Studio711.com – Ben Martens

Tyla’s family was camping up at Birch Bay State Park over Labor Day weekend. They had their trailer parked at the state park and had also reserved a room at their timeshare/condo place down the street. Tyla and I ended up staying there with Elijah at night and then hung out at the campsite during the day. It’s not exactly the most hardcore camping trip I’ve ever had, but it’s a nice area and we had better weather than expected, and it was nice to get away from the house for a while. There was a pretty nice sunset the first night too.

A couple weekends ago, Tyla and I headed to a new (for us) park in Bellevue. It’s small but it has a nice little swimming area with life guards. Mandy and Ike joined us for the sunny fun and I snapped a few photos. You can also check out my quick Photosynth from the park. Well, technically it’s the view FROM the park. I didn’t want to look too creepy photographing other people’s kids.

Back when I used to have time to go hiking, I was constantly amazed at how predictable my hiking speed was. This takes a little practice, but here are some rules of them. I didn’t invent them but everyone needs to tweak them a little bit to their own habits.

To calculate the time it will take to do a hike:

1. Add 20 minutes for every mile
2. Add 30 minutes for every 1000 feet of vertical

That’s it! So if you’re going on a 4.5 mile round trip hike that goes up 2000 feet and then returns to the starting point, that would be 4.5 miles * 20 minutes + 2  thousand feet * 30 minutes = 2.5 hours. You don’t need to count the down part. The 30 minutes that you add for going up takes the down into account.

The flat ground timing is extremely accurate. The elevation can be more variable depending on the steepness of the slope. And of course you need to factor in how much time you’ll spend enjoying the view at the top.

I wonder how this will apply with an 11 month old boy on my back?

Last year, Tyla got a bike for her birthday, and we’ve been hoping to do some family bike rides this summer. Elijah probably won’t be riding a bike yet so we decided to get him a bike trailer. When I hopped online to do some research I was amazed at what you can buy for a bike trailer! We opted for the lower end of the spectrum until we prove that we actually need something fancier and settled on this very well reviewed model from InStep.

Assembly was quick and easy. Elijah fits into the straps just fine so we decided to give it a shot. He did ok on a very quick ride around the cul-de-sac. He’s a very curious kid and his curiosity was definitely winning though he wasn’t laughing or smiling. We decided to go for a ride around the neighborhood but after about a quarter mile, he decided he was done.

It’s generally too cold and/or wet for this kind of activity right now anyway. I’m guessing that by the time spring rolls around, he’ll be loving this!

We’re starting to get some beautiful summer weekends so I thought I would like out a few of my favorite day or weekend trips.

1. Artists Point on Mt. Baker – Check WSDOT to see when it opens. It will probably be a few more weeks yet, but the road is fun to drive and it’s awesome to see how much snow is still up there in the middle of the summer. Do this on a sunny day though so you get a good view.
2. Dry Falls – We did this as a day ride, but you could combine it with something else (like #3). The stretch along Highway 2 going east from 97 away from Wenatchee is AWESOME as you wind through a canyon on very curvy roads.
3. Grand Coulee Dam – This is a long drive so maybe you want to spend a night, but you could do it in a day I guess too. Just make sure you give yourself some time to take the tour. It’s worth it and shows you stuff you’d never get to see on your own. They have a laser light show on the dam at night which is interesting for the first few minutes but didn’t hold my attention. If you’re staying overnight then it’s worth seeing.
4. Hwy 20 is the northernmost pass through the Cascades and it’s my favorite. You’ll go through Winthrop on the way back which has a fun old west look to it. I did this as a long day ride on my bike. You’ll go past Lake Chelan which is huge and beautiful but also very packed.
5. Canyon Road between Ellensburg and Yakima is another great curvy road with fun scenery. You can combine this with a drive across US 12 and a stop at Rimrock Lake.
6. Mt Rainier – Duh. Sunrise on the east and Paradise on the south are the main stopping points, but if you’re up for some off-roading, you can also check out Mowich Lake.
7. Crystal Mountain – It’s my favorite winter spot but it’s also great in the summer. They offer horseback rides or you can take the gondola up to the top and hike down.

This is by no means a complete list, but maybe there are a few on here that you haven’t tried yet. Whatever you decide, get outside and enjoy the incredible Pacific Northwest!

When you hang out in the same groups and same areas for a long time, it’s easy to think that you’re getting to be a pretty good skier, hiker, etc. Skiing at Crystal always reminds me of this. You can ride up the Forest Queen list and hear people talking about how incredible they are (on blue and green beginner runs), but if you head out to the Northway lift, you’ll see people throwing backflips off cliffs and not bragging at all. Living in the Pacific Northwest, there’s always someone nearby who is infinitely better than you. We have some incredible outdoor athletes around here!

I bring this up because someone just forwarded me an article that blew my mind. When I hiked up to Camp Muir at 10,000 feet on Mt. Rainier, it took me 4 hours and 10 minutes to get up there. We have a guy in our church who is in great shape and can get from Paradise (5400 feet) to the top of Rainier (14,400 feet) and back down in less than 24 hours. The guys in this article did that whole route from Paradise to the summit and back in 4 hours, 19 minutes and 12 seconds! So in the time I went from Paradise to Muir (halfway to the summit), they had done the entire trip. Unbelievable! You can read their full writeup on coastmountainskiing.com.

PS. While writing this I also learned that there is now a web cam at Camp Muir!

Usually by now the weather is cool and rainy and it would stay that way through next spring. We’re still completely dry (dryest Aug-Sept on record and second dryest July-Sept!) so Tyla’s parents decided to take advantage of the bonus sunshine and go camping. They headed up to Bay View State Park for the weekend, and Tyla and I visited them for the day on Saturday.

We let Oskar play in the water and went for a walk along the bay. It was a nice lazy day in the sunshine. Photos are in the photo gallery. Apparently it was an Oskar photo shoot.