so it’s now mid-june and i’ve done pretty well with my goal to get outside, carpe diem and utilize my wochenenden.

despite siff’s best efforts to keep me entheatered, i’ve managed to make it out into the woods for three quick camping trips.

mid-may we piled into the volvo with my housemates and drove up to bellingham for mrs. sarah’s 30th birthday bash. i hadn’t been to larrabee state park before so that was a treat. plus we borrowed alex’s tarptent. the whole trip was less than 18 hours but got all the staples – fire, food, banter, sleepin’ under the stars, and of course awesome sunsets:

two weekends later andre and i dusted off the bikes for a s24o out to green mountain state park. we left on the 530pm ferry after work and were camping by 9pm – this time of the year it’s amazing how well that works out. hammocks went up and the campground was scouted for potential band of idiots escapades. once again we hit all of the high points, and andre turned a pile of wet wood into a pretty solid blaze:

most recently, cc and i took a trek up into the olympic mountains. for all of my biking adventures and other outdoorsyness, turns out that i’ve never actually been backpacking. hikes, sure, bike camping, yeah, but carrying my stuff on my back to sleep in the woods? craziness. regardless, on alex and christine’s advice we loaded up the jeep and headed out to lena lake. it was roughly equal time driving there and hiking but it was a good first effort. for caroline it was her first test of her new tarptent and trekking poles. for me it was the first time putting onto my back all of the stuff my bike normally hauls. i’d estimate my load was pretty minimal overall – although somehow i ended up carrying the kitchen and the shelter. i’m sure a titanium pot and a pop can stove will make all the difference in the way my back felt the next day. that and perhaps a better groundpad – while my new hammock pad is quite warm and light, it’s not really what i require for sleeping on the ground. apparently my choice of dress pants and a wool hat went over pretty well – caroline snapped this photo when she thought i looked particularly dapper: