another point, we found these petroglyphs.  We stopped for lunch here and talked about who could have made them and what they might mean.  Ben decided it was from an episode of Psych where Shawn said he is going to propose to Juliette.  Gus would be standing on one side of Shawn and Juliette on the other while an Orca jumps over all of them. Maybe the Native Americans were psychic, just like Shawn. 

After our five mile hike down the coast, we reached Sand Point and looked for a camping spot for our second night. 

After about an hour, the rain moved in and we decided we would rather hike another three miles back to the car than spend another wet night!

 

This was a great hike for our first backpacking with kids experience!  It's mostly flat, but scrambling over the rocks was tough in some spot, which Ben really enjoyed.