Catherine and I went to Olympic National Park to hike the Enchanted Valley trail only to find it closed. With no maps or real idea what to do we drove up the North Fork of the Quinault to see if we could find a ranger. Instead we found the North Fork trailhead and, after talking to some other hikers, decided to do our backpacking trip there. After 1 ˝ days and 16 miles we came out of the trees into the meadows at Low Divide which offered spectacular views of peaks in each direction. Low Divide shows Kimta Peak over the meadows of the divide.
We did a lot of hiking in 2000 all around the state of Washington and I got lots of good subject material during these hikes. I love the diversity of Washington State - the water in the Pacific or Puget Sound, the rain forest of the Olympic Peninsula, the mountains of the Cascades, and the high desert of Eastern Washington. These pastels try to capture some of the beauty and diversity of the state.
In September we had guests in town who wanted to do some easy hiking. We took them to Rosario Beach and hiked to Bowman Bay and to views of Deception Pass.
In the early spring Catherine and I took off on our first hike of the year, a “short jaunt” up the Bandera Mountain trail. The hike quickly turned into a steep scramble through the trees and out onto the open slopes above the main forest. We found these trees in the melting snow about 2/3 of the way up to the summit.
I spent a lot of time this year on the Yakima River, fishing and walking its banks in Rhinehart Park in Ellensburg and in the canyon below Ellensburg. In the canyon my favorite spot is right at mile marker 17 and this summer day I fished a PMD hatch that turned into one of my better days on the river.
One of my first trips to the Yakima this year was in March to Rhinehart Park in Ellensburg. This group of trees caught my eye as I walked to the river, the white trees coming out of the deep orange weeds and just a hint of green coming up.
In October, Catherine and I went to Eastern Washington for a few days. On our second day in the desert we hiked to the south of Dry Falls lake to Monument Coulee. This group of crumbling basalt was found along the trail growing up out of the dead grasses.
After entering Gold Creek Valley, I tracked through fresh snow and found my way into the valley then had to search for a suitable stream crossing to get to the more crowded trails on the east side. After a short search I found a low bank that led to a shallow where I could cross without getting above my boots.
In early January I donned cross country skis to go up Kendall Knobs one sunny day. The logging road, however, was very icy so I got off at the first spur and headed through the woods to Gold Creek Valley. After a half-mile or so only these fresh tracks existed, within another mile the ended and I had the entire valley to myself.
One August day Catherine and I drove up Hwy 2 to hike to Lake Dorothy, in search of Brook Trout. The hike was dark and a bit muddy and difficult at times but the trout fishing at the outlet stream was worth it. The highlight of the day, though, was hiking to the inlet and the meadows and marshes located there. We had lunch while sitting in the meadow with this painting as our view.
After hiking to Low Divide, we came upon Lake Margaret, a small alpine lake that was inviting us for a swim. One other pair of hikers was already in the lake but left soon and we spent the afternoon swimming and lying in the sun before hiking back down to Twelvemile camp for the night.
Our longest backpacking trip of the year was to Mount Rainier National Park where we did a 3-day loop in the Northwest corner at the end of August. One the second day it began to rain when we were at our high point between Seattle Park and Spray Park. We made it to camp at Mowich Lake to spend a damp evening. On the day out we encountered heavy fog as we got to the far shore of Mowich Lake and climbed to Ipsut Pass.
