Monday, August 24, 2009

Rainier reigns!

If you've been wondering why I haven't posted lately, it's because I just finished up an epic 8 days. From last Sunday to yesterday I hiked 102 miles, half of them backpacking, and most of them in Mount Rainier National Park. Six of those eight days were on the trail-one day had me running a 10K road race benefiting our local humane society and just one day allowed me some rest! This morning I had to drive into Seattle to be on a KUOW talk program. I'm finally back home and all I want to do is what my cats seem to do very well--Sleep! I'm beat! So, it is time to let the body recover before I head back out into the woods once more-and its time to get caught up with some writing. I'll just give you a little highlight of the last eight days here and then I'll write in more detail about these places in upcoming entries.



  • The Northern Loop in Mount Rainier rocks! It is truly a Northwest classic and a nice shorter and less popular alternative to Rainier's Wonderland Trail. Windy Gap is one of the most spectacular places (pictured right) in the park.

  • The Huckleberry Trail in Mount Rainier National Park is perhaps lonelier than the Laughingwater trail and a wonderful trail sampling many of the park's natural zones from alpine tundra to low country old growth rainforest. I hiked this trail with fellow guidebook author/photographers Alan Bauer and Karen Sykes and new friend Bob and we had a great time on the trail.

  • My wife and I celebrated our third wedding anniversary by doing a 19 mile hike into the Horseshoe Basin in the North Cascades National Park. It was a rigorous day hike of 5,000 vertical feet but we were rewarded with a lonely basin, old mine, and a cirque full of waterfalls.

  • The first Annual Anne Jackson Run to benefit the Skagit Valley Humane Society was a huge success and Scruffy Gray and Giuseppe thank all who attended and helped raise funding for their fellow furry friends who unlike them need a loving home.

  • This morning's interview on Steve Scher's Weekday with WTA's Jonathan Guzzo was a lot of fun and hopefully you found it interesting and informative. Click here if you'd like to listen to it.
Okay-time to catch up with things before I go hiking again!

2 comments:

Crzydazy said...

102 miles? I think you could have hiked 103! Hee Hee...that is a years worth of miles for me and I'm usually toast after 7 miles. How does one do that? wow!

Craig said...

Hey Crzydazy-

I don't know how I do it either! But it does wipe me out for a few days-this year has been an exceptionally busy year from with the backpacking book-another book-and a couple of marathons-it will be a record mileage year for me for sure and I'll look back at 09 in the future and wonder how the heck did I ever hike and run so much! Yesterday along with my wife and friend we hiked the Enchantments Colchuck TH to Snow Lakes TH (21 miles) in one long 13 hour day-it was amazing and taxing!Do it while you can-life is too short not to go for it!