Barclay Lake

Mike and Raymond went with a group of scouts on a backpack trip to Barlcay Lake in the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest.  While there were only two scouts who came, it was a very fun outing, since James Howell's cousins from Ireland came along as well.  While I've hiked this trail a couple of times, this was probably my favorite time, since we woke up to a beautiful calm lake and a sun-drenched Baring mountain facing us right across the lake.  While it took us quite a while to start a fire, because of the wet wood, James Howell and Ben Prior were persistent and got a pretty decent blaze going in the end.  In the morning, most of the group took a swim in a nice little swimming hole at the outlet of the lake.  Raymond and I excluded ourselves, because we figured that swimming in recent snow melt just wasn't our idea of a good time.  On the way back home, we enjoyed some awesome pizza at Rico's Pizza in Gold Bar. We recommend the Carribean (BBQ chicken) and the International (Combination).  Both were delicious!

Glass-like Annette Lake reflects in early morning sunlight with impressive Mount Baring in the background.  This view is so in-your-face, that it took 9 total pictures in a 3x3 panorama to get this view.  It was our first ever three-deep panorama, and Hugin came to the rescue to help create this spectacular view!

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Photos and Videos

Here is an online album of photos and videos.  The videos comprise a swim that some of the group did in a nice little swimming hole at the outlet of the lake. 

GPS Info

Here is the GPS data collected during the trip:

Maps

This Google Map  is provided by GPS Visualizer.

Elevation Profile

The hike to Barclay Lake is relatively short and flat, making it an excellent destination for beginning backpackers, like the ones we took on this trip.

This elevation profile is provided by GPS Visualizer.

Coordinates and other details:

Mileage:  Time:  Average Speed:  Trailhead Coordinates:

1.7 Miles (one way) 0:49:28 2.1 MPH N47 47.523 W121 27.543

If you would like to use this info with your GPS unit, the full GPX file is here.
If you want to view this in Google Earth, you can download the KMZ files of the track  and topographic overlay.

Annette Lake

Mike went with a group of scouts on a backpack trip to Annette Lake in the Cascade Mountains as a part of their preparations for a 50-miler this Summer.  Unfortunately, it was a very small group who were able to make it (two to be precise), which was a shame because it was a beautiful hike, and we enjoyed sunny weather this weekend.  Suzanne and I hiked the trail the weekend before this outing, in order to assess trail conditions and provide details to the scouts as they prepared.  Amazingly, the lake was completely frozen over when we went, but it had almost entirely thawed just one week later, as seen from the photo below!

A 7-frame panorama of Annette Lake in early morning sunlight.

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Photos

Here is an online album of photos. 

GPS Info

Unfortunately, I only collected the GPS data for the trip into the lake, so the mileage reported would need to be doubled for a 7.0 mile round trip hike.  Here is the GPS data:

Maps

This Google Map  is provided by GPS Visualizer.

Elevation Profile

This profile was created using Garmin BaseCamp.

Coordinates and other details:

Mileage:  Time:  Average Speed:  Trailhead Coordinates:

3.5 Miles (one way) 1:48:39 (up) / 1:36:00 (down) 1.8 MPH (up) / 2.2 MPH (down) N47 23.571, W121 28.451

If you would like to use this info with your GPS unit, the full GPX file is here.
If you want to view this in Google Earth, you can download the KMZ files of the track  and topographic overlay.

Grand Canyon & So. Utah

 For some time now, Mia has been asking to go to the Grand Canyon.  Logistically, there are a couple of real problems with this idea.  First, the Grand Canyon is 1400 miles away from Seattle by highway, so we'd need a lot of time to do the trip, or else we'd spend the whole time on the road.  Second, the weather makes it difficult to want to be there in the Winter or Summer!  After enough persistence from Mia, we finally came up with a solution:  Find "reasonable" airfare during Spring Break.  But, if we're going to spend money to fly, rent a car, and stay in a motel, we'd better make the trip worth it, by visiting much more than just the Grand Canyon.  In the end,  we squeezed every drop of Spring Break in order to see six national parks, four national monuments, and four state parks.

Map Courtesy of GPS Visualizer

Hiking

Our most aggressive hiking on any vacation to date, we hiked nearly 52 miles, eclipsing our previous record of 42 miles in the Canadian Rockies.  I suspect this record will last for a while, which is a testament to how much there was to see and do on this trip.  A full page hiking maps organized by area can be found here.

Hike	Park	Total Elev (ft)	Distance (miles)
Court of the Patriarchs	Zion NP	147.6	0.8
Emerald Pools	Zion NP	673.9	3.4
Riverside Walk	Zion NP	0	1.1
Weeping Rock	Zion NP	767.7	1.2
Inspiration Point	Bryce Canyon NP	196.9	0.7
Bryce Point	Bryce Canyon NP	56.8	0.3
Navajo Loop / Queen's Garden	Bryce Canyon NP	593.9	3.1
Mossy Cave	Bryce Canyon NP	144.4	1.1
Shakespeare Arch	Grand Staircaise - Escalante NM	68.9	0.8
Cottonwood Narrows	Grand Staircaise - Escalante NM	318.5	4.5
Petrified Forest State Park	Grand Staircaise - Escalante NM	298.5	2.1
Devil's Garden - Escalante	Grand Staircaise - Escalante NM	91.9	0.7
Gooseneck / Sunset Point	Capitol Reef NP	78.7	1
Capitol Gorge	Capitol Reef NP	236.2	2.5
Grand Wash	Capitol Reef NP	126.2	3.8
Goblin Valley	Goblin Valley SP	82	1.1
Shafer Canyon	Canyonlands NP	68.9	0.3
Mesa Arch	Canyonlands NP	101.7	0.8
Upheaval Dome	Canyonlands NP	177.1	0.8
Green River Overlook	Canyonlands NP	13.1	0.2
Grand View Trail	Canyonlands NP	105	2.4
Big Spring Canyon	Canyonlands NP	29.4	0.2
Needles Overlook	Canyonlands NP	52.5	0.5
Monitor & Merrimac Butte Overlook	Arches NP	36.1	0.2
Windows & Double Arches	Arches NP	200.2	1.6
Delicate Arch Viewpoint	Arches NP	32.8	0.3
Devil's Garden - Arches	Arches NP	91.9	1.3
Sand Dune & Broken Arches	Arches NP	88.5	1.6
Fiery Furnace	Arches NP	26.3	0.3
Park Avenue	Arches NP	242.8	1.4
Horse Collar Ruins	Natural Bridges NM	85.3	0.6
Kachina Bridge	Natural Bridges NM	131.2	0.6
Owachomo Bridge	Natural Bridges NM	206.7	0.6
Betatakin Ruins	Navajo NM	269	1.4
Desert View	Grand Canyon NP	40	0.7
Tusayan Ruins	Grand Canyon NP	45.9	0.4
Mather Point	Grand Canyon NP	52.4	0.5
Bright Angel	Grand Canyon NP	1161.4	3.3
Maricopa Point	Grand Canyon NP	32.8	0.3
Powell Point & Hope Point	Grand Canyon NP	52.5	0.7
Mohave Point	Grand Canyon NP	55.8	0.2
Hermit's Rest	Grand Canyon NP	36.1	0.2
Walnut Canyon National Monument	Walnut Canyon NM	347.7	1.3
Hoover Dam	Hoover Dam	98.5	0.9
TOTALS		7763.7	51.8

Parks

• National Parks
  • Zion NP 
  • Bryce Canyon NP
  • Capitol Reef NP
  • Canyonlands NP
  • Arches NP
  • Grand Canyon NP 
• National Monuments
  • Grand Staircase-Escalante NM 
  • Natural Bridges NM 
  • Navajo NM
  • Walnut Canyon NM 
• State Parks
  • Kodachrome SP
  • Escalante Petrified Forest SP
  • Anasazi SP
  • Goblin Valley SP 

Highlights

• Draw-jopping scenery everywhere.  We took more pictures than on any vacation we've ever taken!
• The Southwest has an amazing geographic diversity, and the scenery is constantly changing with very little driving.
• Mixing it up from our normal vacation format of camping was nice
  • Sleeping in beds instead of the ground
  • Eating out gave us a variety of food to eat (of course, not having to cook was enjoyable to Suzanne) 

Lowlights

• Because Southern Utah is a pretty remote place, accomodations can be a bit sketchy at times.  For the most part, we stayed at clean motels, but the quality in some areas was certainly less than others.
• We had to wait an hour and a half at the rental car place, and in spite of our reservation, they didn't have any mid-size cars available for us, so we didn't get the most comfortable of rides for our 1400 mile adventure.
• In the Spring, the weather can be downright unpredictable.  We experienced everything from sunny 70-degree weather on some days to snow and blistering cold wind on others.

Favorites

Here's what each family member said was their absolute favorite park of the trip:

Raymond:	Bryce Canyon NP
Amelia:	Grand Canyon NP
Suzanne:	Canyonlands NP
Mike:	Bryce Canyon NP

Photos

We took over 1000 pictures!  In the end, we kep 827 pictures, many of them panoramas, and placed them in 15 online Flickr albums.  You can take a look at all of these albums here.

Hatchery Creek Snowshoe

While on a winter break trip to Lake Wenatchee and Leavenworth, we explored a snowshoe trail along Hatchery Creek just off of US Route 2.  During the trip, Raymond lost one of the snow baskets from his trekking poles, making it a bit difficult for him to maneuver with just one pole that didn't sink into the snow.  We were hoping to get to a small pond to see if it was frozen over, but we were running low on daylight (and energy!) so we didn't make it there, but we still had a great time exploring the peaceful winter wonderland.

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GPS Info

We collected all of the following data from our GPS unit during the adventure:

Maps

This Google Map  is provided by GPS Visualizer

Elevation Profile

This profile is provided by GPS Visualizer

Coordinates and other details

Mileage:  Time:  Average Speed:  Trailhead Coordinates:

1.4 Miles 01:45 1.9 Miles/Hr. N47° 40.694', W120° 44.085'

Leavenworth Tubing

During the winter break, we took a trip to Lake Wenatchee to spend a couple of days in the snow.  Our family friend, Dale Partna, was nice enough to let us stay in his cabin for two nights after Christmas and we had a blast in the snow.  On one outing, we checked out the tubing hill at the Leavenworth Winter Sports Club.  It was about 30 degrees, but we bundled ourselves up and enjoyed the outing--at least until Suzanne bruised her bottom as she bounced too hard in the tube during one run, and the kids started complaining about headaches.   While we didn't take any pictures, we did want to show our GPS data that shows the drop and speed of the run, coming down the 500-foot long hill that drops about 100 feet to the bottom.  It wasn't as much fun as the tubing hill at Bogus Basin, but it was still enjoyable.   

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GPS Info

We collected all of the following data from our GPS unit during the adventure:

Maps

This Google Map  is provided by GPS Visualizer

Elevation Profile

This profile is provided by GPS Visualizer

Speed Profile


This profile is provided by GPS Visualizer

Coordinates and other details

Mileage:  Time:  Tubing Speed:  Trailhead Coordinates:

0.8 Miles 00:52\ 23 Miles/Hr. N47° 36.807, W120° 40.107

If you would like to use this info with your GPS unit, the full GPX file is here.
If you want to view this in Google Earth, you can download the KMZ files of the track  and topographic overlay.

Wenatchee Showshoe

During the winter break, we took a trip to Lake Wenatchee to spend a couple of days in the snow.  Our family friend, Dale Partna, was nice enough to let us stay in his cabin for two nights after Christmas and we had a blast in the snow.  One afternoon, Mia and I went scouting on snowshoes to find the Wenatchee River from Dale's cabin.  On a previous visit, Dale took us on snowmobiles to a spot along the river, but Mia and I are pretty sure that we didn't follow the same path, based on the fact that we did some serious cross-country snowshoeing, including a couple of episodes with tree wells.  Fortunately, we had each other to help out of the wells, and the snow was only a few feet deep, so we never got into any truly sticky situations.  You can see from the speed profile below, where we got bogged down going across country, while towards the end, we got so comfortable in the snowshoes and terrain that we practically raced back to the cabin.

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GPS Info

We collected all of the following data from our GPS unit during the adventure:

Maps

This Google Map  is provided by GPS Visualizer

Speed Profile

This profile is provided by GPS Visualizer

Coordinates and other details

Mileage:  Time:  Average Speed:  Trailhead Coordinates:

1.4 Miles 01:22 1.0 Miles/Hr. +47° 47' 28.74", -120° 38' 59.88"

 
If you would like to use this info with your GPS unit, the full GPX file is here.
If you want to view this in Google Earth, you can download the KMZ files of the track  and topographic overlay.

Idaho Panhandle

 Because we live in Seattle, where the winters are gray and wet, we wanted to find some sun.  On our Northwest Oregon vacation, the weather was just ok, but we still didn't get enough sun, so we decided to try on a second summer trip to get even better weather.  As a result, we headed to the other east side of the Cascades, and drove to the Idaho Panhandle.  While our Oregon vacation could be considered a trip of waterfalls, Northern Idaho can be considered a land of lakes.  The big three are:

• Coeur d'Alene Lake (Voted by National Geographic as one of the 10 most beautiful lakes in the world.)
• Lake Pend Oreille (Deep enough that the US Navy performs underwater submarine research there.) 
• Priest Lake (and Upper Priest Lake, which is only 13 miles from the Canadian border.)

This was a little bit different of a vacation from most, as we did comparably little hiking (only seven miles in three hikes.)  We did do plenty of scenic driving, putting over 500 miles on the car, which is significant, considering that the panhandle is less than 50 miles wide.  The two main activities for this trip were boating on Priest Lake and visiting Silverwood Theme Park. 

By the way, we did find the sun that we desired.  Skies were blue and sunny, with highs in the mid 70s to low 80s.  It was exactly what we were looking for!

Map Courtesy of GPS Visualizer

Hiking

We only hiked 7 miles on this trip.  The details for each hike are shown below.  Mineral Ridge afforded us some great views of Coeur d'Alene Lake, while Moose Lake was a very quiet trip off the beaten path to a remote alpine lake.  We only passed 2 groups hiking back there in the 2.5 hours we spent back on the trail, including a nice picnic at the lake.

Hike	Distance (miles)	Elevation (ft)
Mineral Ridge	2.7	700
Moose Lake	3.3	550
Deep Creek	1.0	0
TOTAL	7.0	1250

Boating

Of the three lakes we could've spent time on, we were glad to choose Priest Lake.  It was a quieter alternative, that gave us a chance to boat two lakes for the price of one!  Upper Priest Lake is a remote lake with no vehicular access.  You only get there by boat or foot.  A 2.5 mile thoroughfare (part of the Priest River) connects it with Priest Lake, and it was an beautiful and leisurely trip too.  We spent about 8 hours on the lake cruising, tubing, and swimming a total of 67 miles. 

Silverwood Theme Park

Silverwood is the only major theme park in the Pacific Northwest, and since the kids haven't been to a theme park since our Disneyland vacation back in 2005, we figured they had been deprived long enough, and that it was time to give them a chance to experience it again.  While Raymond didn't take much to roller coasters (he hated riding the corkscrew, and got a terrible headache afterwards), Amelia loved them, and so she made her mother and I go on several, including the 4.5 G-force Aftershock, one of five Giant Inverted Boomerangs in the world.  Along with Nick Norton's Mysterium magic show and a nice lunch at Lindy's restaurant, here is a list of rides we took in while at Silverwood and the companion Boulder Beach water park:

• Thrill Rides
  • Timber Terror
  • Aftershock
  • Corkscrew
  • Thunder Canyon
  • Log Flume
• Fun-for-all Rides
  • Bumper Boats
  • Antique Cars
  • Krazy Kars
  • Paratrooper
  • Ferris Wheel
• Water Park
  • Boulder Beach Bay
  • Velocity Peak
  • Rumble Falls
  • Elkhorn Creek

Favorites

Here's what each family member said was their absolute favorite activity of the trip:

Raymond:	Boating on Priest Lake
Amelia:	Boating on Priest Lake
Suzanne:	Moose Lake
Mike:	Lunch Peak Lookout

Photos

We took over 180 pictures of our trip to Idaho.  You can take a look at our online photo album here. 

GPS

Here is a link to our .gpx file that has all of our hiking, driving, and boating details.