Back in April, when life was hectic and exhausting, Alpine Trails Book Club provided the perfect escape for me in the form of a weekend spent camping on San Juan Island. Our April book selection had been The Light Between Oceans, a heartbreaking and beautiful tale of a lighthouse keeper and his wife who find an infant washed up on their remote island off the coast of Australia, then struggle with the fallout of their unofficial adoption of the girl. Obviously after reading of life on a remote and rugged island whose only structure was the light, we couldn’t leave the island without a hike to one of two lighthouses on San Juan.
Read moreLife: Week 23
The early summer weather continued into another week, with midweek temperatures climbing over 90° - unheard of for June in the PNW. With plans for backpacking over the weekend, I spent the week carefully monitoring the forecast for Saturday and Sunday, worrying about hot dry weather. To my relief, by Friday we had some relief in the form of rain and the weekend forecast had dropped from the mid nineties down to the low seventies, with some cloudy skies thrown in for good measure. Much better hiking weather! After our foraging last weekend, Andy and I had morels to enjoy, and while I had plans to try several new recipes - including a morel risotto I still want to try out - we liked them sautéed in an excessive amount of butter and tossed into a bowl of ramen so much that we ate it for dinner twice, even with the heat!
Read moreLife: Week 22
Having lived in Washington for decades, I’ve come to expect mostly grey skies and drizzle up until the Fourth of July. Some might call it gloomy weather, but I find it comforting - perfect weather for soup, sweaters, and wool socks. As a rule, I plan for overcast weather over Memorial Day - the holiday that marks the start of summer in many other places. Over the past few years’ the chilly spring weather I’ve come to rely on has gradually vanished into an ever-expanding summer, and this year was no exception. Both Memorial Day and the week that followed were decidedly summery, with mostly sunshine and temperatures in the 70s. While the early end to the rainy season makes me worry that we’ll have a hot, dry, and smoky season to come, for the moment the mild weather has been much appreciated.
Read moreLime Kiln
March is a tough time of year for planning hikes, but this year with plenty of snow still lingering from February’s epic snowstorm it proved especially challenging. At the last minute, I wound up switching up our plans to avoid steep icy trails, choosing the Line Kiln Trail based entirely on the fact that a recent trip report mentioned zero snow. Lime Kiln is one of several trails that I very well may have hiked as a child, but have no memory of, so I went in to our March Alpine Trails Book Club hike with fresh eyes.
Read moreLife: Week 21
Memorial Day Weekend this year was a mix of everything - a cold & stormy Saturday spent in the city drinking tea and lurking in plant stores, contrasted by warm & sunny Sunday spent in the woods volunteering for more trail work with WTA. Life is all about balance, right? This time of year, it sometimes startles me that everything is suddenly so green after what felt like an endless winter, and this was particularly the case in the Sehome Arboretum, where Andy and I spent our Sunday doing trail work. The small patch of forest perched above the Western Washington University campus was absolutely bursting with ferns, maples, and other sun-dappled greenery. One of my favorite things about signing up for trail work with WTA is that it often leads me to discover new trails - ones like Sehome Arboretum that I never would have visited otherwise. Since the trail system is pretty tiny, I don’t know that I’ll return to this particular spot unless I happen to be in Bellingham and have a little time for a short walk, but I’m glad I had an excuse to visit it this once!
Read more