We had a great day for photographing the tulips at Roozen Gaarde today.
Trip modified due to high winds along Puget Island. Paddled around Hunting and Price Islands from Cathlamet up past Skamokawa instead, through the Julia Butler Hansen Wildlife Refuge. Beautiful day, but windy.
The sailing trip started with light air conditions, so we went to Percival Landing to practice docking at the public docs. Then the wind picked up and we sailed out into Budd Inlet. We practiced trimming sails for all points of sail, practiced 6 up wind tacks, and 4 downwind gybes, before returning home. The students both did great.
A fun scramble conditioner, complete with some adventure hiking, no rain, and a watermelon!!!
Had a great sail, all students did very well.
A group of three experienced scramblers chose Humpback as a close-to-home destination on a day with iffy weather. The weather held up, and we enjoyed the spring snow, despite the lack of views.
A one day climb up Leuthold Couloir to the summit of Mt Hood
Five of us enjoyed fabulous birding weather with 51 species of birds, a deer, rabbits, frogs, and more. Great views of Hooded Mergansers, Pileated Woodpeckers, over 500 cackling geese, and nesting tree swallows, among the wonderful memorable moments.
This was the first naturalist trip to a relatively new trail in the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie. We saw a variety of mosses, lichens, trees, flowers, shrubs, birds, and geological features on the 2 mile loop around an oxbow lake.
Private one day car-to-car bike, ski, and climb of the Triple Couloirs
Original objective was the main summit but the snow got pretty tough to deal with and we called it a day at the east summit
A brutal approach and excellent skiing made for a great late season Type 2 day on Ruby. 2 miles of biking, 10 miles of touring, 5,300' of elevation gain.
A springtime overnight packraft trip on central Washington's Winchester Wasteway in the Columbia Basin Wildlife Area
We did a loop north from Rocky Coulee across the area, looking for flowers and birds while discussing the geology. The area had burned and much of the sagebrush was gone, now replaced by a cheatgrass prairie.
A long weekend of trips and surfing in the Tofino and Ucluelet area.
Started out down the Boulder Garden Loop with a quick jaunt up to Little Si.
Eleven of us enjoyed 26 bird species on a beautiful, magical morning with good looks at Cooper's Hawks, soaring bald eagles, 4 woodpecker species (including the majestic pileated), and the first Rufous hummingbird of the season. Great group, and a great birding outing with bleeding hearts, trillium, and wild bitter cherry in bloom.
Wet snowy day. Easy to miss intersection
Just above 1300 CFS, about the bottom limit for a fun run
For most of us, this reach rated amongst our favorite river stretches for the engaging rapids and wildlife encounters. 1500 CFS was a favorable flow rate, washing over many problematic boulders but no so high as to create menacing eddy fences.