Christmas Lights in Leavenworth

This past weekend some friends and I rented a cabin in Leavenworth to see the Tree Lighting Ceremony.  While we largely enjoyed relaxing in a roomy cabin right on the river and close to town, we also had a great time walking around Leavenworth.  The town was packed with people on Saturday so there were long lines for some of the businesses but we still made our way through some shops and to get some mulled wine.  The lights at night were stunning.  On Sunday the town was much less crowded to we managed to get a brat (veggie brat for me) and pretzel without a wait at one of the popular outdoor restaurants  - with heat lamps of course!

Fall Color

With the great weather lasting into October I really wanted to get in one last backpack trip to see the larches.  Arriving in the afternoon at the trailhead for Ingalls Lake I was surprised that the parking lot was beyond full and there was a long line of cars parked along the road.  I guess everyone had the same idea and the payoff was great!

Sunset on Mt Stuart

Ingalls Lake

Spectacle Lake

Labor Day weekend I headed with a few friends to do a loop in the Spectacle Lake area.  The weather turned it into an in-and-out instead of the planned loop, but it's a great area and I'll definitely be back to explore more of the area in a future summer and hopefully do the loop another time.

Friday night we hiked in 4 miles to camp at Pete Lake and enjoyed a campfire and starry night.

Pete Lake

Saturday it started raining around 11am and didn't really stop after that.  We got a brief respite when we arrived at Spectacle Lake and set up our campsite.  It rained all night and the weather was still drippy the next day so we decided to hike out.

Spectacle Lake

Spectacle Lake

Spectacle Lake

There is a stream crossing between Pete and Spectacle Lake and with all the rain on Saturday is was quite a bit higher on the way out.

Stream crossing

RSVP 1

This summer was my first time riding the RSVP ride from Seattle to Vancouver BC.  I did STP (Seattle to Portland) a couple years ago and my bike had been mostly collecting dust since then so I decided I needed to sign up for another organized ride.  RSVP (Ride from Seattle to Vancouver and Party) is 188 miles with a stop for 2 day riders like myself in Bellingham.  We've had a beautiful summer and training for the ride involved lots of sunny day riding.  On August 15th, Day 1 of the ride, our luck with the weather ran out and it rained for about the first 50 miles, quite heavily at times.  My friend said she felt like someone was pouring a bucket of water on her as we rode down a big hill in Woodinville.  Still we enjoyed the ride and Sunday the weather was slightly better with only some light rain.  The weather cleared up by the time we reached Vancouver and we enjoyed spending Sunday walking around the city and taking the train back to Seattle.

Views from Chuckanut

Getting to the top of the hill before Bellingham

Removing furniture dents in carpet

One of our staff introduced me to a technique to remove unsightly furniture dents from carpet using ice cubes.  You just let the ice cube melt in the dent and it seemingly magically fluffs back up!  The technique is listed in detail here.

Nepal 2014

In April 2014 I traveled to Nepal to trek around the Annapurna Circuit, known to be one of the world's most beautiful treks.  The views certainly exceeded my expectations.  One of the wonderful things about the trek is that the views start out great and only get better each day of trekking.  My small trekking team consisted of a guide, porter, and another trekker from Spain, although certainly you could opt to do the route without guide and porter.  I wouldn't recommend going solo for safety reasons, and we saw several missing person flyers along the route.  We hiked the full circuit, going over our high point at Thorung La Pass, and continuing past Jomson to finish the circuit.  We also added on some side trips taking the treacherous route to snow covered Tilicho Lake, and staying at a community lodge in Mohare Danda.  After the trek I stayed in Pokhara and Bhaktapur (a great alternative to Kathmandu) before flying home.  Below are some of the many photos from my trip.  Enjoy!

There were lots of waterfalls at the lower elevations as we started our trek. 

Starting to get some views of what our guide called "hills."

Prayer wheels.

View of Annapurna II from Upper Pisang.

Me in front of Annapurna II.

Panorama of Annapurna II on the left and Annapurna III on the right.

Annapurna II with mani stones.

One of many suspension bridges.

Looking back at the landslide zone we crossed en route to Tilicho Lake.

Tilicho Lake covered in snow!  One of the highest lakes in the world at 16,240 feet.

High Camp: last camp before Thorung La Pass.  Elevation 15,850 ft.

Early morning trek to Thorung La Pass.

Me with my trekking team at Thorung La Pass; 17,800 feet.

Juniper and Pine forest at lower elevation.

Sunrise view from the popular Poon Hill.  Elevation 10,500 feet.

Lots of Rhododendron trees blooming at higher elevations. 

Fewa Lake in Pokhara, where I recuperated after the trek.

Stone carving at a temple in Bhaktapur.

Durbar Square in Bhaktapur.

Pottery Square in Bhaktapur.

Changu Narayan temple near Bhaktapur.  Considered to be the oldest temple in Nepal.

Milwaukee Railway Road

Trying to find a snow free, rain free one night backpack to do in March, a friend and I ended up heading to Eastern Washington to hike on the old Milwaukee Railway Road.  You can hike up to 20 miles on this old railway, but we hiked in around 5 miles before camping.  Lots of birds and interesting things, such as an old log cabin, to investigate along the way.  It's also a hunting area so we did get a bit nervous hearing some target shooting closer to the hills.  The weather was great with just strong wind gust in the first part of the night that prompted us to securely tie down our tent.  We left the sunshine behind, heading back into Seattle's heavy rain Sunday evening.