Camping at Lena Creek and a hike up Mt. Townsend

We had a wonderful little camping trip to the Olympics this weekend. Thankfully the rain shadow kept our campsite at Lena Creek (between Hoodsport and Quilcene) nice and dry. I can't say the same for our hike up Mt. Townsend though. My in-laws George and Bonita and my brother-in-law Rahmat drove out on Sunday morning to join us for the hike. We enjoyed a nice hike through the woods and up to some meadows full of wildflowers but about an hour or so from the top the clouds really moved in and it started to rain. We all stopped and quickly put on our rain gear. Poor little Daniel started shivering when I changed his diaper so Ruh put him under his poncho and cuddled with him for a little bit to get him warm. Then I bundled him up and put his rain coat on him. We decided then it was best to head back down. The rain picked up and we knew we had made a good decision. We wouldn't have been able to see anything from the top anyway. I am looking forward to doing that hike again when it is a bright sunny day! :)
They joined us for a campfire dinner of hamburgers, hot dogs and baked beans then they headed home. We woke up the next morning to sunshine. We enjoyed a lazy morning around the campfire and I took Daniel on a little nature walk while Ruh packed the tent. Then we headed home. This will probably be our last camping trip until next summer. I am already counting the days! :)

Bonita is all decked out in her rain gear recently purchased at REI. You can see her post of the hike on her blog. :)

Heading out for some camping and hiking in the Olympics.

We are heading out for the weekend to the Olympic Mountains. Ruh amazingly got Saturday, Sunday and Monday off, a very rare occurrence! We decided to take advantage of it and do some camping. We will be camping at Lena Creek and we plan on hiking up Mt. Townsend. Ruh's parents George and Bonita and also Ruh's brother Rahmat will be coming out just for the hike. It should be a very fun little weekend! I will post pictures when we get back.

Pic of the Olympics by my mom! :)

Montana and Glacier

We spent the first week of August in Kalispell, Montana with Ruh's family. My mother-in-law Bonita and Ruh's brother Rahmat hitched a ride with us. My sister-in-law Ruhiyyih and her husband Matt met us there. We stayed with Bonita's sister Bonnie and her husband Frank. We had a week full of visiting with family and hiking in Glacier National Park.
The most memorable hike was the Siyeh Pass hike. It is the highest maintained trail in the park at 7700 feet. The trail starts out in the woods then moves up to sub-alpine meadows complete with wildflowers and tiny little pine trees. Then switchbacks take you up to the pass and a ridge with some amazingly majestic views. We had to cut our break short at the top due to a thunderstorm closing in. We were caught in lightening, hail, thunder and wind! To make a long story short we all went as fast as we could to make it down to the treeline. We arrived a little exhausted and damp but safe at the cars after our 11 mile hike. Even though the storm dampened things a little bit we still enjoyed the back country of Glacier and can't wait to do more hiking in Glacier.


We also went to Many Glacier on our visit and did a nice short little hike to Apikuni Falls.


Many Glacier, Glacier National Park. Rahmat pretty much jumped into every body of water he could whether there was sunshine, thunder and lightening or rain. :)


Rocky Point, Lake MacDonald, Glacier National Park.

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Here is the link to all of my photos of our trip on my Facebook page.