I-5 Road Trip

Last Sunday, I packed up the car for a road trip south to Portland. I would be picking up my sister at PDX and we were headed for the Oregon Coast and camping. "No need to check the weather report!" Check out this link for the Pemco Insurance Blue Tarp Campers commercial. "We'll bring our blue sky with us!"



If you have driven I-5 south to Portland, you might have noticed that almost every couple of miles there is a sign saying "State Park next exit" I decided to check out some of those State Parks for a little hiking for hike-a-thon. I figured I could do a mile or so hike at each park.
My first stop on the ride south was Rainbow Falls State Park. I hiked along the Deer Trail and the Hemlock Trail and actually hiked 2 miles because I was hunting for letterboxes along the way.


Back to I-5 and Lewis and Clark State Park, (not to be confused with the Lewis and Clark Trail State Park near Waitsburg, WA) was my next stop. I hiked the Trail of the Deer (do ya see a pattern forming?) And the Old Growth Trail for a total of 2 miles.


Seaquest State Park was really nice, but the trails did not have actual names. So I crossed the highway to the Mount Saint Helens Interpretive Center and hiked theWetland Haven Trail for 1 mile. And I might have made a stop at Burgerville in Woodland for a Raspberry Shake (the last of the season, they switched to Blackberry this week!)


I also stopped at Paradise Point State Park, but I could not find any named trails to hike. This park is right on the highway. I have photos of the big rigs thundering by overhead.
　
My sister was due in to Portland in a couple of hours, so I skipped Battleground State Park and went directly to Beacon Rock State Park. I hiked the 1 mile trail to the top of the rock and then headed back to PDX to collect my sister.
　
That brings my hiking mileage to 26 miles and $733 raised for WTA!
Amanda's WTA Fundraising Page
Be sure to visit my WTA Fundraising page to see my progress towards $1,000!

Not Quite 10,000 Steps

On Friday, I spent most of the day canning soup and only had a couple of hours to get in 2 miles on the Longfellow Creek Trail in West Seattle. My Granny used to can this soup every summer and so I worked with her recipe and worked on vegetable soup most of the day. I was able to use the last couple of tomatoes from our tomato plant!

Longfellow Creek Trail has some terrific public art. Practical Art, like a pavilion that is a dragonfly and a bridge that is salmon bones.

Saturday I arrived home from work and only had the energy to hike 1 mile at Dash Point State Park along the Beach Trail up to the campground and back. Pictures of these tall stumps show evidence of old logging in the area. That cut in the side of the stump was where the men would put a board so that they could stand on it when they cut down the tree.
Loggers found that they could save themselves labor by cutting the trees ten or twelve feet above the ground. The bolls of large fir trees are covered with a tough bark from 8 to 12 inches thick at the bottom and the wood of the bottom part of the tree is also thoroughly impregnated with gum so that it is very heavy and very hard to cut. The loggers found that by standing on short springboards that were inserted in notches cut in the stump, they could get above this gummy wood and tough bark and it made cutting down the tree that much easier.

I also got in 1 mile at Saltwater State Park, on the McSorley Creek Trail and the Bluff Loop. Saltwater State Park is very popular for its underwater marine park. There is a sunken barge and tires about 50 feet offshore forming a reef that is a favorite spot for scuba-diving.

There is also a cute story about Saltwater State Park. When the park was created in the 1920's a hatchet was symbolically buried under a rock somewhere in the park. It was meant as a peace effort to stop the bad feelings between the cities of Tacoma and Seattle.

So far I have hiked a total of 20 miles and we have raised $733 dollars for WTA. I will need to collect all money from my pledges by September 3, 2009. If you do not want to make a pledge by credit card to the website, checks can be made out to WTA (Washington Trails Association) and mailed to me and cash is always welcome. Just click on this link to go to My WTA Fundraising Page

Thanks so much

10,000 Steps

Maybe you have heard of the recent fad of walking 10,000 steps per day. How far is 10,000 steps anyway? 10,000 steps is approximately 5 miles. The 10,000 steps thing is about walking more in your daily life: taking the stairs instead of the elevator, parking in the far corner of the parking lot and walking to the supermarket. Stuff like that.

I would like to hike at least 5 miles each time I go hiking for the WTA hike-a-thon this month. At that rate, I would be able to knock out my goal of 50 miles in only 10 days. But real life intrudes and with work and other obligations, some days I cannot fit in more than a mile or two in a park in town. Today is one of those days. I am canning my Granny's vegetable soup recipe and I will be lucky to sneak in a couple of miles this afternoon.

But on Wednesday, I visited St. Edwards State Park with a goal of hiking 10,000 steps or 5 miles. I hit just about every trail in the park to make that happen. I took the North Trail to the Beach Trail and climbed back up the hill along the South Ridge Trail. Then I took the Perimeter Trail back around to the Seminary Trail and I went back down to Lake Washington. Someone had left a rope swing tied up down at the lake. It looks like it could be fun on a hot day. Then I took the Grotto Trail back up the hill. I took the South Canyon Trail down again and came back up to do the Orchard Loop. I hit the Volunteer Trail and the Juanita Trail at the other end of the park to complete my 10,000 steps!

I had been to St. Edwards State Park when I hiked for WTA in 2006.

http://samanark.blogspot.com/2006/08/hike-thon-begins.html

From the 1920s until 1977, the land on which Saint Edward State Park sits was owned by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle. In 1977, the diocese sold 316 acres, including the Saint Edward Seminary to the state of Washington for use as a state park.

While researching the history of the park for this blog I found out that the McMenamins had proposed to develop the main seminary building into a hotel, restaurant, and conference center. But their proposal was withdrawn in 2007. A McMenamins Hotel and restaurant in the Seattle area would have been pretty exciting. We have a couple of pubs here in Seattle, but the hotels are really cool. I am a huge fan of the McMenamins Edgefield and I have stayed there often when I visit Portland!

http://www.mcmenamins.com/

My sister and I will visit a McMenamins or two on our trip to Oregon later this month.

So far I have hiked 11 miles and raised $683 dollars for the WTA. Thanks so much to everyone who has already gotten your pledges in to me. I need to get everyone's money in by September 3rd. You don't have to mail me a check, just go online to My WTA Pledge Page and you can use your credit card to donate as much as you want. $5 or $50 it all makes a difference!

Carkeek Sculpture Trail

I met a friend on Monday at Carkeek Park in Seattle, where they have 6 miles of trails. I hiked around just about every one of those trails to add up to 5 miles! It is like a maze of up and down criss-crossing trails. North Bluff, South Bluff, North Meadow Hillclimb, Grand Fir, Wetland, Brick Road, South Ridge, Hillside, Big Rock, Salmon to Sound and Piper's Creek Trail!
Whew. Lots of steps! But I don't mind them soo much when I can take them downhill.


Carkeek Park is infamous in Seattle for a recent rail disaster that happened there....a pedestrian was killed on the train tracks this past June.



http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009365008_webtrain20m.html

So take the Pedestrian overpass to the beach and stay off the train tracks!



We discovered that there is a sculpture exhibit going on at Carkeek Park now through August 10th. I took some photos of some of the sculptures that were on display throughout the park. If you are interested, get out there this weekend before they are gone, next Monday is the last day of the exhibit.


Sculpture Trail at Carkeek Park



Also my friend, Yvette, is a burlesque dancer/actress and her troupe is performing this month here in Seattle! August 14th and 15th at the Neighbors Underground Nightclub on Broadway, so here is a plug for that event!

Tempest Burlesque presents: Disco Gods




Thanks to everyone who has already gotten your money to me. So far I have $635 towards my goal of $1,000!



I will need to collect all money from my pledges by September 3, 2009. If you do not want to make a pledge by credit card to the website, checks can be made out to WTA (Washington Trails Association) and mailed to me and cash is always welcome.


My WTA Pledge Page

First of August, First State Park

It’s the first of August and I visited the first state park in Washington! Larrabee State Park was created in 1915. Charles X. Larrabee was a local businessman and philanthropist. His family donated the land after his death and the park was named after him.

Larrabee State Park

Today the park covers over 2,000 acres between the Samish Bay and Chuckanut Mountain near Bellingham, WA.
I drove up from Seattle along Chuckanut Drive.
Chuckanut Drive
Chuckanut Drive PDF Brochure
Chuckanut is a very scenic winding road and one of my all time favorite drives in Washington. There are many oyster beds in the bay along Chuckanut Drive, and therefore many oyster bars and fish markets! "The oyster you eat today slept last night in Samish Bay!"

Weather in the Seattle area had been up to 100 degrees last week. Luckily I missed all that to enjoy 100 degree weather in Madrid, Spain. So it is good to come back home to more manageable 80 degree weather this weekend. I don’t usually like to visit our parks on the weekends, but I didn’t have much choice this year since August 1st fell on a Saturday. I prefer to avoid the crowds and hike during the week. I got up bright and early to drive up to Larrabee to hike on Saturday. I hit the trail around 7am, this was great because I missed most of the crowds on the trails and I missed the heat of the day. An early start let me take advantage of the cool early morning temperatures.

I hiked 6 miles on Fragrance Lake Trail, Clayton Beach Trail and the Lost LakeTrail. And many thanks to Hufflepuff Lost, Explorers Club and Print and Pie for hiding the terrific letterboxes I was able to find along the way!

My WTA Pledge Page

I will need to collect all money from my pledges by September 3, 2009. If you do not want to make a pledge by credit card to the website, checks can be made out to WTA (Washington Trails Association) and mailed to me and cash is always welcome.

Plans for Hike-a-thon 2009

Here is one of the main reasons that I am hiking for the Washington Trails Hike-a-Thon. I go out on a gorgeous weekend to hike some of my favorite trails and I see signs like these: Bridge Out, Trail Closed! It's very disappointing. The WTA's volunteers go out just about every day to do maintenance on our trails in Washington State.

Washington Trails Association Work Parties

And I don't always have the time to go out for a day to help clean up what mother nature has thrown at us...so during August, I like to combine my recreational hiking with fundraising for Washington Trails.

It is glorious summer in the Pacific Northwest and I would be enjoying the outdoors anyway, so it is a great opportunity to make a difference for our local trails.

My plans for 2009 include driving down to Portland with my sister for some hiking in Oregon and along the Oregon coast. Lots of hikes in the Seattle area, with some of my USAirways friends coming along to keep me company! And some letterboxing excursions also around the Puget Sound area.

Issaquah, WA area letterboxes

Port Orchard, WA area letterboxes

Here are a few photos from previous years hiking....Could that be Bella's Truck rusting away on the Olympic Peninsula??

Thanks so much to the folks who have already donated! I have $490 dollars already towards my goal of $1,000!! If you haven't donated yet, you can send a check or cash to me or donate directly to the WTA website with your credit card.

Hike-a-thon '09 Amanda's Fundraising Page

I'll need all pledges by September 3, 2009. For the flight attendants (and pilots) who will be working to Seattle in August, I will be hiking on the layovers on August 5th, 7th, 15th, 17th and 22nd. So if you would like to come along, just drop me an email and I would be happy to pick you up at the Roosevelt and take you out to view some of the natural beauty around Seattle!