7/17-31/17
Current location: Our new home, West Seattle, WA
After the whirlwind that was finding a house to rent, we spent the next few days in a mix of camping and interviewing. It turns out this may be the best way we could have transitioned into a house. Deciding to sign a lease at the end of the week, we headed out to explore around Mount Rainier National Park. The drive into the national park was beautiful! Bright blue skies, dark green of the trees and “The Mountain”. The closer we got to Mount Rainier, the more impressive it got.
We found a great campsite in Pleasant Valley campground just outside the park. Rooney was happy to be wandering in and amongst the trees as we set up the tent. When logistics were complete, we took our camp chairs to sit with our feet in the waters of the American River as Rooney ran and splashed. All 3 of us were happy to be out of the car after driving long days and back in the fresh air. Toes pruney, we had a quick dinner and drove back up Chinook Pass and pulled off to watch the sun set behind ‘the mountain’. The bright white snowfields and glaciers reflected the setting sun. Relieved to have a new place to call home, we slept well.
Camp packed, we headed up to Chinook Pass for a hike in the national forest, bordering the National Park. We stretched the legs a bit on the Naches Peak trail for a few miles of alpine single track, crystal clear lakes and views for miles. Afterwards we drove up to Sunrise Lodge within Mount Rainier National Park. Mount Rainier looked close enough we could have stuck our hands out and touched the summit. We sat on the bumper of the car, binoculars to our eyes, and picked out mountaineers currently climbing to the summit, tents, and the route Eric had climbed with friends 11 years earlier (nearly to the day).
After reading about the views and wildflowers that make the Noble Knob a spectacular hike, we decided we’d do it as a trail run, and camped up at Corral Pass. The road up to the campground and trailhead was a steep 6 miles of bumpy but solid dirt road.
As we pulled into the parking area, a search and rescue team was staged for a medical evacuation of someone on the trail. We’ve seen the empty vehicles of SAR members along dirt roads and at trailheads many times in Colorado, but it was interesting to see the organizational process as more SAR team members arrived and were then dispatched to lend aid. We offered to lend a hand if needed and then tried to stay out of their way. A few hours later, we went for a hike up to a ridgeline with awesome views of Mount Rainier. The change in perspective relative to the mountain and the higher sun angle made it much easier to see the differences between snowfield, glacier and crevasses as we stared across the valley floor.
We woke to foggy skies and limited views. Our run up Noble Knob wasn’t quite the one described in the guidebook, filled with stunning views of Mt. Rainier, but we did run through fields of wildflowers in full bloom. The cooler air and cloud cover was nice to run in. As we reached the summit, the wind picked up a little bit and we watched the clouds build and dry as the wind pushed them around. Views were had only at elevations below where we ran. Back at the car, we snacked, stretched and changed into dry clothes. Rooney found a nice shady spot in the trees and proceeded to get covered in pine needles, all while having a very content and tired grin on his face.
Hungry, we headed down the road and setup camp before finding a restaurant at Crystal Mountain Resort for an early dinner. We have learned that we have become pretty good at finding the primo campsite in campgrounds, and our site in Silver Springs Campground was no different. This site sat along the banks of the White River and had trees that would easily hold the hammock. We spent the afternoon catching up on some writing, laying in the hammock and wandering the banks of the river. Realizing tonight was the last night out in the wild of our trip, we tried to savor every aspect of sitting in the woods and sleeping in a tent.
Friday morning we got up and made the trip back to West Seattle to sign our lease and officially ‘move in’. Eric was tasked with ‘moving in’ as I took a quick shower. Camping gear out of the car and into the house, I headed out to a meeting with the principal for the school district I had applied to. I suppose our meeting went well, as she sent me home with a text book for the class I would hopefully be teaching.
The next week was spent exploring around the greater Seattle area. We met with friends for dinner, beer and laughs in Seattle. We took ferries out to Vashon Island for dinner, breweries in Bremerton, and the water taxi to dinner in downtown. After finding out the POD couldn’t be delivered for a while, we made a stop there to pick up a few necessities for work-life and have gotten into a routine of sitting in the backyard in the hammock and sleeping on our camping mattresses. With some purchases, our house started to feel like a home…with minimal furniture. Our camping has evolved into urban camping.
We capped off our last week of sabbatical life with kayak rentals and a paddle around the Puget Sound. It felt good to be back recreating on the water. We enjoyed staring down into the Sound, picking out fish, crab, jellyfish, and harbor seal. The Seattle skyline under the 45th+ day without a drop of rain was pretty good too.
Sunday morning we woke much earlier than in recent memory and drove out to the trailhead for Mount Ellinor on the Olympic Peninsula. We were one of just a few cars in the parking lot, something that changed dramatically as we returned to the parking lot a few hours later. In true PNW fashion, the skies were fogged in and the trail was steep. All the huffing and puffing up the trail was made worth every moment as we gained the saddle and cleared the low laying cloud deck. A few hundred more vertical feet and we were standing on the summit, having to share only with the birds, chipmunks and a herd of mountain goats.
In the few days we’ve been living in West Seattle, we’ve done some good exploring plus, of course, some brewery sampling. We look forward to exploring Washington more and would love to have visitors anytime…you may just want to wait until we have some furniture.
PS. I was officially offered the job at the high school, teaching a sports medicine class and working as one of the District Athletic Trainers.