New Adventures in Life - Featuring Hiking!

Hello Friends!  It's been a couple of years... Since I last posted... During that time, Logan and I were living in New Haven, Connecticut. He received his Masters in Forestry from Yale University in May and I was working for the New Haven Land Trust, among other fun activities (auditing forestry classes, volunteering with different organizations, and meeting loads of amazing people - miss you guys already)...

Now, we've returned to the west coast and are starting some new adventures!  In a meandering search to find the perfect place to call home while enjoying our current freedom, we've decided to hike this fall and visit friends and potential places to live/work until we return to the Seattle area to celebrate Christmas with Logan's family. We're hoping by that time, we'll at least have made a decision about where to spend the winter :) This seemed like a good time to start sharing my adventures again.  Hope you enjoy... 

I joined Logan in Seattle at the end of September and we went on our first little hike shortly thereafter in Washington's North Cascade mountains. We hiked a total of 3 full days (2 half days and 2 full days) for a total of 46 miles southbound on the Pacific Crest Trail from Hart's Pass to High Bridge. Special thanks to Logan's folks for generously driving us before and after!

Where we walked: 46 miles of gorgeous mountains

Location of the hike in Washington State

We traversed breathtaking mountain country, climbing to 7,000 ft. See the glaciers in the distance?

Stopped for a stretch & lunch with mountains on all sides. Wish you had lunch here today?

If you look closely, you you can see the trail we walked on the far ridgeline and crossing the slope on the right.

I loved the side sloping! & check out that red jacket... I made it! It's ultralight and reversible.

Fall is the best time to hike among all the colors!

Our first day started out with the unexpected - SNOW! and even a little hail. This was late September and not particularly cold elsewhere, but we had warm clothes and I thought it was fun to see my first snow of the year up here. By the end of the day, we'd reached a valley, where it turned to rain and then stopped altogether. This trip also surprised us with 30 degree temps at dawn and dusk. No trouble for me though - this summer I made myself a ultralight insulated pullover (and it's reversible!)... wore it almost the whole trip!  The views of mountain ranges, valleys, rivers, and of course the fall foliage were astounding! A mule deer mama and fawns hung out for breakfast with us one morning. After we reached the end of our planned 46 miles, we rested and enjoyed a couple of fun days in the town of Stehekin (where you can only arrive by foot or boat!) In addition to devouring many delectable bakery items, we picked free apples at an organic orchard and visited a beautiful waterfall. Not a bad start to the fall :)

Mule Deer at breakfast

Apples were abundant

Logan admiring the waterfall near Stehekin

In just a few short days, we are leaving for the canyon country in Utah! Logan made some dramatic improvements to his Honda CRV which make it possible for us to live out of it for the next few months - expect the next update to include photos and details about our new temporary home on wheels!