Author Archives: Andrew Ziehl

About Andrew Ziehl

An avid outdoorsman.

Back Two Backpacking

After a recent series of hikes, it feels about time for another post. We’ve been doing some “fun” backpacking trips lately, also known as hiking in, camping, and hanging out, rather than pushing all day until night falls and unpacking in the dark. There’s a time and a place for long grueling backpacking trips, and the past few weeks were not the time. We also did a great hike with some friends last weekend, which I’ve combined into this one big post covering the end of August and early September!

Summit Lake

Our first trip, a few weeks back now, was to head south towards the border of MRNP, and camp at Summit Lake. The trailhead lies more than six miles up and into the mountains at the end of a somewhat rough forest service road, though the rangers assured us it was ‘far from the worst’. Since dogs seem to be banned from campgrounds in the NP Summit Lake drew a lot of dog owners hiking in for the night. We made a relatively quick ascent, heard there was a sweet overlook campsite, and bee-lined for that.

The rest of the day was spent taking in the views of Mt Rainier, and hanging out at Summit Lake proper, lounging until a dinner of re-hydrated food. Mmmm. The evening and morning lighting made for even better photos.

In the morning we packed up, headed out and got a great breakfast nearby in an old Saloon.

Olallie and Talupus Lakes

The following weekend was labor day weekend, and after plans for a larger three day surfing trip fell through, we opted for another fun, easy backpacking trip, this time near Snoqualmie Pass. The forest road up was much smoother and the lake views were great, especially with some weather patterns moving through creating interesting clouds. Dylan joined us as well for the relaxing afternoon in the lake basins.

The morning fog rising off the lake was a nice treat. On our way back, we stopped at the Falls, since Dylan hadn’t been.

Heliotrope Ridge

Our friend Ian suggested we do a hike together, and because of his love for glaciers, opted for Heliotrope Ridge. After staring at topos all last winter, reading TRs and debating when the best time to ski it was, it was awesome to finally make a trip up from the valley that’s one of Mt. Baker’s main melt outflows. Ian, Tanya, their daughter Lily, Catherine and I all met at the trailhead and started up. It was a gorgeous day for hiking and sightseeing.

All in all an awesome day! Ian was a champ carried a sleeping Lily both up and down the trail. The trail itself was more taxing than one would’ve expected, moderately gaining elevation throughout, and included several fun creek crossings. I can’t wait to head back this winter. The trailhead is also the starting point for one of the main climbing routes, so we encountered more than a few mountaineers making for the summit.

Wild Eastern Oregon

For the 4th, Catherine and I were kindly invited down to central-eastern Oregon for some off the beaten path relaxation. Catherine’s Aunt Nancy and her fiance Dwayne took us in and showed us what Eastern Oregon is all about: trap shooting, off-roading, hikes, and planned siestas.

We split our time touring and sightseeing places like Dixie mountain, Strawberry Lake, and being introduced to shooting Trap, as well as getting shown around a ranch riding ATVs. It was a blast, and we took it easy, which was great. There’s nothing like hanging out on the 4th, and a watching light-your-own fireworks show.

Nancy and Dwayne were great hosts, who played card games with us like Crap on your neighbor and Sequence. Here’s some photos of the trip.

Sadly, Catherine and I had to leave all too soon, especially with the long drive home. We made the most of it, and took a recommendation from Nancy and Dwayne to stop at the John Day Fossil Beds on the scenic route back. The Fossil Beds had an amazing visitor center, and the landscapes is home to fossils dating back to 65 million years ago, with species that cannot be found anywhere else. The fauna was preserved by 60 successive lava flows spaced out approximately 8,000 years apart. As the canyons have eroded, it’s revealed the history.

Not long after leaving the Fossil beds, we passed through Cottonwood Canyon and got a look at Mt. Jefferson, Hood, Adams, and St. Helens all at once.

Needless to say, the drive was worth it, and we’d go back in a second!

Camp Muir Classic

Sean, Tim and I did some mid-summer skiing just about a week ago. We day tripped over to Mt. Rainier and though we didn’t really luck out with the weather, we had a great time.

We got a reasonable start at Paradise, with plans to take it as we went, and immediately ran into this:

Thick fog the whole tour up. Luckily the NPS and guide services had kindly flagged the standard route to Camp Muir the whole way up, and I was somewhat familiar with the mountain from my last visit.

Our best view until we broke the clouds, the Nisqually terminus below Panorama point. We made good progress up the first half of the tour, but began to slow down through the multiple transitions, and lack of visibility. The whole Muir snowfield is fairly safe in good weather, with many parties ascending and descending, flags, and fairly distinct ridges to either side. Nevertheless with poor visibility, we stuck together to took it slow and steady, especially with the recent accidents on the mountain.

Tim snapped about half the photos of the trip on his own camera.

Sean and I during a snack break.

Higher up, we continued following the well-worn path and flags, without much change.

We were getting a bit demoralized by the fog, and weren’t originally planning to go all the way to Muir, but heard Muir was only a short ways ahead when my phone died ~8700 ft. Just as we were cramping up and having thoughts of stopping, we broke through the clouds.

We trudged the last bit up to the Camp and took it easy for awhile at 10,000 feet. Finally we got some well deserved views. It was fun hanging around. Other groups were mainly camped out, with a few other skiers getting ready to descend, who kindly took our picture.

After some rejuvenating snacking, we geared up for a slow descent into fog.

The first 20 or so turns were creamy, and fresh from a few inches the night before, making the whole thing worth it.

Sean heads off.

Me vs. the fog.

Tim coming to join us.

Then it was back to fogginess and low visibility, which meant, follow the flags and tracks, and stick together.

We got slightly separated at one point, since visibility was that bad, but met up fairly quickly at the next transition point, and stuck together the rest of the way back to Paradise, marking just about a 5k vert day.

On our way out, we saw some local wildlife.

Of course the clouds were hanging right at Paradise, so descending down the mountain held some great views.

On our way home, the weather decided it was about time to clear up and become gorgeous.

And finally, we were back to Seattle.

See you guys on the next tour!

Bouldering Bliss

Three days in California is not enough. It was time enough, however, for a great adventure planned out for us by our friend David, who Catherine and I met in person for the first time as he and Paul picked us up from SFO late Friday night, grabbing In and Out on the way to Sacramento. Catherine and I have both been to California before, since she’s hiked the Lost Coast and I lived there when I was much younger, but this was our first trip together to CA.

We left for Lake Tahoe the next morning, trading the 110 degree heat in the city for bluebird skies and 80 degrees in the mountains. Our goal was to go bouldering at Bliss. Catherine provided photo documentary for most of the trip.

Awesome bald peaks surrounding us on the drive up.

We arrived without a guidebook and only a general idea of where to go. We pulled over, grabbed the bouldering pad, and walked right up to some incredible boulders strewn about the high Sierra terrain. We spent the afternoon clambering all over them, scouting new boulders as we went.

I captured some of our bouldering on my goPro, and sped it up. I’ve tried in the past to leave goPro on while camping, etc, but always screw it up, so it’s great to have something to look back on.

If you don’t care for video, I also snapped a few photos of the fun!

Catherine heading up a fun problem.

Paul’s turn.

David showing us how it’s done in Vans.

Ian with the hand-jam.

We climbed both sides of the big boulder, and though the crash pad wasn’t much use it was Type I, truly fun climbing, not grit your teeth, always about to fall climbing.

Paul gets rad boulder jumping.

David on some prime rock.

Me, trying my hand at the route.

As our fingers tired and we were done baking in the sun, we headed down to the lake and jumped in. The water was crystal clear, almost Caribbean. We weren’t quite done climbing and jumping off rocks, so we wandering down the shore a ways and found a secluded spot to test the waters.

As the evening crept in, we drove down out of the mountains, though we all wanted to stay. David had other plans for us the rest of the weekend. The next day we headed for the coast north of San Fran, and stopped to boulder at a creek along the way. This time the rock was volcanic and blocky, and the water was even colder and more refreshing.

Catherine at our second hang out, under the bough of a shade giving tree.

Time to cool off! It was over 100 again.

Paul won for best leap.

We swam out to a rock filled with swallows nests.

Later that afternoon we were at Mt. Tamalpais, and drove down for dinner on Stinson beach.

, Mt. Tam environs.

Our awesome tour guides and bouldering buddies for the trip, David and Paul.

We camped out on top of Mt. Tam, and hung around for a bit in the morning. We considered trying to rent some surfboards since a number of people were tout on the water, but decided better of it. Instead, we headed back to San Francisco for a bit of city tourism before our flight out. Thanks David, Paul and Ian, for a great trip!