Bluff Lake Trail and Clear Lake Campground

Doug, Naomi, Ryan, Bob, Alex, Tara, Carolyn and myself hiked Bluff Lake trail which is located near Packwood, WA. We didn't see a single person on the trail ... no cars at the trailhead. This was nice because I was looking for a little used trail.

The trail ended up having a bit too much snow on it. It was hard to follow, so we ended up turning back earlier than I had envisioned. I think it is worth returning to later in the year. With more elevation, I think we would have had great views of the surrounding area. We had a couple nice views of Mount Rainier.

Check out the GPS data here ... View in Google Maps

Here are two panoramas I took from our campground ...


From near the trailhead ...

Mailbox Peak Hike and Bachelor Party

Hiking Dog Mountain

Bob, Ryan, Emily, Carolyn and I went to Dog Mountain for some hiking. The Dog Mountain trailhead is right off of Highway 14 on the Washington side of the Columbia River Gorge. I have read that in the late spring and summer the trail sees heavy use. It is located close to Portland and Vancouver.

I figured hiking this early in the spring we would probably run into some snow on the mountain. We sure did! Quite a bit more than any of us were expecting. We came prepared though. It was very windy for the last mile of the trail. There wasn't much tree cover.

I took my GPS to track our trail. You can view it in Google Earth or on Google maps. The GPS lost signal a few times so there were breaks in the data. I just connected up the end points so it isn't very accurate in some places.

Definitely stick to the right hand trail when going up the mountain. The views are much nicer. We didn't get to enjoy them that much because of the cloud cover though.

Summit: 2,956 feet
Elevation Gain: 2,806 feet

6 miles round trip



After the hike I posted my first "Trip Report" on http://www.wta.org/. I found this website to be a great resource for trail information, so I thought I'd try to contribute a little.

Bad Postal Service

I went to the mailbox to get our mail last night. I was expecting to see a Blu-ray disc from Netflix in there for the movie Rent.

To my surprise, it wasn't there. At least that's what I thought at first. There was an envelope from the US postal service that said something about how they try and do a good job sorting and delivering mail without damaging anything ... but occasionally damage does occur.

I opened the package and there was my Netflix movie! Although, not in the condition we usually receive them. I'm not sure what happened, but it looks like someone tried to open the envelope with a chainsaw.

Running again with Nikeplus

Carolyn and I have been getting back into running. We have done at least 3 runs per week for the last month now. Last year we used the Nike+ kit with our iPods to track our runs. Unfortunely, the sensor only seems to last a year. We had to purchase 2 new Nike+ sensors this year. Too bad it didn't last as long as we were hoping but it is a really cool gadget. It's worth investing in a 2nd time.

My favorite feature of the Nike+ kit has always been the graphs. Every time you sync your iPod, the data for all your runs is automatically uploaded to nike.com. You can then visit the website and see a graph of your run.

Looks like nikeplus.com now has a new feature. I'm testing out putting a plot of my run on a webpage. You should be able to browse my last 5 runs using this webpage widget below. Very cool!

Mt St Helens - Monitor Ridge Route

This weekend Carolyn and I along with Doug, Naomi and Bob met up with a group of friends from Seattle to climb Mt. St. Helens.

We started at 7:25 am on September 9th. We reached the crater rim around 12:15pm.

The view was amazing. We spent about an hour at the top taking in the view, shooting photos and eating lunch.

The climb back down was very hard on the feet and ankles. We reached Climber's Bivouac at 5pm.

It was a challenging hike, but the view was worth it. It was so neat to see the new cone building up inside the crater and steam coming out.

In general, the Monitor Ridge route to the top of Mt. St. Helens consisted of 2 miles of well kept trail through trees, 2 miles of climbing up a boulder field, and 1 mile of steep gravelly ash to the top.

Here is some more detailed information from the GPS.

Climber's Bivouac: 3,737 feet
Tree Line: 4,836 feet
Crater Rim: 8,281 feet

Elevation Gain: 4,544 feet

9.5 miles round trip
9 1/2 hours round trip

See our path in Google Earth

Golfing Golfland

Carolyn and I went golfing with Aaron today. We went to this course in Pasco called Golfland (see it in Google Earth). It was only $9 per person for 9 holes. The course is a par 3.

We started off by sharing a small bucket of ball on the driving range. Everyone was all over the place. Some shots went far, some toppers, slices, hooks. It wasn't pretty. Maybe it was the heat (100 degrees!). The driving range was cool because it had lots of old satellite dishes to shoot at. We came close to hitting one, but just overshot it.

After the driving range, we headed to the course for a round of nine holes. We did MUCH better on the course. Aaron had a great first shot on the 2nd hole pictured here. He put it right on the green only 3 or 4 feet from the hole. Amazing! On the 6th hole, we encountered two chickens. One had a crazy punk-rocker-like hairdo. Strange. Aaron tried to get them to peck a golf ball but they weren't interested.

Last year Carolyn and I went golfing several times. She had some trouble getting good loft on the ball. After the first hole, Aaron told her to just step up and whack it. That's what worked for him. So Carolyn gave it a try. She stepped up (and with no practice swings) hit a solid shot. It had great loft and travelled straight! She continued doing well on many of the holes. Huge improvement over last year. It was fun to see.

Everyone had a great time. I'm sure we'll go golfing again. A par 3 course works well for our skill level. I think we'll try the course at Columbia Park next time.