Mt Adams



So our next big adventure (which by now was several weeks ago) was to summit the second tallest mountain in the state! The same friends we did the last trip with have been checking off all of the Washington mountains, so their next one was Mt Adams. It's not terribly technical, so we decided to get in on this adventure. We had to get permits several weeks in advance, so coincidentally it ended up being on the weekend that my parents were also in town. Unfortunately that meant we missed a day of hanging out with them, but it also meant we had a puppy sitter for Ben at the house! There's no way he would have made it up this mountain, it was far too icy and steep.

We started out by leaving work early Friday afternoon and driving down to the base of Mt Adams. By that time it was already around 7pm, so we hiked in a couple of miles that night and met up with Corey and Allison who had already set up camp at Morrison Creek. It was a great location that was still far enough down the mountain and in enough trees to be somewhat warm and blocked from winds. 







We got a few hours of sleep before getting up and hitting the trail around 4am. We left all the big stuff at our camp site and just brought the essentials up the mountain. After another hour or so we ended up at Lunch Counter which is where most people camp out. It was really lovely there, but also super windy and cold so I'm really glad we camped further down the mountain. There also weren't any trees at that point up the mountain, so I'm sure bathroom breaks were a little precarious in the middle of the night.. We stopped here behind a rock shelter to have out coffee and breakfast before the tough part of the climb.









A little past that point is where we put on our crampons as it got much icier and steeper. From there on it was pure ice and nearly a 45 degree incline straight up the mountain. The first relief you hit is the false summit, only to realize you have to go down the other side and up even further to the real summit. At this point the climb is nearly done though, so you just have to push on. Finally up at the summit, it was freeeeezing. Even taking gloves off to take a few pictures, I lasted about 5 photos before I had to warm up my hands to make them work again. It was really pretty though and totally worth it! From the top you can see the north side of the mountain and get great views of Mt Rainier. It was also a perfectly blue skied day which was amazing!











After our few minutes on the summit, we got to do the fun part...glissading down the mountain! This is pretty much just sliding on your butt all the way down the mountain in chutes that have been carved out of the ice/snow by other people doing the same thing. It makes the distance much quicker/easier to cover! You get moving pretty fast on some of the good chutes, so I had my ice axe out to dig into the sides for a brake as well. There were a few parts where I got going fast enough around a curve that it just shot me right out of the chute too! By the end we were completely soaked and full of snow, but made it down really quick!



We got back to our camp site and packed up quickly and headed back down to the trailhead to drive back to Seattle. The next day I got to spend Father's Day with my father which is the first time is a really long time that that has happened! We went to church in the morning followed by brunch and a nice lazy day. It was great having them around for a few days and hopefully they'll be making the big move out west soon to join us all on the Best Coast ;)

Buckhorn Wilderness

Second backpacking trip of the year was a great success! We had planning to do an overnight with some friends of ours and the original plan was to head up to the Mt Baker wilderness. Turns out there's still a good amount of snow up there and we were all kind of looking forward to a warm sunny weekend. We did some last minute brainstorming (aka a bbq and their house) and decided that the Olympic peninsula was the only place that was essentially snow free at this point, so that would be our best bet. I found a map of a the Buckhorn wilderness that had several trails throughout it. Allison and Cory went out Friday to start their hike and told us which trail to meet them on the next day. We left early Saturday morning to catch a ferry over to the peninsula. We got to the trail head around noon and started our 10 miles in to meet them at camp. It was a perfectly sunny day out and the hike was gorgeous!















It was a beautiful night to camp. The stars were out in full force and it really wasn't cold at all. We actually just bought a double sleeping bag (essentially a sleeping mat cover and a down comforter) which we tried out this weekend and it worked perfectly. It was almost too warm! Ben is also getting much better and spending the night outdoors. He didn't even want to come into the tent, but we made him just so we could zip it up to keep bugs out and keep him from wandering off. Normally he could just sleep in the bag vestibule outside of the tent, but it was so nice out that we didn't even bring the rain fly for the tent, so we just had out mesh enclosure.

Sunday morning we got moving slowly with some coffee and breakfast before packing up and heading back up and over the mountain. This time we took the little detour to the lake which was a perfect stopping point for lunch. We also took the little detour to see a 1952 B-17 crash site just up the mountain from the trail.









Peru.2

Aaaand back in Peru, which I think we've decided is our new favorite country. We will definitely be coming back here. We got into Lima and rested a bit from our early morning flight before hitting up the town again. This time we wandered down to some ruins that are right in the heart of the city. Apparently they have been relatively recently discovered as well. One of the guides there mentioned that his father used to play on these hills until the discovered that underneath the hills were actually pyramids made of clay bricks hundreds of years old! The brick work was pretty fascinating. The people that made these ruins were actually who Lima was named after (the Lima tribe). It was crazy to see these ancient ruins in the middle of a modern city. They are still doing a lot of excavations so maybe in a few more years there will be even more to see!

We spent the rest of the day wandering around the coastline. We went to the Parque del Amor (park of love) and watched parasailers flying over the coastline. We also got some more delicious food...and more food...

The next morning we had to get up bright and early for a tour I had booked. I use the word tour a bit loosely since really it was just a private chauffer for the day to take us to a few places outside of the city because driving in Peru is a bit dicey. They picked us up at 4:30am and the guide was full of information. Apparently he was a 21 year old working his way through college for restaurant management and tourism. One of the reasons I wanted to book one of these tours was because the company is actually a non profit who uses the proceeds of the tours to help the slum areas of Lima. We started off our day (after 3 hours of driving) with a boat ride out to Islas Ballestas...the mini Galapagos Islands. Its a huge bird sanctuary island off the coast of Peru. We even got to see a bunch of little humbolt penguins!

After the boat ride we grabbed lunch in town and again...it was fabulous. I don't think I would ever get sick of Peruvian food. After lunch we drove another hour or so in the Ica desert. There's a little oasis in the middle of sand dunes that has a little town built up around it. I'm super glad we went there now because apparently it's about to become super popular and have a few big hotel chains moving into the area. For now, there's just a bunch of locals and hippie backpackers. we hopped on a dune buggie that whisked us off into the ocean of sand. We road up and down the dunes and even got to try out a little sand boarding. These were some super steep dunes...so clearly there was a lot of screaming going on on my part ;)

Our ride home was great, our guide gave us some incite on how a lot of Peruvians live. Apparently if you have a home in a place for 15 years, you then own the land. So we saw a lot of little shanty towns that were unoccupied and he said people are setting up empty houses (sometimes just a few pieces of wood slapped together) to claim land for moving there in the future. It was so strange. Also apparently people leave rebar sticking out on the top of their walls so their house appears to be under construction still so that they don't have to pay taxes. Really strange. We made it back to Lima and killed a few hours drinking delicious cocktails across the street from our hotel before getting a ride back to the airport. 20 hours later we were back in sunny Seattle ready for more summer adventures ;)