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Family Video from Mike Weston on Vimeo.

Bush Point - Fishin' for Humpies

Straight to the Pictures: This was my first week ever of fishing for Humpies; also known as "Pink Salmon."  The run comes every other year and our locale was ideal for catching them.  Pink Buzz Bombs was the lure of choice...and we "killed it" all week long.  We had two boats but never felt a need to put them in the water as fishing from the dock we had private access to netted us all the fish we could catch (and more).  My best stretch of fishing was either Friday, when I landed 16 salmon (only kept 4), or Monday, the morning we left, when I landed 3 salmon in 3 casts.  As you can see, almost all of the pictures are either sunsets or fishing...and that's pretty much all we did.  Make sure you click here to see the full album...

First Mountain Hike: Lord of the Flies

About two weeks ago Julie and I made it out for our first "mountain" hike of the summer.  It was the Friday of our "heat wave" week and little did we know...

Our hike was beautiful...but we were up against something that neither of us had ever experienced before...flies...tons of flies.  We were caught in the middle; do we 1) go with shorts and t-shirts and deal with fly bites but stay cool, or do we 2) put on the zip on pants and a long sleeved shirt, die from heat, and endure the bites?  Really...I'm not exaggerating.  Usually when you're hiking, if you stay moving, the bugs leave you alone.  Not so...even while we were hiking at a very fast clip, the flies still swarmed us.  By the time we were done, Julie counted over 20 fly bites...on her right arm!  Me?  Well, maybe it's all my hair or I didn't smell as good; I didn't find a single bite anywhere on my body.  Hmmm.  Enough about flies.

The hike was hot, but beautiful.  We've done this hike before and it never disappoints.  Enjoy the pics!

Bellingham Sunset

In case you missed it, about a week and a half ago we were treated to an amazing color display.  I was riding my scooter home about an hour before sunset and noticed that there was a "high potential" for a good one.  There were some patchy low clouds, but a gap at the horizon line.  I got home, grabbed my camera and headed down to Marine Park in Fairhaven.  True enough, it was a gorgeous night.  At one point, it even started to lightly rain and there was a sunset in front of me and a rainbow behind; (the lighting wasn't good enough for the rainbow).  Make sure to chcck out the scrolling slide show at the bottom.

Cape Alava, day 4 (of 4)

Finally, getting around to day 4.  Day 4 didn't have a whole lot to write about.  Essentially, we woke up, ate breakfast, took in the morning view (with the mist/fog), packed camp and hiked out.  Still, it was a beautiful morning, a nice hike out and a good drive home (complete with a much anticipated Lavendar Latte just past Sequim).  Enjoy all the pictures by clicking here.

Cape Alava, day 3 (of 4) - Tidepools

Woke up (amazing how each day starts with the same activity...waking up), ate breakfast set about our day.  It's funny when you camp on a beach...it makes the decisions for day hiking much easier.  Let's see, here, yesterday we went South, how about today we go, er, uh North?  Yes?  North it is!  Little did we know that we'd hit the area "just right" (at low tide) and have a blast exploring all of the tidepools.


My higlight was arriving at a little cove; Dave, Kath and Julie all took a brief rest while I set out to explore the point, solo.  I noodled around all of the tidepools for awhile and finally came around to the point and was shocked to see it open up with a HUGE bed of muscles.  They were everywhere!  The muscles were most plentiful where the waves were the largest.  It was really cool to see!

After our little day-hike, we lit another fire; this one the biggest yet.  Kathryn really wanted to see if she could start a fire on her own so after Julie and Dave got the "one-match" fire going, Kath lit one of her own.  Eventually, the two fires melded into one.

We were treated to another beautiful sunset as the sun dipped below the clouds/fog.  Another great day.

Click here for all the day 3 pictures.

Cape Alava, day 2 (of 4) - Petroglyphs

Day 2 was a lazy morning; I was the first one out of the tent but surprisingly slept until about 8:00ish. I had a chance to explore the island a bit and then was met by Julie. We had fun tipping rocks, looking at hundreds of thousands of shore crabs, and smelling a humpback whale carcass...yum yum.

After a late breakfast we packed up and head about 2 miles south to the petroglyphs. The sun came out and the hike along the shore was fantastic...as you can see, as well, the petroglyphs were also amazing. The highlight of the day for me was finding the "ship" petroglyph; one that we had read about but hadn't seen yet. Honestly, it didn't take much hunting...I just got lucky to walk a few feet and find it.

At any rate, we explored the petroglyphs, chilled out watching the waves (and eating our lunch munchies) and really, just enjoyed creation.

We hiked back in the early evening and had an amazing night; highlighted by a bigger campfire on the beach, an amazing sunset, and a glorious night complete with star-gazing. Obviously, being that far out on the coast, you can guess how many stars we saw...and even the milky way galaxy was visible. A great day to be sure.








 
(Was supposed to be a "one match" fire but I think it was a "two match" fire instead)

Cape Alava, day 1 (of 4)

Last weekend Julie and I were able to go on a 4 day/3 night backpacking trip to Cape Alava, out on the Olympic Coast.  The trip was GREAT...it's a beautiful place to visit.  We were able to camp about 10 feet from the edge of the beach; right where the "rain forest" meets the "ocean."  I've broken my posts down into the 4 days; mainly because I have a lot of pictures to upload.

Day 1 started with a 7:15AM departure from our home in Bellingham followed by a 7 hour drive out to the trailhead.  The trail starts at the Ozette Loop Trailhead next to the Ozette campground which is, you guessed it, next to Lake Ozette which also happens to feed the Ozette river.  Ok, that was a little lame.  However, the hike was anything but lame...  Click here for a good map;

It's about a 3.5 mile hike, fairly flat (which was good considering my 45 lb pack).  The hike out to the coast is mainly through wooded areas, as well as one part through a small prairie.  It was a beautiful sunny day on the hike in, but about 1/8th of a mile from the coast we hit the fog bank.  That first day the fog never lifted and we had a damp evening with no sun/starts.  Still, the coast and beach were beautiful.  We chose to hike about 1/2 mile north around the point to find a more secluded campsite where we could also enjoy the sound of the waves.  Surprisingly, on the south side of the point, (Cape Alava and Tskawahyah island, which actually is only an island at high tide), there were no waves at all...and thus, no sound of the waves.  Once you get around that point, though, instant waves!  I loved falling asleep to the sound of the ocean.

We made camp by about 5:30, had a nice dinner of freeze dried ____ by 6:30, and had a campfire going by about 7:30/8:00.  If you're counting, that's about 10 hours from Bellingham to having a tent pitched...not bad!  We'll wrap up day 1 with that;

I should note: we were camping in the Makah Indian Reservation...quite a bit of history here, but also a little sad to see some of it dying out.

A few pictures below, click here to see all the day 1 pictures.

4th of July a little late

Ok, finally, I'm posting some pics from the 4th.  Click here to see them all!