Chanterelle Hike

May 26th, 2019 – 4.8 miles round trip

Sorry it has taken me so long to write about this hike. I have been supper busy with classes and everyday life. Now that I have a week off in between spring and summer quarter my goal is to get my blog up to date and continue to add to it when I have the time. Alright, with that being said here is a little background and my thoughts about the Chanterelle hike!

This hike was fairly easy and short in distance. It is about 20 minutes outside of Bellingham by Lake Whatcom. It took us about and hour and a half to get to the top and about an hour to get down. There was a lot of uphill, but nothing too crazy. I didn’t get many pictures on this hike, as it was foggy at the top and you couldn’t see too much. On the way up, we kept hitting patches of fog. It felt eerie and kind of spooky. It was cool to see how the fog hung between the trees.

I want to come back and do this hike again when it is clear. It was a fast hike, but I wish we would have been able to overlook Lake Whatcom, the San Juan Islands, and the Puget Sound. I am hoping maybe later this summer we will be able to get out and do this one again!

Here is Alex and I before starting out the hike

Overall, we enjoyed this hike. It was little shorter and easier than we were hoping for, but it still felt good to get out and enjoy the fresh air for a bit. I am excited to see what other hikes we will find this summer.

Pine and Cedar Lakes Hike

One of the last hikes my boyfriend and I did over the summer up in Bellingham, WA.

To wrap up our summer adventures, my boyfriend and I did one last hike up in the Chuckanuts near Bellingham. I didn’t take many photos while on this hike because of the difficulty and steepness we encountered for the first couple miles. This hike round trip was about 5 miles and was a pain to climb. The elevation gain was insane for the first mile or two into the hike. About half a mile in, my legs were burning and I was ready for a water break. There weren’t too many people on the trails which was nice and there were many different viewpoints to this trail you could take.

So, instead of going to the lakes, we took a little off shoot and got a pretty cool view of Mt. Baker and a great place for lunch. This spot was in the sun and all you could see were trees for miles! Another example of why I love hiking in the PNW.

Here was our lunch spot: trees for miles and a view of Mt. Baker

Overall, this hike was a lot of fun. It was pretty steep and a lot of work, but the view was totally worth it. I definitely got my leg workout in for that day. If you’re ever in the Bellingham area, I would recommend taking a drive through the Chuckanuts or stopping for a hike if you have time! Oyster Dome is another popular hike up here and I hope to do that one in the spring when the weather gets a little nicer and it’s a bit warmer out!

Annual Camping Trip

My family’s one week camping trip to Winthrop, WA on Lake Pearrygin

Every year during the second week of August, my family and two cousins (6 of us total) all pile in to our 1990 Volkswagen Van and make the four and a half hour trek through the North Cascades Highway to Winthrop Washington. I have been going on this trip ever since I can remember. This was the place where I learned how to fish, pitch a tent, roast marshmallows of the fire, tell ghost stories, and cherish the time spent with family away from technology.

Here is the famous van we take when camping. Yes, it is a camping van where the top pops up creating a bed and the bench seat in the back folds out into another bed.

This year at the lake it was really smokey from all the forest fires near by. The sun was this blood orange color at all times of the day and the temperature was way cooler than normal because of the smoke filtering the sun. Needless to say, I got some pretty cool photos because of the smoke, check them out below:

This was taken around 6 am when the sun was rising. I woke up to birds chirping early that morning so decided to go down to the dock with one of my cousins to go fishing.

Here you can see how smokey it was camping, it was definitely pretty eerie over the lake. The smoke was so thick you couldn’t see the other end of the lake!

This trip is the one thing I look forward to every year. It is a place where I get to spend time with my family enjoying the outdoors, exploring the town of Winthrop, and unplugging from social media for a week. At first this time away from my phone was hard, but as I grow up every year I look forward more and more to this separation from technology and really cherish all the time spent talking and laughing among family.