Over the past few months, I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing outdoors activities from a few different viewpoints. There has been the coordinator hat, which I wear for a few different activity styles, and the co-coordinator (assistant) hat, which is basically the coordinator hat worn backwards, and then the participant hat, which is not really [...]
I had been planning on taking a snow camping trip at Mt. Rainier National Park since early fall and was excited the opportunity finally presented itself with a group outing. The winter weather this year was so unpredictable in the Cascades I was relieved we had a few days of calm. The avalanche risk however, [...]
We weren’t really sure it would happen, based on the previous few weekend’s worth of unpredictable snow pack and cancellations. When the weekend dawned with dry roads and decent temperatures, we leapt at the chance and ran to the pass to experience what might be one of the last snowshoe trips of the season.
The group [...]
Every October, Mars Hill Outdoors organizes a fall hike on the Cooper River trail, near Cle Elum (Salmon la Sac). This trail has especially good fall foliage and is a great place to snap off a few rolls of film (OK, MB of digital storage). Some years are better than others. Some years [...]
I’m doing my very best to become a winter-lover, and snowshoeing is growing on me more and more as the season goes on. Why, you may ask? I liken it to kayaking in the summer. Sure, there are faster ways to experience the scenery (skis, snowboards, jetskis, speed boats), but if you take your time [...]
(from an anonymous MHO trip participant, who is ever so kindly serving as an example of why most outdoorsy people are such unrepentant gearheads)
I wanted to share with you the events from the snowshoeing/backpacking/snow camping trip to Mt. Rainier I took this past weekend.
I woke up at 6am to [...]
(it’s really not that hard…)
Tiger Mountain is a short drive away from downtown Seattle and almost a stone’s throw from Issaquah if you have a good arm, but it feels much farther once you step out of the parking lot and enter the rambling web of trails.
Our chosen trail this past weekend was West Tiger [...]
Our group dove the Edmonds Underwater Park a while back and even now, if I sit still enough, I can still feel the waves pushing me along in their hypnotizing seductive rhythm.
The dive was almost called off due to waves so high they were creating whitecaps, but I spotted a guy who I took classes [...]
I was privileged to backpack a couple of weeks ago into an area near the Enchantments, near Leavenworth.
Our group of five camped at Lake Colchuck, a beautiful lake at the base of Aasgard Pass. When we entered the area, snow and fog descended on us, but as the cold evening continued [...]
Being an inherent optimist has its good and bad points, as I realized over this past weekend. While planning for our adventure, I looked at the 31-mile long East Bank Trail and thought to myself, “Hey, that’s not so long! I’ve hiked 10+ miles with a small pack many times with no issues, and that [...]