Washington and Oregon are great!

This summer I spent 3 weeks around Washington and Oregon. Chelsea, Dave, and Pete were gracious enough to let me use their house in Seattle as a home base.

I headed down south first, to Oregon, a state I've always wanted to visit but never been. Hannah and I took a road trip in a nice big square which included just about every ecosystem out there - desert, costal, high mountain, rainforest - Oregon's got it all.

We started in Portland where my friend Lea showed us the neat trails, shops, and microbreweries. Everyone is right, Portland seems like a great city to live in.

Then we headed south along the coast, which was in some places rocky and forested, in some places sandy, and in all places cold and windy!

(The Pacific from the top of Cape Perpetua)

We found some good surf spots.

Then we headed east to Eugene (which was a little disappointing, but maybe we just didn't make it to the right places). At least we found this campground with a secret tunnel between the coast and the city.

We continued further west to Bend, which was unexpectedly located in a high desert. We did some climbing at Smith Rock, just north of Bend, but I was sweating in the shade by 11:00am!

(Hannah is the white dot at the top of this route, you can just see her shirt.)

(A great swiss-cheese-like 5.7 route. )

Floating the river is what everybody does in Bend in the summer - on a raft, inflatable mattress, old inner tube, whatever...Hannah just happened to have her inflatable boat in the car - woohoo!

Next, we drove up to Mount Hood and did some hiking along the tree line from Cloud Cap Campground.

(Mt. Rainier looming to the North)

Back in Washington, Hannah and I made a day trip with Dave and Jeff to Index, and climbed a great crack there. Somehow, two pitches took us 5 hours! Index is a beautiful area, especially down by the river.

(Dave climbs General Maintenance)

Hannah and I also went to Port Angeles to hang out with Tyler. We went out on a nice kayak along the Juan De Fuca Strait, did some cliff jumping into Lake Crescent, and drove up to an impressive outlook overlooking the Olympic Mountains.

Hannah and Tyler stayed in Port Angeles, but I headed back to Seattle to go on a long weekend trip with Chelsea and Jen to Goldmyer Hotsprings.

Most people take the 10 mile 2-track which is flat and maintained to Goldmyer Springs. We hiked up over Red Mountain, which was also 10 miles, but up over a mountain. Although we didn't post hole as much as some suspected, we found some big patches of snow and had a good time hiking over and around them.

(Chelsea and Jen vetoed the initial suggestion of sliding down the snow patch, and here they are, safe and well, in the crack between the melted snow and the rock. )

(Teamwork brings the packs down the steep spots. Yak Tracks, what a great invention!)

(Jen checks out a melted tunnel)

The caretaker's cabin at Goldmyer Hotsprings. If I ever get the chance to be a caretaker there I may never leave!

Check out the story behind this awesome spot: http://www.goldmyer.org/

(post-hike water hookah)

(Goldmyer hotsprings)

(the first pool is the hotest and located in a cave. Then there are 2 more which cool off as the water moves along. We had the whole place to ourselves until the last couple hours.)

(Seriously big trees here - Chelsea is sitting at the bottom of this one and looks like a black spot)

We managed to peel ourselves out of the hot pools, put on our hiking shoes and packs, and hike down the valley, and then up another mountain to Snow Lake. Luckily, we had Snow Lake to ourselves as well, and set up camp on a little peninsula hanging out into the crystal clear lake.

We spent the morning sunbathing and reading and hiked out in the late afternoon. What a great trip!