April 4th
Haven Lake-Lake Rosanne
Mileage: 14km/8.7mi

It was another cold damp night camping camping next to a lake. We packed up our condensation soaked tents and headed out just after 7am. The morning was just warm enough (40F/4.4C) to not have that cold bite to it the last couple have. We had a short steep climb up to a ridge, and got enough phone service to post our journals, so we stopped with our nice view and got them uploaded. This happened yesterday, and we accepted the 30min delay once again not knowing if we’d have service again today. Turns out we would have it for half the day. I’m relieved to be hiking with someone else who understands the woes of posting a daily journal, and enjoys taking the time to upload it while on trail so there isn’t a backlog after a multi-day trip. 

We then continued on and came to quite a view of Lake Sirona looking almost like one of infinity pools. The down climb was slow going with our bodies stiff from yesterday and still warming up. I never did take that ibuprofen, and stubbornly dealt with the sore knees this morning as well.

As we approached a significant turnoff, there were cool patches of fog coming across the valley below. The Kappa Moraine Trail is the cutoff to make the traverse shorter if needed. Many end up taking it due to lack of food or energy, or poor weather. We are fortunate to be doing this traverse in half the time most do, and to have a weather window work out, so we passed the cutoff and continued on for another day of exposed ridge walking. 

We are headed to the lake barely on the right and up to the one in the center.

We have a guidebook, and use the GPS on our phone (Avenza Maps and Gaia apps), but since this section is far less traveled, we didn’t have a gpx track, and there wasn’t one on the digital maps either. The path got much fainter as we turned off and headed by Lake Vesta and Juno. It wasn’t long before we were on a faint path pushing through a tunnel of rigid brush well over our heads. Our tolerance for this level of brush has gotten quite low, and it is really the only thing I’ve ever seen to annoy Griggs. I don’t know how he does it with shorts on. We had little beta on this half of the traverse, and knew it was less scrambling, and more overgrown. In the back of both our minds was the option to turn around and take the cutoff.

Fortunately, we resisted the temptation, and the high brush cleared in the next hour as we got to Promontory Lake. The scenery reminded me of the Wind River Range in Wyoming with the lakes and open green hills with rocks strewn about. 

From Promontory Lake, there wasn’t a defined path, so it was cross country through low scrub brush as we head to and over The Phoenix. It was great to stretch our legs again and the views were great. Looking back towards Promontory Lake is one of my favorites of the trip. We could see the range we’ve come through with the lake sitting high on the edge of a drop-off we had climbed up. This is one where photos did not do it justice. 

Heading over The Phoenix straight ahead.

Once over The Phoenix, we descended to a saddle, and picked up a light trail. We had lunch there, and I think it was my favorite lunch spot of the whole month we’ve been in Tasmania. We even had phone service, ha!

After lunch, the day kinda blurred into one. We followed a faint trail and cairns that went along Centaurus Ridge, along the Crags of Andromeda, and then along Lucifer Ridge. Most of it until about an hour at the end of the day was open and very enjoyable. Yes, this whole traverse really is worth doing in my opinion if you have the clear weather window to make it happen. 

We have time estimates in the John Chapman guidebook we are using, and tend to consistently be at the lowest end of the time estimate or lower, but today was the first time that we were in the upper end of the estimated time. The guidebook is years old, so maybe the path is more overgrown than it used to be. Just a heads up for people gauging time, that this was the one section that took us longer than expected for some reason. We felt like we were moving at a steady pace, but it just took awhile. 

We came over that range behind me!

That last hour with the brush was really frustrating. This traverse is tough on gear, and both our packs are torn in places with all the scraping along the rocks and rigid brush. We knew to expect this, and are glad this is at the end of our trip. Nothing a little duct or tenacious tape can’t fix. 

We got to Rosanne Lake at 5:45pm. The book describes there being “wet” campsites behind a sandy beach. With all the rain last week, the lake was quite full with water covering the sand, and some of the tent sites were marshy. Fortunately, there were two spots up against a large rock that we each squeezed into. The hope is that there might be less condensation up against the rock. This does win the prize for my least favorite campsite in the last month. Brush and marsh everywhere, no tent pads to be elevated off the spongy ground, and no idea where people go to the bathroom unless they wander into spongy wet marsh with tall wet grass. That will be fun to figure out in the morning. I noticed my legs are covered in quite a lot of bruises. It was too dark to get photos tonight, so I may do it tomorrow night if I think of it. They look like I fell down a flight of stairs with bruises even on my thighs. All the price of admission out here I guess. Speaking of which, Griggs is trying to stretch out his last pair of shoes knowing they’d get a beating out here and not wanting to ruin a new pair. His shoes look more like sandals at this point. It’s all worth it though. Both of us agree that it’s possibly our favorite trip out here as it felt most like an adventure. A possibly brushy marshy hike out tomorrow might change that, but hopefully not. This one was definitely worth doing for those that like the more rugged stuff. 

Lake Rosanne


I fell asleep quite early around 8:30pm, and woke up at 1am, now journaling. Shockingly, this is our driest and warmest night yet. My tent is dryer than it was when I pitched it. It’s so silent outside that I’d swear I was home in bed. Off to sleep for a few more hours. 

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Walking With Wired
Winter Break In San Diego!😎
What a great trip! With so much sun and great weather, it felt more like spring break than winter break. San Diego has definitely won us over. Here is a compilation of some of the many things we did. 
-Coastal walking 🌴🌊
-Biking around the bays🚴🏻‍♀️
-Revisiting the Pacific Crest Trail💕
-Exploring the city 🌇
-Sea World 🐬🦦🦭🎢
-Beautiful sunsets 🌅
-Puzzling:)🧩

#sandiego #winterbreak
Thanks for all the bday wishes! Since my birthday falls on a Monday this year, it was a great excuse to take an extra day off and make it a 3 day weekend🥳. I indulged in puzzling and pasta (artisan jumbo raviolis) over a great fall weekend. Today was a fun day of going to local places for bday freebies. Almost $100 worth of treats and there are more I can get throughout the month! Here’s the list for anyone looking for bday treats. 
*The hand-made artisan raviolis came from Foglia in Beaverton. 
-Dutch Bros
-Einstein Bagels
-Starbucks
-Jersey Mikes
-Baskin Robbins
-Baja Fresh
-Noodles & Co
-Pips (donuts)
-Old Spaghetti Factory
-Cheesecake Factory
-Dennys
The week got away from me and I meant to post this last weekend. Better late than never! Three weekends in a row spent in the Gorge. It’s been a great fall so far and we feel lucky to have all this nearby for quick excursions. Hiking in the gorge, camping at Ainsworth SP, checking out the “fruit loop” in Hood River, and a visit and some trail work at Nesika Lodge with the Trails Club of Oregon.🍁💛🍂🧡
#columbiarivergorge
We finished up our July trip with some days at Olympic National Park. The original plan included a backpacking trip to the Seven Lakes Basin, but we had to cancel it due to a foul weather front that moved through the days of our permit. Someday we will do that one. Once the skies cleared, we spent the remaining time we had exploring the Hurricane Ridge area. I’m a big fan of mountains, ridge walks, and clouds, so it was a good finale to this summer’s travels:)

Included in the photos is our campsite at Heart O’ the Hills Campground and the puzzles we completed over the last few weeks (many of them waiting out that weather the last few days🧩). #hurricaneridge #olympicnationalpark
We moved over to the east side of Mt. Rainier and explored the Sunrise area for a handful of days. Still many grand views of Mt. Rainier, but with even more wildflowers on this side. I even got to visit an old friend;) Feeling fortunate that the weather has continued to be clear, good temps, and minimal bugs. Summer break continues! #mtrainiernationalpark
Back in the PNW and taking a couple weeks to explore and relax at Mt Rainier Nat’l Park. Our first week was spent in the Paradise area of the park with impressive views of the south side of Mt Rainier. The weather was so ideal (and somehow no bugs!) that we easily spent half the day getting some much needed R&R at camp (especially hammocking and puzzling) before heading out for afternoon hiking. It’s great to have this area just a few hours from home. #mtrainiernationalpark
For the last leg of our Northeast Coast trip, we spent a few days camping at Blackwoods Campground in Acadia National Park. We did many of the recommendations for first time visitors to Acadia: popovers at Jordan Pond, hiked the Bubbles, rode bikes along a carriage road, toured around Bar Harbor and stopped for a whoopie pie, walked the popular ocean path, and went up to Cadillac Mountain at sunset.  Overall, a successful trip to the opposite coast. We look forward to finishing up the rest of summer break in the PNW!  #acadianationalpark
Next stop on our northeast coast trip, Cliff Island off the coast of Maine. We got a taste the island life from our amazing hosts Abby, Matt, Joan, and Scott: our own lobster boil, fireworks on the beach, a bit of sea kayaking, biking around the island, exploring the tide pools, puzzling, and collecting sea glass. The best part was reconnecting with Little Lottie who I cared for and bonded with in Portland during the first year of her life. It was great to see the world Lottie lives in now💕🦞🌊🐚🦀
Kicked off our summer break with an east coast trip this year. First up, a couple days in Boston. Great to see friends Andrea and @jdavischi85 again! We were happy to get our legs warmed up for summer hikes with walking and biking around Boston. Even got in some candlestick bowling and my first evah lobstah roll. A great start to our northeast part of the summer:)
Aunt Erin’s Portland Adventures, Days 7&8: Coast Camping Cont’d
The last two days of the visit were more camping along the coast. They were filled with all the things I’d hoped for the boys to experience. They made friends and played with the other kids at camp, feely rode bikes around the loop, played in the hammock, played soccer and frisbee on the beach, ate s’mores, ran over dunes, explored a low tide (Hug Point and Haystack Rock), had a foggy coastal day and a blue bird day, and slept in the trailer making it their little cabin. They really loved the trailer and it was super cute to see then use it so well. They had a great time and hopefully a memorable trip overall of all the things I love to share living in the PNW💚💙.
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