cbcbd
Well-known member
Kayaking, rock climbing, mountaineering stuff that has been going on.
Warning, it is pretty long and not necessarily chronological since I want to leave the best for last
Reference map
Leavenworth Rock climbing (B)
Found a post on CascadeClimbers from a guy looking to get into trad and glacier stuff. I hadn't yet done much rock and hadn't found a partner yet to do some trad so I sent him a PM.
Alex and I meet up to climb at Vertical World downtown and since we got along pretty well we made plans to head to Leavenworth for some trad cragging and to practice some trad techniques, etc...
Leavenworth is a faux Bavarian looking town ready to reel in tourists, but it is also one great place to find good granite to climb around here.
We decide to head to the low approach and very cool looking Peshastin Pinnacles park. The climbing here is mostly slab with few cracks and many tri-cam eating huecos. We climbed two climbs here on the main Martian slab rock. Diagonal and Direct. We spent a lot of time going over gear placement, anchors, rope management, and just little things here and there. Diagonal was an easy 6 with a long diagonal crack which actually took pro... good. Direct was a more fun 8 (I possibly took the 9 variation at the end)... bolts for most of the blank face and good friction climbing all the way.
After Peshastin we didn't have much daylight left but I could feel Alex wanted to get his first trad lead in... so we headed to Castle Rock, a nice rock right next to highway 2 with 4-5 pitch climbs up it. Here Alex asked me at the bottom of the initial 5.6 chimney if he could take the lead. Sure! And so with that Alex got his first trad lead! After following the first pitch, noting that we'd have time for no more pitches, and seeing his 7-8 piece wacky anchor!, we decided to head down from there and go over some more anchor building on the ground
It was a great day out on the rock and long overdue (first day since getting out here). Alex and I got along great and already started planning future trips.
http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2807821490064115915YwaJQa
Blake Island Kayaking (C)
My gf doesn't get too much time off so we decided to take a quick overnighter to Blake Island. Because of the time we decided to take the mid-length way to get there, which involved taking a ferry to Vashon island (F) and launching from right next to the ferry landing... maybe 1h30m from there to the Camp on the Northwestern shore of Blake.
Got to camp just in time to enjoy the sunset over the Olympic mountains and then proceeded to kick myself for forgetting to pack the fuel pump for my Whisperlite stove The ranger was very cool and gave us some leftover coal from other campers!
Next morning with a lazy start we walked around the area a little bit and took in some entertaining views, like a different view of the
Seattle skyline, some low tide life (geoducks, anemones, etc), and a "sailor" who forgot to check his tide tables and his charts (they were at least 1-2hrs from low tide when the pic was taken... at least 6-8hrs more to wait to get out).
We then paddled back to Vashon on the Eastern side of the island, stopping shortly at Tillicum Village for a quick (VERY quick - cold!!) swim and to get some of their bread. Loaded the car up and conveniently there is a Mexican restaurant right next to the ramp/ferry. There we had huge margaritas which effectively put us out completely for the ferry waiting and the ferry ride
http://good-times.webshots.com/album/566427096YpwdKV
Cypress Island in the San Juans Kayaking (B, D)
So I recently celebrated my 18th birthday , and after registering to vote, Kristia and I headed north to Anacortes and the gateway to the San Juan islands.
Original plans were to paddle from Anacortes to Cypress Island on Friday, camp, paddle more around Cypress, camp, head back on Sunday. Because of some strong W winds and arriving too late to time it right with the tidal currents we decided to head South to Deception Pass (D) and camp at the park. Deception pass is very famous for its strong currents through the pass, making tons of rips and eddies everywhere. Lots of kayakers head there to play in the currents and sometimes standing waves. Seeing the insane current action below us just wetted my appetite and I want to head back there and play someday! We headed to the park and made our Pad Thai dinner, enjoyed the sunset and went back to camp...
Next day we left to Harbor park (G) to launch. We cross the Guemes channel and head West along the shore during slack and then some grueling paddling against the flood tide to get around the bend to Bellingham channel between Guemes and Cypress (we started too late and so the timing was off). We crossed Bellingham channel, which now was getting the flood tide North and currents were flowing fast. As we got near Cypress Head (B), the narrow point of the channel, the currents were pulling us fast North, threatening to push us past the head (although if it had we could've eddied out on the North side of the head). We toughed it out and made it near the shore and the safety of the back eddy. Very cool camping spot and really quite empty. We got what I thought was the best site and could even see a little of Mt Baker! That evening we went for a hike up nearly 1000' of elevation on the island and saw things like tons of banana slugs, an abandoned truck, and an old airstrip with some views to the other islands. The fast currents made the ocean sound like a river, but as the tides slacked overnight it got very peaceful.
Next day we timed it much better with the tidal currents and headed South on Bellingham during the last of the ebb and some of the slack and then picked up the flood going East into Guemes channel and back to the launch.
The next two days we spent hanging out in Anacortes, gorging ourselves on blackberries that you'd find everywhre, enjoying the views from Cap Sante (H), playing gigantic chess, and hanging out at Washington Park (I) where we had been camping.
It was really nice out on the islands. I would really like to go back and do a multi day kayaking trip and island hop.
http://good-times.webshots.com/album/566421587IOtNOP?start=0
Warning, it is pretty long and not necessarily chronological since I want to leave the best for last
Reference map
Leavenworth Rock climbing (B)
Found a post on CascadeClimbers from a guy looking to get into trad and glacier stuff. I hadn't yet done much rock and hadn't found a partner yet to do some trad so I sent him a PM.
Alex and I meet up to climb at Vertical World downtown and since we got along pretty well we made plans to head to Leavenworth for some trad cragging and to practice some trad techniques, etc...
Leavenworth is a faux Bavarian looking town ready to reel in tourists, but it is also one great place to find good granite to climb around here.
We decide to head to the low approach and very cool looking Peshastin Pinnacles park. The climbing here is mostly slab with few cracks and many tri-cam eating huecos. We climbed two climbs here on the main Martian slab rock. Diagonal and Direct. We spent a lot of time going over gear placement, anchors, rope management, and just little things here and there. Diagonal was an easy 6 with a long diagonal crack which actually took pro... good. Direct was a more fun 8 (I possibly took the 9 variation at the end)... bolts for most of the blank face and good friction climbing all the way.
After Peshastin we didn't have much daylight left but I could feel Alex wanted to get his first trad lead in... so we headed to Castle Rock, a nice rock right next to highway 2 with 4-5 pitch climbs up it. Here Alex asked me at the bottom of the initial 5.6 chimney if he could take the lead. Sure! And so with that Alex got his first trad lead!
After following the first pitch, noting that we'd have time for no more pitches, and seeing his 7-8 piece wacky anchor!, we decided to head down from there and go over some more anchor building on the ground It was a great day out on the rock and long overdue (first day since getting out here). Alex and I got along great and already started planning future trips.
http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2807821490064115915YwaJQa
Blake Island Kayaking (C)
My gf doesn't get too much time off so we decided to take a quick overnighter to Blake Island. Because of the time we decided to take the mid-length way to get there, which involved taking a ferry to Vashon island (F) and launching from right next to the ferry landing... maybe 1h30m from there to the Camp on the Northwestern shore of Blake.
Got to camp just in time to enjoy the sunset over the Olympic mountains and then proceeded to kick myself for forgetting to pack the fuel pump for my Whisperlite stove
The ranger was very cool and gave us some leftover coal from other campers! Next morning with a lazy start we walked around the area a little bit and took in some entertaining views, like a different view of the
Seattle skyline, some low tide life (geoducks, anemones, etc), and a "sailor" who forgot to check his tide tables and his charts
(they were at least 1-2hrs from low tide when the pic was taken... at least 6-8hrs more to wait to get out). We then paddled back to Vashon on the Eastern side of the island, stopping shortly at Tillicum Village for a quick (VERY quick - cold!!) swim and to get some of their bread. Loaded the car up and conveniently there is a Mexican restaurant right next to the ramp/ferry. There we had huge margaritas which effectively put us out completely for the ferry waiting and the ferry ride
http://good-times.webshots.com/album/566427096YpwdKV
Cypress Island in the San Juans Kayaking (B, D)
So I recently celebrated my 18th birthday , and after registering to vote, Kristia and I headed north to Anacortes and the gateway to the San Juan islands.
Original plans were to paddle from Anacortes to Cypress Island on Friday, camp, paddle more around Cypress, camp, head back on Sunday. Because of some strong W winds and arriving too late to time it right with the tidal currents we decided to head South to Deception Pass (D) and camp at the park. Deception pass is very famous for its strong currents through the pass, making tons of rips and eddies everywhere. Lots of kayakers head there to play in the currents and sometimes standing waves. Seeing the insane current action below us just wetted my appetite and I want to head back there and play someday! We headed to the park and made our Pad Thai dinner, enjoyed the sunset and went back to camp...
Next day we left to Harbor park (G) to launch. We cross the Guemes channel and head West along the shore during slack and then some grueling paddling against the flood tide to get around the bend to Bellingham channel between Guemes and Cypress (we started too late and so the timing was off). We crossed Bellingham channel, which now was getting the flood tide North and currents were flowing fast. As we got near Cypress Head (B), the narrow point of the channel, the currents were pulling us fast North, threatening to push us past the head (although if it had we could've eddied out on the North side of the head). We toughed it out and made it near the shore and the safety of the back eddy. Very cool camping spot and really quite empty. We got what I thought was the best site and could even see a little of Mt Baker! That evening we went for a hike up nearly 1000' of elevation on the island and saw things like tons of banana slugs, an abandoned truck, and an old airstrip with some views to the other islands. The fast currents made the ocean sound like a river, but as the tides slacked overnight it got very peaceful.
Next day we timed it much better with the tidal currents and headed South on Bellingham during the last of the ebb and some of the slack and then picked up the flood going East into Guemes channel and back to the launch.
The next two days we spent hanging out in Anacortes, gorging ourselves on blackberries that you'd find everywhre, enjoying the views from Cap Sante (H), playing gigantic chess, and hanging out at Washington Park (I) where we had been camping.
It was really nice out on the islands. I would really like to go back and do a multi day kayaking trip and island hop.
http://good-times.webshots.com/album/566421587IOtNOP?start=0
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