Over the last couple of summers I have whittled away at the prominent peaks in the Pacific NW. It was nice to have trips lined up in the summer in the PNW to look forward to as the temperatures race up to 90 degrees plus pretty quickly here in Utah. I completed all of the WA volcanoes last year so looked for a new adventure. Mt Olympus, the “gem” of the Olympic Range was calling this year.

Melissa Arnot-Reid is one of the owners of Pacific Alpine Guides and I had a loose association with her from her run at the 50 States Highpoints. She finished #26 in the Women’s category and I finished #27. I had also briefly said hello to her when we saw her guiding a client in Nepal on Pumori – not that she would remember me! I think it was Larina that told me that Melissa had her own guiding company so when I saw that her group guided up Mt. Olympus, I signed up. I chose a trip in July as the snow cover would be more substantial – making the climb a more fun, glacier climb vs traveling over rocks and ice later in the year. Also, the bugs would not be in full force and lastly, the area waterfalls would be at their height as Joel initially indicated he could do some photography while I was on the climb.

Well, the best laid plans, as they say … the guide that had been assigned was injured on another trip. Being a very small company, they do not have the huge number of guides that other organizations have. They were able to find a guide but I had to delay the trip a month until mid-August. Not optimal from the get-to but I certainly wanted to make the trip.

The first morning we met at the Hoh Rain Forest Visitor Center for a gear check with our guides, Alan and Tatum. They had been guiding together in Peru and had basically just landed, sorted gear and drove to the trailhead. They had been recruited from another, larger Seattle-based guide service. After the gear check, we loaded our packs and set off down the trail. A lot of things at the start transpired to make this one of the worst days of hiking I have ever had – late start because the one “local” client was an hour late, hot and humid weather, huge (50#) packs and a pace that was actually too fast for me. Joel can attest that I hike SLOW probably around the 2mph rate with a heavy pack. The group took off out of the gate closer to 3mph.

As it was a small group (2 guides and 4 clients) there was really not the luxury to have a fast group and a slow group so I just sucked it up and went fast. Our campsite would be at the Lewis Meadows Campground which was 10.5 miles. At about mile 6 my right calf cramped and I couldn’t walk. It was absolutely crazy – I was hydrating correctly and was also taking in ample electrolytes but I think the pace and the heat might have been the main factors. I sort of hobbled along for awhile and then Tatum suggested taking a mouthful of dry electrolyte drink mix. She said that she had heard that this process was meant to overload and “shock” the nervous system into thinking that it was receiving adequate electrolytes, even though I had been consuming them throughout the hike. Whatever the crazy science was, it worked and after a mile or so, I was back to normal. Weird.

Once we arrived at camp we set up tents, cooked dinner and then went to sleep. The next morning was more of a leisurely pace as we ate breakfast and packed up. We only had a little over 7 miles but, compared to Day 1’s elevation gain of only 728′ over 10 miles, we would climb 3,900′ in 7 miles – shorter but much steeper!

Once we arrived at camp we again pitched the tents and cooked dinner with an early bedtime in anticipation of an “alpine start” the next morning which was our summit day.

There is supposedly going to be a group download site where all the members of the Mt. Olympus climbing team will be able to contribute photos. I am waiting to see if that happens so that I can include some of them in my blog posts for the climb. In the meantime, I will try to capture the flurry of activity that lasted three days after the climb and culminated with a 15 hour drive home (UGH.)

The first order of business was to settle into my new “home” for the next three days – two doors down and 15 steps from Mom’s apartment! Believe it or not, it was cheaper to rent one of the family “suites” from the Gardens than to stay in any hotel in Bellevue right now. Oddly enough, this was one of the apartments we looked at to potentially move Mom to earlier this year and it is still not rented. The miniature kitchen would seem to be the issue. In the photo you can see that the stove is 1/2 the width of the microwave. But aside from being in downtown Bellevue, the apartment was very, very nice and it was sort of fun being there. I had to make sure that I wore my GUEST nametag so that I was not mistaken for the “new kid on the block.” The greyer my hair gets the bigger this challenge will be!

A quick stop to Whole Foods for an early birthday floral arrangement for Mom. It ended up being split into two and then six arrangements!

And a dinner with Karla and her Mom at Duke’s. Just for the halibut. Everyone had halibut.

Brandon and Tarah stopped by and we had lunch at a local Thai restaurant the next day.

The following morning Mom had a 1/2 off coupon for Mercury’s Coffee which was fairly close by. The food and coffee was great and surely is giving Starbuck’s a run for their money. Mom has a $10 gift card so I am sure she will take Bob and Larina when they are next in town!

I had watched some replays of the Seafair Hydroplane races from the prior week and noticed that Mercury’s Coffee has a boat – the team is based out of Cle Elum! I am sure Dad would have been a fan!

A visit to put some fresh flowers at Dad’s memorial and then off to the Coho Cafe for dinner. Notice that I am wearing my down jacket. (Just as soon as I got to WA, the sheer sight of the moss on the rooftops and mailboxes made me shiver.) It was probably 75 degrees that day but certainly not the same as 75 degrees in Utah’s dry climate. I am sure I was probably the only one wearing a down jacket! So strange how one’s body changes to the environment after some time.

The last stop on this post-climb adventure was to visit Ross at the Echolands Winery in Walla Walla. Except for his bum foot, he seemed to be in good spirits as he motored around the site and gave me a quick tour and a couple of interesting bottles of wine – Rocksy Music?

Still trying to catch up on a few blog posts so bear with me!

A couple of weeks ago friends Claudia and Ralph invited us to attend a wine paring dinner in Salt Lake City with another couple (Kate and Lynne.) We spent probably more $$ on this one dinner than Joel and I spend eating out for dinner in six months. You get the idea that we do not go out much! But, with that said, this was probably one of the best pairing events we had ever attended! It was put on at Stanza which is an Italian restaurant but the theme of the dinner was Mexican influence, highlighting the wines of the Bodegas de Santo Tomas winery in Baja.

The wine pairings were amazing, especially the second one which brought out the cinnamon and spices of the Mole sauce. We decided to split a case of one of the wines with Claudia and Ralph to enjoy in the future. We need to get on Stanza’s mailing list for any upcoming events!

When I was visiting Mom last week she asked about Joel’s garden. I hadn’t put anything on the blog recently and she asked about an update – here it is, in pictures!

The Wine Hiking Society has different subgroups that they organize. One such group is the “Over 50” hikers. I suppose that when one gets to that age, in theory, they need to make shorter, flatter and slower hikes. I had actually never signed up for any of the events because it boiled down to me not enjoying shorter, flatter and slower hikes! At least not yet! They advertised an old-fashioned cookout, overnight and then a Sunrise hike to Sunset Peak complete with Tequila Sunrises, which sounded like a different sort of fun so I signed up.

The Albion Basin Campground is almost at the end of Little Cottonwood Canyon and just past Snowbird and Alta ski resorts. It is very hard to get reservations and they only have a couple group sites to boot, so it was scheduled for a Sunday/Monday event. We started out as 10 participants which turned into 4 by Sunday and then 3 overnight for the hike next morning and then down to 2 that actually made the summit. As this was the first/inaugural event, there will be a lot of kinks to be worked out!

With an early start there were not too many other hikers on the trail. We saw the moose (above) and also a Mule Deer doe and fawn.

Some of the other flowers:

As we got up to Catherine Pass the views opened up and we saw Sunset Peak at 10, 648′ above. A little bit of scrambling but nothing worse than what we encounter on most of the hikes around here. It was very windy at the top so Cynthia and I did not spend too much time on the top. Maureen opted to stop about 1/2 mile down the trail and just chillax.

On the way down we again marveled at the meadows and hillsides just bursting with flowers. Although I am finding that most of these WHS organized trips do not really cater to people that have hiked before, it is always interesting to hear others’ stories. Cynthia and Maureen both knew of the Green Gentian plant aka Elkweed. There were maybe 20 plants in one partially marshy meadow with one plant right by the trail. Come to find out these are very unique and can live 30 – 80 years. Once the plant flowers, it dies.

The one right by the trail had beautiful flowers. It was probably 4′ tall. The large ones can get to 9′ tall and when they die can produce over 60,000 seeds. Crazy but this is the second time this year that I have gotten to see sort of a once in a lifetime blooming flower (the first being the lone yucca in Monument Valley in May.)

As a footnote – the Tequila Sunrises at sunrise didn’t happen – sounded like a good idea at the time but too much work to implement!

The last “bonus” peak for the TFNU 2024 Peak Challenge was a “Hiker’s Choice.” As I wanted to find a hike that wouldn’t wreak too much havoc with Joel’s knees and we wanted to get as far north as possible to avoid the predicted 102degrees in North Ogden, we headed up pre-dawn to Naomi Peak outside of Logan, UT. At an elevation of 9,983′ we figured we would stay cool if we got on the trail early. And we were right!

We have been up to Naomi Peak a couple times and I think it is one of my favorite hikes in Utah. It is fairly steep but only about a 6.8 mile roundtrip through a beautiful forest. Once on top you are rewarded with amazing views to Idaho, Wyoming and Utah. It was a bluebird day with the wildflowers out in full force – we even found a couple I had not seen before.

Two years ago I planted a couple new daylily varieties but due to the heat the first year and then the excessively wet Spring last year, nothing bloomed. This year they looked great … until the deer decided that because Joel’s garden was fenced, the flowers were fair game …

It was time to refinish our deck so we rented a large deck sander for a day. Unfortunately it missed a lot, probably due to warped boards. So we set off doing some touch up with a hand sander, that is until Alison broke two of them. I have the feeling this project will not be finished until the winter! And yes, every time we do this I am reminded that Joel wanted a Trex deck.

Cucumber harvest is in full swing and our/Joel’s first batch of pickles is in the fridge – YUM!

For the TFNU 2024 Peak Challenge they added two “bonus” peaks – Willard Peak and “Hiker’s Choice.” Again, looking at the weather I saw a day or two where we exited the 90 degrees and bumped down to the low 80’s. Although not ideal (I knew it would be hot on the way down), I decided to head up yesterday. Climbing Willard Peak can be done two ways – the first is the easiest and that is to drive up a road and hike about 1.5 miles. I decided that I would do it the hard way – it required another summit of Ben Lomond and then a 2 mile traverse to the summit of Willard Peak.

The Cutler Trailhead is in the middle of a campground basically and the only downside is that the camp host does not open the gate until 7am. If you want an “Alpine” start in the dark and cool, you have to hike an additional 3 miles on the road so I opted to wait until they opened the gate.

Pretty uneventful but the trail is very steep and with the traverses and climbing up Ben Lomond then down to the saddle then up to Willard and then reverse the process, it was a 14.3 mile hike with 5,900 ft elevation gain. No wonder I still feel a bit tired today!

It was a beautiful day and I spent about 45 minutes on the Willard Peak summit eating lunch and enjoying the views all around. On the way back I watched a Golden Eagle fly along the ridge and then circle overhead on the thermals for about 5 minutes before heading out.

Joel and his friend Kevin took off before sunrise earlier this week to see what the waterfalls looked like further south – past Salt Lake City and east of Sandy. The “target” was the waterfall in Bell’s Canyon which they understood to be running pretty hard with snowmelt.

FAIL! Joel said there was too much water and they couldn’t actually photograph it. Oh well, made for a great adventure anyways!