Surprise Lake Backpack

We had planned long ago to do the High Divide hike in the Olympics with Catherine & David this weekend, but life intervened and we just weren't able to make that early Friday afternoon-to-late Sunday night time commitment. We opted for a quick, easy, one nighter, and somehow the group grew from 4 to 9. It was a lovely time to enjoy the outdoors and the company of so many friends. Cheers for friends who play outside with you!

Surprise Lake is off Highway 2, about 10 miles past Skykomish, a 5 mile (each way) hike with 2,700ft of elevation gain. Definitely not bad when you're only doing 5 miles each day. The trail was through some amazing woods, though with few views on the way up. The lake was large, clear and beautiful, though also with few views of surrounding mountains. The crowds were thin, and there were lots of camp sites right on the shore. We didn't get out of West Seattle until almost noon on Saturday and picked Chico up in Kenmore on our way up. Catherine, David, Sonja, Ben, Brad & Mike had left earlier that morning and secured a great camping spot! The three of us made our way up to the lake and successfully located the rest of the group. We swam, cooked, stargazed, strolled, and enjoyed the evening.

Chico's dive

Matt's leap

Brad cooking

Mike's gourmet dinner

Matt & Chico

Sonja & Ben - visiting from Chicago

First light on the hilltop

tent city - 4 tensts + a bivy

gourmet coffee courtesy of Sonja

Weather was perfect, and the next morning we slept in and took our time with breakfast and coffee  before making our way back down. I'm in SoCal again for the week, before we depart Saturday for Maui. Hooray!

Chico, Matt, Cat, Sonja,Ben

switch! Mackenzie in the middle

Goodbye, Lake Surprise

 

48 Days of Summer: Olalla & a Half Marathon

Fact: We almost broke the all time no-rain record here in Seattle this summer. We didn't quite make it, but this year scored second place in the annals of history, so I'll take it. From July 22 through September 8th, there was not one drop of rain in Seattle. Glorious. Anyways, here's another weekends worth of enjoyment of that fact.

Friday afternoon Matt and I jumped on the ferry and made our way over to my parents place in Olalla. We both needed to do some studying, and home and our friends can be very distracting despite how much we love them. Plus, Olalla is magic in the summer. We BBQ'd, relaxed, and enjoyed the setting.

ferry time

dont worry, it's not a real person. Man overboard drill.

Grillin!

peace

fresh blackberry pancakes

Saturday afternoon we met up with a group of friends at Magnuson Park, where we swam and played volleyball. I only snapped a couple of pictures, but here they are.

Sunday morning, way too early, we got up and drove north to Burlington where Matt was running the Skagit Valley Flats half marathon. Pretty country, a completely flat course, and some cool weather made it a perfect morning. Matt killed it once again, beating his PR by over a minute with a time of 1:27:45. Hooray! Afterwards we gorged ourselves on a late breakfast at Rhododendron Cafe, also in the Skagit Valley.

gearing up

and he's off

check out that determination

yayyyy

 (clock says 1:28 but time is based off a chip on his foot so it records when he actually crossed the start line)

a lil bit tired here

Plus, we've lately been harvesting squash & zucchini from our garden box and blackberries from the neighborhood for pies. yumyum.

blackberry pie fillings

garden box bounty

oh, and we got a quick visit with cutestnephewever