Backpacking

This past weekend I got to meet up with a hiking friend and explore the north end of Olympic National Park. We made the most of our three days together. We explored the popular Hurricane Ridge area, and then enjoyed a night backcountry along the Elwah River.

I was seriously itching to get back on trail after getting home from our California road-trip after completing the John Muir Trail. For Labor Day weekend we’d promised ourselves a trip to the Sunrise area of Mount Rainier, which is only open for a short time through the summer season.

What an awesome send-off before we venture down to California! We spent this past Saturday night in the Park Butte lookout tower on the South-West side of Mt. Baker and the mountain was an amazing sight! Our last training hike ended up being one of the better ones, thanks to a few different factors.

This year we knew we had to get our packs on and do a “shake down.” Thankfully we are lucky enough to have an amazing National Park right in our back yard. North Cascades National Park is about a 2 hour drive from where we live and has a huge variety of backcountry trails. We studied our map and some trip reports and finally decided to hike alongside Ross Lake on the East Bank Trail.