A Christmas offer two good to be true!

Hey, I know how tough this economy has been lately. That's why I have teamed up with outdoor photographer Don Geyer to offer you this incredible two-for-one deal this Christmas season. For a limited time only, you can order my Backpacking Washington and get absolutely free, a copy of Don's Mount Rainier. Yep! Two books for the price of one!

Want more details on the books?

Mount Rainier is a collection of Don's favorite photographs taken throughout Mount Rainier National Park, and includes his hints and recommendations about where, when and how to achieve successful photographic images of the park. He breaks his recommendations down by season, and even by weather. There is always something to photograph in the park! If you're not a photographer, you can simply enjoy the artistic images and the moods and emotions they elicit as you take a visual tour through this beautiful national park.


  Backpacking Washington is the most comprehensive backpacking guide to Washington State detailing 70 routes from 14 to 45 miles, from the lush Olympic Peninsula to the sun-kissed Blue Mountains of Eastern Washington.

This offer is for a limited time only! Order now to assure delivery before Christmas! Order Here!

Quietest Stretch of the Wonderland Trail

A Golden Opportunity for Solitude

Mount Rainier's 93-mile Wonderland Trail is definitely one of the most beautiful and loved hiking trails in the country. Folks from all over the county take to all or sections of it each year. And more than a few folks who live within the shadows of the "Mountain" have hiked the entire trail either section by section or in one glorious outing. I have hiked a good portion of the trail with just bits and pieces left unexplored; particularly near Stevens Canyon yet to be hiked. My favorite sections of the trail are along the west side of the mountain. For not only do you pass some spectacular backcountry here, but also it is the only place on the trail away from roads and therefore away from the throngs of day hikers that often crowd the trails in places. True, that Summerland and Indian Bar are amazing places and claimed to be the best parts of the trail by so many--but they are also downright crowded. Try a hike to the Golden Lakes and Sunset Park. While not nearly as dramatic as Summerland-you will be amazed at the peacefulness of the area. I recently hiked to the Golden Lakes on a gorgeous July day and passed not a single soul from the lakes to Mowich Camp; a section of trail over 6 miles long. You won't have that experience on other places of the Wonderland Trail. What's you favorite section and why?

(Photo-Silence is golden at the Sunset park Ranger Cabin)

Mapping a new future (map!)

Green Trails Maps recently released a brand new Mount Rainier National Park Map which includes:

Trails within the entire park

Trails along the park's periphery including the Cougar Lakes Area

A close up climber's map of Paradise and Muir Snowfields

A profile of the entire Wonderland Trail

And all of it is water proof and tear resistant. How cool is that? I was part of the mapping team last year that put it together. We tracked every trail in the park to make sure they were accurately measured and accurately portrayed. This map is a must have in you hiking resource library.

And heads up-I am currently busy working with cartographer Marc Rothmeyer to produce two new Columbia Gorge National Scenic Area Maps. These maps too will include some great features including the entire Deschutes River Trail and new trails on the Washington side of the gorge as well as indicating the newly expanded Hatfield Wilderness. The first map for the western half of the Gorge will be out next spring-just in time for the Columbia Gorge National Scenic Area's 25th Anniversary celebrations and the release of my Day Hiking Columbia Gorge Book. Of course, my book will have all its hikes referenced to the new maps. The book and the maps will be worth waiting for. Meanwhile don't wait any linger to do some good hiking-get out there and enjoy the spring weather!

Death of a Dog

While I currently don't have a dog (it has nothing to do with my two cats!) I enjoy Man's best friend and am quite fond of many dogs and breeds. My current lifestyle of being on the road/trail for crazy amounts of time each year is just too difficult for me to care for a dog-it is hard enough with a wife and two cats! I have written a guidebook to hiking with your dog and I am a regular contributor to CityDog magazine. You can conclude that I like dogs. So, what happened to me on my most recent trip to Mount Rainier National Park has left me deeply saddened, upset and a bit angry too. In my 31 years of driving, never have I had to experience what I did on the night of September 15th. I hit and killed a dog while driving to the park.


I was traveling from Mowich Lake to Longmire via the rural and scenic Oroville Road through the Ohop Valley. It was 7:30-dusk when I passed a row of homes along Ohop Lake. As I rounded a bend, there right in the road was a small dog. I immediately downshifted. It didn't get out of the way. I couldn't swerve right for there was no shoulder-and if I swerved left where I thought the dog would go-I would have crossed the centerline on this very narrow road and endangered myself. As I slowed-I felt the impact. I immediately pulled over. It was awful, the little terrier mix was convulsing. I ran over to him-no blood or external visible injury. She managed to move herself to the side of the road. I ran to a nearby house. An elderly woman immediately opened the door without even worrying about this stranger pounding at her door. "I just hit a dog!" I frantically said. She knew instantly whose dog it was and ran over to get the owner. I ran back to the dog where another traveler was now pulled over by its side. He held it and mentioned that her heart beat was rapid and irregular. The poor little dog was gasping. I stood there apologizing to it-stroked her head-and felt so sorry. The owner came over-shook my hand for stopping and said "its not you fault." He then said, "I know I should not let her walk around like that-I just can't pen my dogs up." If you did I thought, she would still be alive.

I wondered why that little terrier didn't react faster and get out of my way. Turns out she only had three legs. The owner had just paid over $1,200 for her surgery and said she was doing fine. Why then did he allow her to sniff around in the road-on a fairly busy road-why? I felt nauseous as I watched the little thing slowly shut down. The owner returned with a blanket and took her away. I was hoping he would head to an emergency vet clinic but deep down I knew the dog was dead. The whole incident hung with me that evening while I was camping and throughout my hike the next day. On my way home I returned to the gracious neighbor who had answered my door knocking. She told me that her neighbor-the dog owner was taking the incident well. He buried the little thing last night. She told me that she couldn't understand why he would let his dog run free like that in the area. While she told me this her Australian Shepard begged me to play. This woman kept her high strung Aussie from roaming the roads-why couldn't her neighbor be more vigilant about protecting his three-legged terrier? She recounted about 9 dogs in the area that had been hit by cars.

I walked away saddened and upset that such a needless death occurred. I went over through my head that there was nothing that I could have done differently to stop it from happening. I felt responsible even though I knew I wasn't. I'm still saddened thinking about that poor little three-legged dog. I just can't understand how its owner could have ever allowed this to happen. I know I wouldn't have-but it was me who ultimately claimed its life. Poor thing. Being hit by a car is no way to go-and allowing this to happen is not being a responsible pet owner. Poor little dog....

Rainier's last floral hurrah

Just got back from two more days and 33 more miles of hiking at Mount Rainier National Park and what a great two days and 33 miles they were. On Tuesday I did a nice loop from Mowich Lake down Ipsut Creek, up the Carbon River and Seattle Park to Spray park and back. Yesterday I did a nice loop up the Tahoma Creek Trail over Emerald Ridge and back the South Puyallup Trail. The weather is holding out nicely and summer is hanging on. But alas the days are getting shorter and the wildflowers are fading into memory. But there are still the gentians! The final bloom in the high country before things begin turning red and start decaying. Spray Park which can ordinarily be a quite a zoo when it comes to crowds was eerily quiet when I was there late Tuesday afternoon. Try to sneak out and check it out--especially if you have never been here before. Lots of huckleberries and blueberries out there-and a bear or two too!

The most Wonderful Campsite on the Wonderland Trail

Harvey Manning described the backcountry campsites at Klapatche Park in Mount Rainier National Park as the most beautiful on the entire Wonderland Trail. I agree! And unlike other spectacular places to set up camp along that wonderful trail-such as Indian Bar and Summerland, you won't have gobs of people around. The west side of the park is the quietest side of the park and perhaps the wildest. On a recent two day 32 mile backpack that took me up the South Puyallup Trail to the Wonderland Trail to Klaptache Park and then down to the North Puyallup Trail to St Andrews Creek Trail back to Klapatche, the Wonderland and out-I encountered the following:

The first day- no one on the trail! Just got to share Klapatche Park with two other groups and a young black bear.
The second day- just three people on the trail-and got to watch a really big bear down in an isolated basin. Saw five goats too!

My campsite-site number one-was absolutely a stunner. I got to stare at the mountain all evening-and watch moonlight twinkle on little Aurora Lake. It was hard to pack up the next day. If you haven't checked this part of the park out yet-get to it. Of course Klapatche Park will be in my upcoming Backpacking Book!

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!

Expanding Washington's National Parks

Restricting Freedom vs Better Protection

Hope the title didn't mislead you. I am a huge fan of the National Parks System--a system that began on March 1, 1872 when Congress established Yellowstone as our first national park. Republican President Ulysses S Grant mired in a country deep in post civil war reconstruction signed the bill. On August 25, 1916, Democratic President Woodrow Wilson signed the Organic Act creating the National Park Service. The whole concept of national parks is a truly American ideal that countries around the world have emulated and embraced. The park system has expanded greatly to not only incorporate our crown jewel national parks, but also national seashores, national historic sites, national monuments, and a whole slew of other designations to include properties in every state except Delaware (could Joe Biden's boyhood home change that? Nope-he was born and raised in PA, home to many park units!) and several of our territories. There are currently 394 units within the park system and we continue to expand our park system with each administration. The latest additions to our national parks (the main parks) were under George W Bush in 2003 and 2004 when South Carolina's Congaree Swamp and Colorado's Great Sand Dunes were elevated from national monuments to national parks to become our 57th and 58th national parks.

I have been to 32 of these gems-hiking, camping, and bicycling in them. I would love to see more parks and many of our parks expanded. Here in Washington I would love to see Mount St Helens transferred from the Forest Service to the park service and I would love to see Mount Rainier and Olympic National Parks expanded. There is currently a movement afloat to expand the North Cascades National Park; and while in theory I support it-I have some reservations about this proposal. First and foremost in our real world of political sacrifice, compromise and unlimited capital-the North Cascades proposal is of the least importance compared to other national park expansion issues within the Evergreen State.

Let me explain in order of importance (as I see it) issues pertaining to expanding national parks in Washington.

1. Highest Priority-Expand Olympic National Park. Too much of this park's periphery (particularly along the coast, Lake Ozette and along Hood Canal drainages) borders along industrial forest lands and neglected national forest lands where poaching of resources (illegal plant harvesting by illegal immigrants and illegal game hunting by native born riff raff) and illegal activity (squatting and meth labs) threatens the park's visitors and resources. And a constant threat exists that many of these industrial forestlands will be subdivided and developed further compromising the park.


2. Expand Mount Rainier National Park's Boundaries. Especially along the Carbon River Area and near the Clearwater Wilderness where as stated above, illegal activity and marginal industrial forest lands compromises the park's integrity and the safety of park visitors.


3. Transfer Mount St Helens to the Park Service. Under a better funded park service and one with a clearer objective (preservation vs multiple and often conflicting use) than the disgraced and underfunded Forest Service, St Helens would be elevated to a higher status with better protection, funding, and better and expanded visitor facilities-like perhaps a campground and better maintained trails. Also, St Helens' borders should be adjusted to help better manage it and incorporate periphery areas that should have never been left out when the monument was established-like the old growth forests of Quartz Creek.


4. Lastly, expansion of the North Cascades National Park. While it sounds noble, it is mostly unnecessary. Nearly all of the lands bordering North Cascades National park are federally protected wilderness areas and are under no threat. Perhaps the only exception would be north of Rainy Pass along the PCT in which case national park status or even better-an expansion of the Pasayten Wilderness would be better suited. Why waste political and real capital on an area that is under virtually no threat when other areas in the state are in dire need of protection?

Besides-one of the beauties of the North Cascades complex outside of the National Park lands is the freedom to camp and travel (mostly) unregulated. While I support permitting by the park service as necessary in highly visited areas, why bring this cumbersome and often frustrating process to areas that don't need it-areas that are far more wild and untrammeled than within the park's boundaries. And while I support keeping our park's free from dogs and hunting (another argument that I can address in a separate post) expanding North Cascades National Park into adjacent forestlands where these activities are currently allowed would lock out these users-whom I don't believe should be locked out (yes, they would be locked out) of these lands where they can now freely roam. My biggest reasons for supporting any national park expansion are for better protection and better visitor services. In the case of the North Cascades National Park periphery I don't believe there is much of a resource threat or need for visitor expansion. In Rainier, St Helens and Olympic, I believe otherwise, and I believe it would be wise for conservationists and politicos to concentrate on expanding and improving these crown jewels of Washington State instead. Your take?

Mapping the Mountain

Talk about a cool assignment. I am part of a team of a dozen hikers working with cartographer Marc Rothmeyer on a brand new special series Green Trails Mount Rainier National Park Map. We have been busy this summer hiking all of the trails in the park and along the park's periphery tracking the routes and recording important waypoints. My assigned trails have been in the park's north central and far eastern reaches. So far this is some of the important info I can provide for you in regards to my field work (the rest you'll have to wait for the map!).

• Most of my mapped routes have been longer than previously thought/recorded. So, yes that hike you took last summer in the park may very well have felt longer than what you thought it was going to be because it was!
• Particularly the Laughingwater Trail-it is way longer than what most old maps say-and I knew that after hiking it three times. Actual distance of the trail from Trailhead to PCT is 9.3 miles not 7.3-that's a huge difference!
• The old trail to Sheep Lake from Three Lakes is long gone-nothing remains of it-well at least nothing anywhere near the Laughingwater Trail.
• The old trail from the Cougar Lakes to the PCT does exist and it is in remarkably good shape although you will have a hard time locating it from the PCT. From Cougar lake it is easy to follow and it'll cost you 2.2 miles and nearly a 1,000 feet of elevation gain.
• The Dewey Lake Trail from Dewey Lake to Mesatchee Creek is not 6.2 miles but 7.4 miles long!
• American Lake lies just .55 mile from the PCT
• Cougar Lakes from the PCT following the American Ridge and Cougar Lakes trail is 3.3 miles-much longer than what old maps state-there has been some rerouting over the years.
• Swamp Lake is just shy of a mile from the Cougar Lake-American Ridge Junction
• Dewey Lake to American Ridge via the PCT is not 3 miles like what old maps state-but 3.7 miles which is exactly what the park service's sign says. Hey they got that one right!

This great map will be available in the early spring of 2010. Visit Green Trails.com to learn more about it. We still have some serious mapping to do, so perhaps I'll see you on the trail. I'll be the guy with the gps, scribbled maps, and note pad in hand- (wait that could be one of many lost hikers out there!).

Cougar (Lakes) Country

I've been meaning to get to the Cougar Lakes for years. I heard it was gorgeous-full of wildlife (and mosquitoes) and was one of the prettiest places in the William O Douglas Wilderness. Well- I finally got there! Just finished up a three day backpacking trip with Kim Brown to the lakes via the Pacific Crest Trail from Chinook Pass and out the Laughingwater Trail to Ohanapecosh in Mount Rainier NP.

Here are some highlights of the 3 day 34 mile trek:

• Do not get your Rainier permit at Ohanepecosh-they are not prepared for it-may not know what to do and you will be a victim of bureaucratic bungling--but has once again convinced me about what a nationalized health care plan will look like (ok-no, more politics!)
• Do Cougar lakes during the week in chilly weather. Why? We were the only ones in the entire basin-had a premiere site on Little Cougar Little with a view of House Rock. And no bugs! It was too cold for the little buzzers.
• The Green Trail Map (Bumping Lake no 271) has lots of inaccuracies. That's the bad news. The good news is that I was tracking trails on this trip for a new Green Trails Mount Rainier S-map that includes this area. Cougar Lakes from the PCT is 3.3 miles-a lot longer than what the map says-
• And the Laughingwater Creek Trail is a lot longer too- I always had a feeling that was the case too as this was my third time on this trail and I knew it was longer than what was stated on signs and maps. Trailhead to Three Lakes Campground is 7. 3 miles not 6 miles. And Three Lakes to PCT is 2.0 miles not 1.5 miles.
• The old trail from Big Cougar to the PCT exists! And it is in good shape! Kim and I hiked this 2.2 mile gorgeous trail through meadows and rocky basins and over a high shelf on the crest. It will appear on that new map (available next spring) that I was telling you about.
• Swamp Lake is actually a nice lake while Three Lakes is actually a nice swamp.
• Three Lakes campground is probably one of the quietest backcountry campsites within the entire Mount Rainier National Park
• Only spooked one elk on this trip but they are out there in numbers-elk droppings and tracks everywhere-
• Goats too!
• You want views, meadows, alpine lakes, amazing old-growth, and not much company? You'll want to do this trip-and yep-it'll be in my upcoming Backpacking Washington book.