Try This Trail!

My Seattle Met Hiking/Writing Gig

Those of you who enjoy my Hikeoftheweek.com and NW Trails column in Outdoors NW may want to start reading Seattle Met's Tripster Blog where I will be contributing content on a monthly basis for Try This Trail. Each entry will be new material and season specific and will include hikes from all over Washington state and perhaps a trip every so often to Oregon and BC. First trail? Saddle Rock in Wenatchee. Have you hiked it yet? The flowers are currently in full bloom-so get there soon! Let me know too if there are any trails or areas that you'd like for me to write about.

Wenatchee Foothills
Blossoming greenbelt on the edge of the Apple Capital

It’s a short hike to the top of Saddle Rock, an imposing monolith of andesite cliffs rising above the Central Washington city of Wenatchee. But it’s a steep climb to this locally prominent landmark. Once used by miners searching for mineral riches, the trail now grants determined hikers with scenic rewards. From the notched ridge that hovers 1,000 feet directly above the self-proclaimed Apple Capital of the World, a diverse landscape on the urban fringe is revealed.
Face west and view rows of evergreen-draped ridges yielding to lofty craggy Cascade peaks. Stare east at golden slopes and basaltic canyons radiating from the desert-steppe Columbia Plateau. Then cast your eyes north and south upon the Northwest’s mightiest river, the Columbia. Here it cuts a deep gorge into the heart of the state bringing life to the bustling center of commerce, recreation, and industry below. You are smack dab at one of the most dramatic transition zones in the Pacific Northwest—where its lush coastal mountains and forests converge with its interior sun-baked arid plateaus.
And here at Saddle Rock you can look north and south and witness another dramatic transition zone, one between urban and wild. Cradling the bustling city below is a western flank of steep buttes, sage covered hills and pine draped knolls, collectively known as the Wenatchee Foothills. And containing the growing city from marching up upon them is not the hills’ rugged physical nature, but the resolute drive of hundreds of local citizens determined to see this scenic and ecologically rich front remain wild.

Read the rest in this issue of Adventures Northwest Magazine

Back from my Eastern Washington (and a little bit of Idaho too) Whirlwind Tour

Last night at around 11:30 pm I returned from an 8 day trip that was quite productive and fun and a tad bit exhausting. I apologize for the lack of blog entries during my absence-but I don't travel with a laptop. Wouldn't have had any time to use it anyways even if I did travel with one. So where did I go and what did I do?
Okay-
Book and hiking talk and presentation in Wenatchee.
Run 6 miles on the Golden Tiger Rail Trail in Republic Washington
Hike 10 miles on the northern Kettle Crest and Little Vulcan Mountain
Hike 5 miles in 13 Mile Canyon Roadless area
Book talk and presentation in Spokane
Hike 4 miles on Tubbs Hill in Coeur d'Alene Idaho
Walk a few mils on the Centennial Trail
Run 10 miles on the Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes at Heyburn State Park, ID
Hike 14 miles on Tucannon River Trail and Hunters Spring in the Blue Mountains, Umatilla National Forest
Hike 4 miles in the Juniper Dunes Wilderness
Book talk in Walla Walla
Run 6 miles on the Mill Creek Trail and Bennington Lake Reserve in Walla Walla
Visit the Whitman National Historic Site
Hike Hat Rock State Park, Oregon
Hike Crow Butte
Run a 10K race in Moses Lake
Visit Dry Falls
Drive way too much thanks to a road closure on the North Cascades Highway

Quite a bit of activity there for 8 days uh? Tell me about it! I'm exhausted- time to rest on this Memorial Day Weekend. I'll tell you more about some of the places I recently visited in the my upcoming posts. Its great to be back home!

(photo-Garfield County Courthouse in Pomeroy-the middle of nowhere and one of my favorite corners of Washington)

My World Premiere!

Wenatchee World that is! Check out the nice feature in the Weantchee World today by writer Stephen Maher titled the Man who hikes a lot! That would be me! The article is an interview with me and Andy Dappen of Wenatchee Outdoors. We'll be doing a joint presentation in Wenatchee next Friday-so come on down if you're in the area. I would love to chat with you about one of my favorites things about Wenatchee-the wine-I mean hiking!!

(photo-Wenatchee from Saddle Rock-Hike no. 123 in my new Day Hiking Central Cascades Book)