No Decepticons At Deception Pass

I’m not sure how many times something has to happen for it to become a tradition, but I think our annual car camping trip with the rheas and co has become a tradition. This was our third year. We went to Deception Pass State Park on Whidbey Island. On the way there we did a little side trip/picnic to Mt Erie on Fidalgo Island. Apparently Mt Erie is a well-known climbing destination in addition to being a popular tourist/sight seeing stop over. There’s a road that goes all the way to the 1250ft summit, which makes it especially nice for families. From the lookout perched atop some impressive cliffs we could see the a couple lakes, several islands, the Puget Sound, and Deception Pass State Park (where we’d be spending the rest of the weekend). After enjoying the view and a picnic on Mt Erie we took the scenic route back to Hwy 20 along the west side of Fidalgo Island and drove across Deception Pass Bridge on our way to the campground. Our campsite was in a great location near the beach (with great views of the bridge), bathroom, and water spigot. The kids were mostly into playing on the beach. The last couple years we’ve camped in the mountains. This was our first year camping near the Sound. It was a pleasant change of pace. I think we’ll do it again.

Tide Chasers

Took the kiddos to Carkeek Park a couple days ago to check out the minus tide. We saw a couple critters but for the most part the kids were more interested to play in the sand and go up to the playground.

Sea Kitty Sherpa

I'm a new member of a group called the Trail Blazers. We're not an NBA franchise. We are an organization that transports fish to mountain lakes for the Washington Dept of Fish and Wildlife. I've been given the responsibility to stock 3 lakes this year. This morning my family and I carried a backpack full of fish into one of them. We picked up fish at 10am under cloudy but clearing skies. Anza wouldn't stop glaring at the hatchery worker who was helping me transfer fish into the jug for transport. The dirt road to the trailhead was a little bumpy but our station wagon was able to inch along. We got about halfway up the road before we were stopped by a washout with some big rocks blocking the way. We got out and started to walk up the road. In about 10 minutes a family in an SUV gave us a ride to the trailhead. Once on the trail it was the usual hiking-with-2-toddler-age-kids scenario. It took us almost 2 hours to go a little over 2 miles. We had lunch at the lake before we released the fish. Mojave seemed to enjoy eating the wet lakeside duff as much as his PBJ sandwich.
I thought Anza would be interested to see the fish get released, but she couldn't have cared less. Instead she was more interested in the gray jays that were strategizing how to grab the abundant bits and pieces of Mojave’s lunch that were scattered around him. The birds tried a couple times to do their usual swoop and grab maneuver but whenever they got close to Mojave, he would let out a shriek of joy and would begin violently flailing his limbs. Kind of entertaining for the misses and I but terrifying to a gray jay. We had been hearing distant claps of thunder (forecast called for possible thunder showers). It started to rain. With the fish happily swimming among the rocks in their new home we packed up and headed home. The way down was quick and the kids slept for the drive home.

Totem Smitty

We've done a few things recently that I intended to blog about but I've been lazy about transfering the images to the computer. Guess enabeling laziness is the downside to an 8GB memory card. The slippery slope of it is that the more images pile up, the less interested I am to download and sift through them. Today I got the ball rolling but didn't get very far before I decided to take a break from it and let folks in on a little seceret. I've been asked several times how I hike with 2 kids. Best case scenario is that the almost-3-year-old walks. That doesn't always pan out. Here's an image of the alternative scenario taken on last weeks trip to the Heybrook Lookout Tower.

How Much Wood Would White Chuck Chuck If A...

Recently heard of an old abandoned trail that's getting some restoration attention due to a surge of funds from recent stimulus money. Found a friend that was interested and available on a Friday, loaded the kiddos into the dad wagon and headed up the Mtn Loop Hwy from the Darrington side. The trail head was a short ways up a spur road from the newly constructed boat launch near the washed-out White Chuck Road. The trail was mostly flat through second growth forest with the occasional peek-a-boo views of Mt Pugh (pronounced "poo") and the White Chuck River. Anza especially enjoyed walking off trail on the thick moss that covers much of the forest floor. We went in as far as the trail crew had cleared. There's a short section where the logs across the trail are cut but not removed then the fading foot tread disappeared into a brushy thicket that will soon be impenetrable by all but the heartiest bush whackers. Anza walked about half the 3+ mile round trip distance.

There were a lot of large stumps along this trail. The kids are on top of one in this pic but it doesn't really give a good representation of just how big the stump is.
There are few things as nice as taking off your shoes at the end of a hike.

Mt Pugh (pronounced "poo")

After the hike we drove around a bit to do a little road recon (several road in this area have sustained severe damage in recent winters). This is the view of White Chuck Mtn and the WC River from where the WC Rd is washed out.

It was a great day to be in the woods and this was a fabulous kid friendly trail that's not in any of the current guide books.

It's A Steel Belted Life

We have this neighbor... Bob. He's your typical sweet old man across the street who will happily loan you his extension ladder or start a conversation with a line like "That reminds me of the time I had to go before the Judge for shooting a man..."

A couple weeks ago I casually mentioned that I was thinking to put a tire swing in the yard and was keeping my eye out for a discarded tire. Yesterday afternoon, Bob showed up at my front door with a chihuaha in one arm and an old steel belted radial in the other. After a trip to the hardware store and a little digging in my rope box in the garage we had a new toy in the yard. Anza was hesitant to get on at first, but once she was on she just wanted me to keep pushing her.

Aprilicious

Chele and I love to eat outside when the weather's nice. We had a few kiddo friends over for a pot luck dinner this evening and it was so beautiful out we took the party (and our dinner) outside for the first time in '09. The kids were easily side tracked away from their angel hair pasta, caesar salad and breadsticks but we were able to wrangle them back for ice cream and brownies.

Cougar Schmougar

My buddy Shawn and I took the kiddos to Cougar Mountain Wildland Park this morning. We were hoping to see some cool mining artifacts, but Anza wasn’t very into the hiking scene today so we cut it short. We did get far enough to see remnants of a couple mines, the last crumbling boards of a dam, and a small waterfall. Despite the fussy kiddo, cool temps and a little bit of drizzle we had a great time.