On the Road Again...

Well, we have two areas of Washington to hit up to finish up our little State Park Mission. This road trip focused on the Southwestern corner of our state. 

 

Day 1:

Millersylvania #75

Willapa Hills Trail #76

Rainbow Falls #77

Lewis and Clark #78

Ike Kinsea #79

Seaquest #80

Day 2:

Cape Disappointment #81

Fort Columbia #82

Battleground #83

Beacon Rock #84 

Discovering big guns is always fun. A lot of history here at the coast. 

Heading back along the Columbia on the Washington side, very scenic. 

Day 3:

Spring Creek Hatchery #85

Maryhill #86

Brooks Memorial #87

Yakima Sportsman #88

Iron Horse-Hyak #89

That light at the end of the tunnel is 2 miles away. 

Well, we are getting closer the end of this mission. 

Mt. Pilchuck

So one of the State Parks on the list is Mt. Pilchuck. The last time I remember hiking/climbing this peak was proabably over 10 years ago, and I did it solo. I also remembered a little bit of snow and not much else. 

Today I enlisted Andy's help knowing that I would need it to get to the cach two miles up the trail, and also to the peak. This is state park #74, but unfortunately we were the first ones to discover the missing stamp that would validate our claim here.

Pyper hiked the first 1.5 miles, which was feat, since it was all uphill. Then  she proceeded to sack out until the summit. At the summit, there is a rock scramble, and then a ladder to where the rebuilt lookout tower sits. The views are absolutely incredible. 

This is the play by play link Andy collected with while we were out on the trail. The pictures are linked to the map and also to our elevation and speed. It's a cool way to see our adventure. Andy will be using the same application while he is on his trail ride this week.

https://www.gaiagps.com/public/Lz3Yt1UbWVmC9aryv1HBbbj3

Pasco-ing

Well, we decided to change up the mode of transportation just a little. We were going to hit up the Tri-cities Geocoin Challenge this year, but this year's event coincided with the heat wave, which brought 111 degrees to Pasco. No thank you; that's when we decided to hit the coast a couple of weeks ago. It's been a little cooler, so no time like the present to try and complete the challenge. We hopped a jet plane, rented a car, and hit the road. This year's challenge was pirate themed with an incredible five piece coin.

It was go, go, go all day long. We bumped into a couple of groups attempting the same mission. Honestly, I wasn't quiet sure we were going to be able to finish with our time contraints of having to catch the last flight out of Pasco at 6pm. But somehow we managed to motivate and squeeze in 30 caches, which is an all time high number for us, and had just a little time to spare. At least we saved ourselves 7 hours of driving to the Tri-cities area and back. So this is the fourth coin we've collected, the first one being the 2012 coin. 

We also managed to slide in Sacagawea State Park while in Pasco for a total of 73 state parks.

Little Garden Gnome

Well the first garden is producing and she loves being in it. Especially with her flowers in full swing. Right now we are in another wave of strawberries, the last of the raspberries, in the middle of zucchini, and the lettuce and kale are still going strong. We are looking forward to our tomatoes and cucumber, which look to be the next crop to rippen. We've already pulled the peas, the spinach, cilantro, and radish that have bolted. We are having fun rolling with the summer season, if only it would give us a little bit of rain...

Girl's Just Wanna Have Fun

Out for five days and four nights, camping, caching, and playing as we go. Since there will be a Photobook I'm just going to highlight and show the best of the best. 

Day 1:

#52 Belfair

#53 Potlatch

#54 Triton Cove

#55 Dosewallips

#56 Anderson Lake

We love the ferry rides, and unfortunately don't need to go on any more to complete our state park mission. It's already getting warm out, can't wait to get to the coast to cool down. 

Day 2:

#57 Fort Flagler

#58 Fort Townsend

#59 Fort Worden

#60 Miller Pennisula

#61 Sequim Bay

We, or should I say I, hiked over five miles today, mainly with the stroller. We saw two new lighthouses, Marrowstone Light and Point Wilson Lighthouse, and had fun exploring forts and beaches, and catching little 2 inch crabs at sunset.  

Day 3:

#62 Bogachiel

#63 Pacific Beach

#64 Ocean City

#65 Twin Harbors

Woke up in Sequim, hit up the Farmer's Market, then ventured into Forks and on down the coast for some real beach time. This was our longest day driving, glad we lucked out with the last campsite on a Saturday night, and a beautiful sunset.

Day 4:

#66 Westhaven

#67 Grayland Beach

#68 Lake Sylvia

Of course there are other things to do besides caching, like hiking the tallest lighhouse in Washington State, which has 135 steps up it. It states that you must be 6 and/or 40" tall to climb up because you must do the whole thing unassisted. They made an execption with Pyper and she cruised up the thing, no problem.

We also saw "real pirates" during a pirate festival in town. She says that's what she wants to be for Halloween this year. We enjoyed more beach time, which was nice a cool, about 20 degrees cooler than home, splendid.

Day 5: 

#69 Schafer

#70 Tolmie

She always requested to picnic in the back of the truck. The truck has its advantages for sure, but it was definitely easier driving in the car. We ended up doing 600 miles on this trip, which is small compared to the 1400 miles we travelled on our last big trip.

Waterway Caching

Ticking off more State Parks within the depths of Puget Sound, Pyper and I hit the road again leaving the camping stuff behind. I kick myself later when she asks if we can go camping when she spots a cool location. 

#47 Kopachuck State Park

Hitting the first trail and park early. We find a huge banana slug, a cool cache, and this might have been where we picked up a hitchhiking tick. 

#48 Penrose Point State Park

Penrose Point might be one of my favorite spots in the world now. There is a spit that unveils only at low tide and the geoduck are plenty of fun for little ones. 

#49 Joemma Beach State Park

Nothing like being safe near the water. We found the cache then checked out the boating situation dockside. 

#50 Jarrell Cove State Park

Someone has her hand in the cookie jar. 

#51 Twanoh State Park

Last stop of the day at Twanoh before heading home. 

Island Hopping

All we knew was our general destinations, three State Parks, on three different islands. We packed to camp without knowing where that would be, and our route in would be by ferry. 

After breakfast, we took a drive up to Anacortes to catch the ferry over to Lopez Island. What a gorgeous day to be out on the water, enjoying the saltiness of air and the views all around. Lopez Island is the first stop the ferry makes when doing the inter-island loop. We headed out to Spencer Spit State Park and enjoyed our breezy walk out the spit to an old cabin. 

Out exploring the PNW neighborhood

After stretching out our legs we hopped the ferry over to Orcas Island. We were pleasantly surprised be the topographical relief of the place and made the tip top of the island our destination. We were greeted with a view to write home about and an amazing piece of CCC history. 

Team Keller does it again

The campgrounds looked pretty booked up, but Andy managed to spit a little site next to the campground host that was more than we could hope for without a reservation. We enjoyed solitude, old growth, a private creek, left over fire wood, the closeness to "real" bathrooms, and friendly wildlife of mule deer and bats. It's a site to keep in mind for future jaunts in that direction. 

Check out the backyard of our campsite

We "slept-in" for camping standards and enjoyed a lazy pack-up and breakfast before heading into town for some coffee and bakery treats. 

Our next hop was over to San Juan Island, specifically Lime Kiln Point. This State Park is known for it's whale watching, Lighthouse, and views. We enjoyed all the above with the added bonus of a State Park stamp. 

Heading home is always an adventure in itself

Mission accomplished a day early. 

Spencer Spit State Park #44

Moran State Park #45

Lime Kiln State Park #46