Mt. Teneriffe Hike, September 2013

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Mt. Teneriffe
Date: September 13, 2013
Difficulty: 8 out of 10
Distance: 11 miles / 17.7 Kilometers roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 3,840 feet / 1170 meters
Time: 5 to 6 hours
Location: Exit 32, I-90 Near North Bend, Washington
Users Group: Hikers & Dogs Only
Permits: No Permit Required
Trail Conditions: Dry
Hiking With: Rick Massie and my wonder dog Macho.

Last weekend I was telling my hiking group that the clouds would burn off during our Gothic Basin hike…it never did; I found myself telling the same story on our way to Mt. Teneriffe. Again, the clouds never did burn off, but it was a low cloud bank so we were lucky enough to ascend above the clouds to reach blue skies and fabulous views goo.gl/89vmgq.

Rick Massie and I took the waterfall route instead of the long tedious seven mile logging road up. This was the first time I have seen waterfall without water, I guess the dry warm summer took its toll. We didn’t see any mountain goats along the ridge, maybe Macho the dog wonder scared them off.

We stayed on top long enough to enjoy the views, scarf down a sandwich and change into dry socks and shirt. We took the logging road down and ended our day at the North Bend Bar & Grill.

Gothic Basin Hike, September 2013

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Gothic Basin
Date: September 7, 2013
Difficulty: 8 out of 10
Distance: 9 miles / 14.5 Kilometers roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 2,840 feet / 866 meters
Time: 5 to 6 hours
Location: Mountain Loop Highway
Users Group: Hikers & Dogs Only
Permits: Discovery Pass Required
Trail Conditions: Wet
Hiking With: Linna Freeman, Rick Massie and my wonder dog Macho.

Wow….Gothic Basin goo.gl/DEj3l1 is a much bigger hike than I thought. Even though this is only 2,840 feet elevation gain, it feels more like 4,000 feet with all the scrambling on steep rocky terrain. The official hike itself is 4.5 miles up, but it takes a mile to get to the trailhead…so your roundtrip is actually 11 miles. You will sweat your ass off on this hike, but it’s totally worth it after you see wants waiting for you on top.

You will want to hike this on a sunny day because the views (I think) are to die for and the basin is filled with beauty. We left the house thinking the day would end up sunny….will it did in Seattle, but the clouds just hung around all day in the mountains. Almost half of the hike we were in light rain. This hike has it all…river, lake, waterfalls, huge mountain views, wild flowers and campsites.

We ended this hike at Sura’s goo.gl/yi9iD8 in Lynnwood, Washington for some delicious Korean BBQ. This place has superb service, great food and a warm environment, it’s our new favorite Korean BBQ North of Seattle.

Salmon Fishing, September 2013

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My co-worker and friend Jim Darmiento was nice enough to invite me and two other co-workers, Jason Hartley and Robert Brocx out for a day of Salmon fishing. We started at the fish hatchery area and then moved on to the Queets river. (more to come).

Granite Mountain Hike, August 2013

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Granite Mountain
Date: August 29, 2013
Difficulty: 7 out of 10
Distance: 8 miles / 13 Kilometers roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 3,800 feet / 1,158 meters
Time: 4 to 5 hours
Location: Exit 47, I-90
Users Group: Hikers & Dogs Only
Permits: Discovery Pass Required
Trail Conditions: Wet
Hiking With: Jim Darmiento, Rick Massie and Macho the dog wonder.

It has been over a year since I have hiked up the beautiful Granite Mountain so I was overdue. My friends Jim Darmiento and Rick Massie joined me for this wet fest of a hike. Seattle hadn’t had any rain for two months and today the rain decided to retaliate during our hike. The air was warm so we started off without rain gear, but of course we were saturated within the first mile. No biggie, we had dry clothes to change out at the top with.

Jim hadn’t hiked for a while so the pace was a little slower going up, but still made it to the look-out tower in a respectable time.

We started our Labor Weekend today and ended it with a cold beer at our favorite after hike hang out North Bend Bar & Grille.

San Diego Trip, August 2013

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First, let me say this about the perfect weather city…speedy drivers. Maybe it feels that way due to my years of driving in Seattle with some of the nation’s slowest drivers. Of course having numerous highways with several lanes through-out San Diego it made it a breeze to drive all over.

This was my first time in sunny San Diego where I spent the whole weekend in and around the city. My wife Linna and I flew down via Alaska Airlines to visit our niece Chloe Wei. She is spending four months with a host family while attending San Diego State University.

We met up with Chloe on Friday afternoon and ended up at a highly rated family owned Italian restaurant located in Gas Lamp district, same area where our hotel was located. I highly recommend Busalacchi’s, www.busalacchia.com especially on the weekends when the Jazz band is playing.

China Trip, August 2013

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This trip to Shanghai started off right with an upgrade to First Class because of an overbooking on this Delta flight. My wife Linna dropped me off to the airport much earlier then I needed because she didn’t want to miss her favorite gym class. This gave me a chance to grab a bite to eat at the Dungeness Bay Seafood House restaurant, about the only restaurant in the S concourse at SeaTac Airport. You will not go wrong with the Wild Salmon burger and fries.

The flight went well and slept quite a bit due to my seat location…First Class baby. This was another short trip, I was heading back to Seattle in two days.

Mailbox Peak Hike, August 2013

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Mailbox Peak
Date: August 9, 2013
Difficulty: 9 out of 10
Distance: 5 Miles / 8 Kilometers Roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 4,000 feet / 1,219 Meters
Time: 4 to 5 hours
Location: Near North Bend, Washington
Users Group: Hikers & Dogs Only
Permits: Discovery Pass
Trail Conditions: Dry
Hiking With: Rick Massie and Macho my wonder dog

This is my second time this year I knocked of the famous thigh pounding Mailbox Peak. If you are looking for a personal challenge or conditioning training, the Mailbox Peak goo.gl/y3ANNn is the hike for you.

The new paved parking lot is open now, which is nice to be able to put on or take off your gear and not stand in gravel, dirt or mud. I don’t think most people know that the parking lot is open or even exist; people are still parking in the old dirt lot. The new 5 mile trail hasn’t opened yet, but when it does…I want to be one of the first to utilize it.

Rick and I made it up less than two hours, which is pretty good for a very hot day. Macho my dog wonder was struggling with the heat and we found him hiding in bushes at times to hide from the intense sun. I had no water left for the last hour of the hike and I was pretty dehydrated; I must have drank two quarts of water from the creek at the bottom. We decided to hydrate ourselves at our normal watering hole…North Bend Bar & Grille.

Mt. Fuji Hike, July 2013

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The last time I hiked up Mt. Fuji was July 23, 2005. It was in that same month and year I also climbed Mt. Baker and Mt. Rainier in Washington State. This trip came about over a year ago over a dinner in Sagami, Japan where I announced that we should hike Mt. Fuji. Well, it was my good friend Ryo Saito who was at that dinner that actually made this Mt. Fuji hike happen. Ryo also asked another good friend of mine and who also coordinated the last Mt. Fuji hike in 2005, Yuichiro Kanagawa.

I asked a long-time Seattle friend of mine, Mike Curry to join me on this adventure. We met Ryo and Yuichiro at the Hashimoto Train Station. Ryo drove us to the base of Mt. Fuji, Station 5 to start the Subashiri route. We started at 2:00 p.m. and got into a torrent of rain early in the hike. I think this might have been the colossal of rains during any hike I have ever done.

Mason Lake Hike, July 2013

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Mason Lake
Date: July 7, 2013
Difficulty: 5 out of 10
Distance: 7 Miles / 11 Kilometers Roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 2,550 Feet / 777 Meters
Time: 3 to 4 hours
Location: Exit 45, I-90
Users Group: Hikers & Dogs Only
Permits: Northwest Forest Pass
Trail Conditions: Dry
Hiking with: Linna Freeman & Macho the dog wonder.

With all of this warm and sunny weather Seattle has been blessed with, it was time for a lake hike in the mountains. We decided on Mason Lake goo.gl/sc171 off of I-90, exit 45 because it provides an assortment of vitality. You start off with an easy ascent in a cool canopy of young forest followed by a fairly steep traverse in the open for great views and wild flowers. Then an easy descent to a pristine lake just waiting for you.

Mt. Dickerman Hike, June 2013

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Mount Dickerman
Date: June 22, 2013
Difficulty: 7 out of 10
Distance: 8.6 miles roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 3,875 Feet
Time: 4 to 5 hours
Location: Near Verlot, Washington (Mountain Loop Highway)
Users Group: Hikers & Dogs Only
Permits: Northwest Forest Pass
Trail Conditions: Dry To Packed Snow.
Hiking with: Linna Freeman, Emelie Espling, Paul Bates, Mei Yin, Alyssa Yin, Tamara Chinn & Macho the dog wonder.

Since my wife Linna is getting bored with the I-90 hikes out of Seattle, we decided on Mt. Dickerman www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/mount-dickerman on the Mountain Loop highway for a couple of reasons. The 360 degree summit view is to die for and on the most part this trail is never crowded. Not everyone is willing to drive 75 miles from Seattle to stomp through snow and exhaust every muscle in their body as they consume every bit of energy they might have.

We were a party of seven ranging from Alyssa Yin of 12 years old to me…53 in about 3 weeks. I knew there would be snow on the trail but, I didn’t think we would be stair stepping straight up the mountain; this turn a moderate hike into adventurous alpine ascent. The descent was much faster taking advantage of the snow slides; we had some great laughs and even some scary moments.

I think Emelie Espling had the most unexpected turn of events. First post-holing on the descent when her body was still moving forward this could have been disastrous. Second, she had an uncontrollable slide and fell four feet on her ass in a tree well. All seven of us made it back to the cars in one piece….just a little sore!