Tag: national-parks

Pacific Northwest

On By JC ThrashIn Bikes & Hikes, Travel

My brother-in-law lives in Washington state, about halfway between Seattle and Vancouver. What a bummer to have to fly out there to visit him.

It’s not even fair how gorgeous it is out there.

Our first full day, a Thursday, my wife and I started to explore while her brother and his girlfriend were at work. At their recommendation, we selected the trail called Oyster Dome, on Blanchard Mountain.

We drove up the first part of the mountain via a long, winding unpaved road. There’s a way to avoid this (adds significant elevation, with no facilities and minimal parking), but we simply navigated to the main parking area (Samish Overlook parking), which bypasses the initial ascent on foot, offering breathtaking views from the start (and toilets!). From the main parking area, it’s still about a 5-mile hike, which was sufficient for us for our first day anyway. The other trailhead is off Chuckanut Drive (must cross state highway to begin hike).

View of the Samish Bay, near the Samish Overlook parking area
View of the Samish Bay, near the Samish Overlook parking area.

We loved this hiking trail. The parking lot is quite large, signaling how busy the area can get, but we started mid-morning on a weekday and fortunately avoided crowds; we only crossed paths with a handful of people, and shared the summit with four others.

The trail begins steep, tackling a bit of the 1000-ft elevation gain, before leveling out through the cedar and fir forest. The trail crosses several creeks. Even while away from the views, the sounds and smells of the forests are incredible.

After enjoying the more level trail for a while, it spikes upward for a significant incline the final ~ half mile. As you continue up the switchback, the trail narrows as well, and becomes a bit more technical. Reaching the top is well worth it! You’re rewarded with a nice, wide rock face to sit and rest while enjoying the breathtaking views. The people of the pacific northwest are so friendly, too! When they discovered we were visiting from Ohio, they offered up other trails to check out, and their favorite meal spots nearby, as well.

We already had a plan for dinner that night, though, and after heading back down the mountain, we drove to downtown Mt. Vernon to meet our brother and his partner.

View from the top of Oyster Dome
View from the top of Oyster Dome.

Day 2

Another work day for our family, my wife and I drove to Larrabee State Park. Offering over a dozen trails to explore, we bopped around, quite sore from Oyster Dome. We drove first to the top of the park for the views, and then hiked a bit of the Ridge Trail before heading back down to the bottom of the mountain for the Clayton Beach trail.

View from Cyrus Gates Overlook

The Clayton Beach trail wound down the hill onto the beach. It’s a short trail overall; fairly steep, but a much more gradual slope than by the overlook. There are some rocky areas near the beach that we climbed up to relax and enjoy the views.

View of the beach in Larrabee State Park
Clayton Beach, Larrabee State Park

Once we wrapped up our time in the state park, we rewarded ourselves with a beer – we first tried “The Oyster Bar,” just off Chuckanut Drive, not realizing that it was fine dining (we were covered in sweat and sand and in our hiking gear, yikes!). We snuck away and instead headed to “Chuckanut Manor” — which sounds fancier but is less so. They had a good happy hour, and we ordered a couple of pints and a snack to share. The food was excellent and view from the patio beautiful.

Following our hike reward, we headed back to our family’s house for dinner. Our brother has gotten into duck hunting, and grilled some duck for us to try. My wife and I had stopped by the cheese store in downtown Mt. Vernon to complement our appetizers with some wine and cheese. Skagit Valley Larder was a great experience – we were able to sample the cheese prior to purchasing it, and they offered some recommendations that would pair well with the cheese (and the duck!)

Day Three

On Saturday, the four of us piled into the truck with the dogs and headed out to Ross Lake National Recreation Area. Just adjacent to North Cascades National Park, we were able to enjoy similarly amazing views … but also bring the dogs (no dogs in national parks, boo). We did the Thunder Knob trail, which was breathtaking but painfully crowded.

If I were to go again, I’d likely select a trail that’s typically less crowded.

On our final day, my wife and I went to Deception Pass before heading back to the Seattle Airport for our red-eye flight home. At Deception Pass, we hiked the Goose Rock Summit trail – which can be either a shorter, steeper out-and-back, or a full loop trail. We did the latter, hiking the steep climb on the way up to grant us the slowly meandering path back down to the parking area.

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PNW Lez-Travel rating:

The Pacific Northwest is an interesting place when it comes to gay travel. There are lesbians everywhere… but you’re in such a rural area, that you meet some closeminded idiots, as well, and certainly see a lot of Trump flags. Based on our experience, these are not the same folks we encounter on the trails or town centers. PNW wins 3 rainbows.

Big South Fork Nat’l Rec Area

On By JC ThrashIn Bikes & Hikes, Dog Companion, Travel

As a kid, I’d go camping most years at Big South Fork, a national recreational area in Tennessee. Within the park, accessible only by foot (or horse), is Charit Creek Lodge. They provide the room, bed (and bedding!), breakfast and dinner. The meals are served family-style, offering the chance to meet people from all over the country. At our table, there were several Tennesseans, but also folks from South Carolina, New York, and Michigan.

The main lodge with the dining hall has two private cabin rooms on either side, with a shared back porch. I will admit that I initially balked at the price of one night stay for two humans and one dog, but when I realized that the food is, like, absolutely delicious, and far exceeded my expectations (I was picturing basic “camp food”), the cost seemed to be much more reasonable. And if you’re staying multiple nights, you also get a sack lunch! Our dinner consisted of meatloaf, a cheesy pasta dish with baked beans, vegetable casserole, and a fresh salad with nuts and goat cheese. Our breakfast was a delicious crustless quiche, sausage, and nut muffins.

Upon arriving, the first trail we tried was the Slave Falls Trail, but, just as Ohio is experiencing with this long drought, the waterfall was, well, nonexistent, and the creek a mere trickle. The woodsy stroll was lovely though, although we were a bit alarmed early-on in the hike at our first bear sighting! We’d slow down and make noise at every sharp turn to not catch a bear by surprise.

From there, we drove from the Slave Falls trailhead to the Twin Arches trailhead to eat a picnic lunch. We then hoisted on our packs, hoping to not fall off an arch with the weight of our overnight stay on our back.

The arches were incredible! Of course, the pictures don’t do it justice, but it was wild that, growing up in Tennessee, I never hiked that trail to see them. 

The rest of the trail was steep down into the valley where the Lodge sits, but a nice, enjoyable and woodsy path. Most tourists hike the small, 1-mi arches loop (the larger loop is over four miles), and so we only passed two other people as we hiked about 2 mi of the full loop to arrive at the Lodge.

After checking in, we dropped off our belongings in our massive room with one queen bed and four single bunks. They provide lanterns, as well as a cooler to put in any food or other yummy-smelling thing to the bear neighbors. We went to shower next – it is a shared facility for all Lodge guests, but the individual stalls were large, spacious, the room was warm, and the water was hot – definitely the best “camp” shower experience I have had. Note: towels not provided!

I’ve already shared what they served for dinner (while drooling just thinking about it). They also offer beer and wine for purchase, so my wife and I tied up the dog with a bone and sat in large rocking chairs with our beers, enjoying the gorgeous Tennessee fall weather.

In the morning, full up on quiche and sack lunch stored in our cabin cooler, we hiked up the Charit Overlook Trail. It’s a very wide horse trail, and though steep, it wasn’t rocky. All three of us could walk side by side. It was a hike I wish we had taken more time with, because the views from the top were lovely, but we hastened back down the mountain to check out by 11. 

We packed up and gathered our belongings from the cabin and returned to the rocking chairs to eat our sack lunch.

On our way out, we did the western part of the Twin Arches Loop, about 2.5mi. It climbed out of the valley much more gradually than the eastern part of the loop, and once we were up on the ridge, the views, rock formations, and parts of the arches all were incredible to enjoy.

To make the most of our second day in the park, we booked a hotel in Richmond, KY, to avoid driving the 4.5 hours home in one go. We drove the two hours to our hotel, picked up a pizza. We were way too pooped to enjoy the stop and went right to the hotel, but we’ve been to Richmond before; it’s a cool college with great BBQ and beer. Dogs were allowed at Dreaming Creek Brewery, and they typically have a food truck on site as well. Smitty’s BBQ was fast-food meets cafeteria-style restaurant barbecue (reminds me of Buddys BBQ back home in Knoxville); we got tons of food for so cheap, and all of the everything was tasty.