I heard rumors (aka whining on facebook) of a massive snow dump in the Cascades while I was in Norway, so JK and I decided to cross-country ski up Amabilis Mountain on Sunday. Apparently we should have done more research, since there was barely any snow for the first 1.5 miles and the white stuff we encountered the rest of the way was hardly fit for skiing (although I could just be saying this to cover up my lack of skiing skills).

I was also totally unprepared for how deliciously warm it would be. It was amazing! I rolled my pants up (and cursed myself for wearing my black ninja clothes instead of a t-shirt) and went on to stockpile enough vitamin D to last me all week.

After optimistically putting our skis on and dejectedly having to take them off again about seven times due to the random whims of the pathetic snow cover, we got annoyed and decided to forge ahead, snow or no snow:

Once we hit continuous snow, the rest of the trip was a breeze. This little mountain has a lot of views for minimal effort. We soaked up some more sun at the top while eating cowboy cookies and taking in the scenery.

Skiing back down was like trying to push myself forward through some sort thick, gloopy paste, but (miraculously!) we made it back to the car without a single fall.

This was a great little cross-country ski tour even for a novice (I fear I am forever entrenched in this category); it’s a gentle uphill all the way, which fortunately also means it’s a gentle downhill on the way back. According to my GPS, our loop was 11 miles with 2,500 feet of elevation gain.

Park at the Cabin Creek Sno Park (you need a groomed trails pass in the winter when there is actually snow that can be groomed). North of the freeway, ski (in our case, walk) Forest Service Road 4826 until you get to the sign for Amabilis Mountain/FS 4822. After two miles or so, you get to a junction; both roads lead to the top.

As if the day wasn’t good enough already, we stopped and had phở on the way home. Aah, Washington, how I have missed you.

Oh, hello there. I seem to have flipped my marmot switch and entered full hibernation mode this past week. In an effort to rouse me from my slothful slumber, I’ve been going through photos from warmer, sunnier times.

Last summer we got one of those tiny little camcorder things with the idea that we were going to put together little videos of our backpacking trips, but of course that didn’t happen. Today we decided to rectify the situation by putting together a video of our alpine lake dips from 2009. If you’re really bored or just have 8 minutes to kill, here it is:

It’s also available in HD if for some reason you need to see my ample bottom more clearly.

Since we spent Sunday cleaning and organizing our house (I know, it shouldn’t even be legal to spend a beautiful, sunny day engaged in such perverse activities), we decided to get out for some midweek hikes to bump our mileage up for the Hike-a-thon.

We didn’t have much time on Tuesday, so once JK could get out of work we headed off to our favorite close-to-home hike, the Chirico trail up to Poo Poo Point on Tiger Mountain. This short but relatively steep trail is very popular, not only with hikers but with the paragliders that use Poo Poo Point as a launch area. Earlier this year we came across a Washington Trails Association work party doing some much needed trail maintenance here, exactly the kind of work the Hike-a-thon donations will be going towards (hint hint). ;)

On Wednesday, our friends Tom and Amy joined us for what was supposed to be a quick, post-work jaunt up to Snow Lake. We left grey, cold (yup, the heat wave is definitely over), depressing Redmond and drove up to happy, sunny Snoqualmie Pass. Success!

The water in the lake was surprisingly warm, so we escaped the mosquitoes by swimming. Wellie got in the water three or four times; I am still confused as to whether he likes it or if he’s just trying to rescue us:

We started hiking back to the car at sunset, but unfortunately poor Amy rolled her ankle on the way down. I had sports tape (I always carry it since my ankles are useless from years of playing handball in Norway) so she was able to tape her ankle tightly enough to walk out on her own with hiking poles. We slowly and carefully made our way back to the car under a beautiful moon and a layer of fog.

All this midweek hiking is making me feel very good, both physically and mentally - it’s nice to keep the endorphins flowing throughout the week instead of just spiking every weekend.

We spent last week hiding in the basement (where it was marginally less sweltering than upstairs), going to the movies where they happen to have air conditioning, swimming in lake Washington and eating lots and lots of watermelon.

During the worst of the heat I didn’t even want to think about hiking, but by Saturday the temperature had dropped enough for us to start considering hitting the trail. We figured the best way to beat the heat would be to swim in a glacier-fed lake, so we hiked up to beautiful Blanca Lake off US2.

Even with temperatures in the 90’s, the 8 miles and 3300 feet of elevation gain to Blanca were a small price to pay to get to such an amazing place. I haven’t seen a color like this since we went to Jade Lake last year, and that one was much less accessible.

Usually I let JK test the waters before I hesitatingly dip my feet, but Blanca was so inviting that I jumped right in. Heaven!!

We spent a lovely afternoon there, swimming and eating and synthesizing vitamin D.

Wellie seemed to have learned from last time and chose not to jump in, even though I had the camera ready. Hrmf. Does anyone have a video editing program they like that’s either free or very cheap? And tips for holding the camera still? And for not sounding like a dumbass while narrating..?

Since this was August 1, it was our first official hike in the Washington Trail Association’s Hike-a-thon. WTA does a lot of invaluable work protecting and maintaining trails, not to mention advocating to keep our wilderness areas wild for generations to come.

During the month of August we (well, mostly me since JK already used most of his vacation time) will attempt to hike 100 miles (8 down, 92 to go!) and hopefully raise some money for this excellent organization. JK will be donating a dollar per mile and his employer will match this amount, so I am motivated and ready to go! If you want to contribute, any amount, would be greatly appreciated!

It would be great if all of those 100 miles turned out as perfect as the 8 on Saturday, but knowing Washington I expect to be battling rain and fog in the not-too-distant future. Keep your fingers crossed for sunny weather (sans heat waves, of course)!

Poor Bobby has been suffering from various ailments (intestinal issues and broken bones) all year and hasn’t been able to hike much, so now that he has a clean bill of health we wanted to gently reintroduce him to the mountains. With 19 miles RT and only 1550 feet of elevation gain (according to the book, but it felt like more - possibly because it’s been a while since I carried a full pack. And possibly due to all the laziness and fatness. Ahem.), Spectacle Lake in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness seemed to fit the bill.

We took it easy on the way in to make sure Bobby was doing ok, and stopped after 4 or so flat miles to have lunch by Pete Lake. I have never heard anything positive about Pete at all, so I was pleased to find a very pretty little lake nestled below some impressive mountain scenery.

Bobby seemed happy and energetic even in the heat, so we carried on towards Spectacle Lake. After 7 miles or so we got to the double creek crossing where a ranger was hanging signs - apparently the bridge is out on the alternate trail via the PCT, so you have to ford the creek either way. It wasn’t deep, but it was pretty damn cold - here’s a video of the first half of the crossing:

We hiked onward and (finally!) upward with the ranger for a bit (hi Billie! ) until she forked off towards Escondido and left us to battle the dusty switchbacks up to Spectacle. The first view of the lake from the ridge is amazing, I fell in love instantly. Unfortunately the local mosquitoes had similar amorous feelings for us, so we hurried down and along the lakeshore to find a good campsite.

JK eventually spotted a great site at the very tip of the little peninsula, and we wasted no time getting the tent up and hiding inside. JK went for a quick swim, but apart from that and eating dinner, we pretty much spent the whole evening in the tent, reading and snoozing. Stupid little vampires.

We were hoping it would be better the next day since it was supposed to be windy, but by then the mosquitoes were bad enough that we elected to have breakfast in the tent, something we never do. We spent a couple more hours reading before deciding to just give up and hike out.

We cleaned off some trail dust in Pete Lake (heavenly!) on the way out and hurried out the last four miles to the car. I need to either grow thicker skin or be more liberal with the DEET. We spent a month in India for our honeymoon and the mosquitoes were NOTHING compared to here in the Cascades.

I might have been less pissy about the skeeters if the little buggers had been polite enough to avoid my face, but noooo, I had to walk around for the next week with a face full of what looked like giant, bulbous zits.

Here’s a clip from JK (and Wellie’s!!) swim in Pete Lake - it’s a wee bit long since I haven’t found a video editing program yet.

Hopefully I’ll be able to go back here later in the season when the little bloodsucking monsters have died.

On Sunday we braved the gloomy weather and headed to Talapus Lake near Snoqualmie Pass and were rewarded with *drum roll* actual rays of sun!! It disappeared again after our hike, but there have been several confirmed sun sightings throughout the week. The forecast for this weekend is looking ridiculously good, so I’m crossing my fingers that Juneuary might be over for this year (bah, now I’m probably jinxing it)…

Ok, so can someone explain to me how to take photos of snow without it looking either grey or totally blown out?? I’ve read about it several times but apparently my brain can’t seem to process the information.

Take a look at the snow levels - Talapus Lake is only at 3,250 feet!

Bobby’s poor little Italian paws were getting a little cold in the snow, so we tried his booties for the first time. They may look absolutely ridiculous, but they did stop the shivering!

I’m off to plan hikes for the weekend, so I’ll leave you with my layout for this week’s challenge (flowers flowers flowers!) over at Scrappedugnad. Don’t ask me why (uhm, because we’re weird?), but we’ve started calling Bobby Miguel.

The gorgeous paper is from the Norwegian company 3ndypapir :D

Ugh, I’ve had a really bad week, headache-wise. I get these really evil migraines that just last for days on end so I basically can’t do anything even remotely productive. I’ve spent the whole week sleeping and listening to podcasts. Seriously. Ugh.

Anyway, I cranked out a couple of quick layouts tonight while watching The Office. The first one is for Lain Ehmann’s Thirty-Minute Thursday challenge - this is the third one I’ve participated in and I love them. This week’s thaang is to use old photos, so I found these shots of my brother and I - I love the first one; it is so descriptive of how little sisters always look up to their big brothers. So I wrote about that.

The layout itself is borderline fugly, but I had fun :o)

The next one is a remake of one of my SoY-layouts - the photos and journaling were printed wrong on the version I sent in and I didn’t have time to fix it, so I decided to print it out again today and add some new paper. And journaling spots. And handwriting. And a new title. But the general idea is the same. Heh.

(You’ll see that I am still going strong on that one sheet of BasicGrey letter stickers…this means I still haven’t moved the rest of my stash out of storage. Because I’m lazy like that.)

I’m going to bed now, but here’s a little nugget for the Bobby fans out there (so basically it’s just for Siv Katrine :D) -this is what he sounds like when he wants attention. Do you see what I have to put up with?? Gosh.

Last night I was going through our MyBook, and I found a bunch of old video clips from when we lived in Trondheim. It should come as no surprise that most of them are of Bobby :D

Bobs going mental trying to chase JK’s laser:

…and showing off his insanely flexible neck:

We so need to start doing this again! When we got the SLR, we just stopped filming stuff. Must dig out the old compact camera and get Bobby to do something cute. That shouldn’t be too hard ;)