A Wilderness Summer in the Pacific Northwest

The whole cliche about time always passing by quicker and quicker is an overused one, but really couldn’t be more true. I hadn’t intended to go an entire summer of travel nursing without writing a blog post, yet here we are, the summer already past us and fall staring us in the face.

This summer in Washington was both what I expected and not. What I hadn’t expected was being in a small rural town on the outskirts of an only larger suburb of Seattle. Coming from living in a big city and having everything at my fingertips, it was a bit of an adjustment having to live in what some would consider the middle-of-nowhere. Yet I found that I really enjoyed having a backyard overlooking Gig Harbor and a big house to stretch out in, neither of which I’d ever had while in DC.

I also didn’t expect the the magnitude of all the hiking opportunities I’d have throughout the summer. Most of them were beyond anything I’d ever hiked before, the views and experiences of each going well beyond anything I’d ever expected.

It’s truly been an adventure, this whole travel nursing gig. And with adventure always comes highs and lows. In all honesty, there was a part of myself throughout the summer which really missed my home back in DC. I missed my friends, the comfort of my cozy little Adams Morgan apartment, my stable job at GW. It’s been the first time since first moving to college in 2012 that I found myself missing a “home,” and it sometimes took a lot to keep going.

But I also couldn’t imagine not having taken this leap of faith in doing something I’ve always dreamed of. I’ve learned so much about myself through the people I’ve met and the experiences I’ve had these three months. It’s been a true ride of a lifetime. From packing up only the essentials, driving forty hours across the country, and living in a completely new part of the country, it’s been a true ride.

And it’s only going to continue.

Starting this week, Shannon and I will be starting a new assignment in Portland, Oregon, a place we fell in love with after visiting the city just over a month ago. While we’re sad to be leaving our home in Washington in addition to all the new friends we made in the ICU we worked in, we’re also ready to be back in a city.

These city-slicker kids are up for a new adventure. We’ll see what Portland has in store.

I had drafted a blog post in July about some of the hikes I’d done up until that point. Obviously I never got around to posting it, so I’m including a brief synopsis of each hike I managed to do throughout the summer, ranked from worst to best. If you ever have the opportunity to visit the Pacific Northwest - especially Mount Rainier National Park - do it. It’s truly one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever visited and will forever hold a special place in my heart.

Rattlesnake Ledge

This was our very first hike of the summer, a mildly strenuous one that had some pretty incredible views at the top. It’s a five-mile trail with about fifteen hundred feet of elevation gain, so it was a decent first hike for us to try.

Of course, the day we hiked was also during Memorial Day weekend, so just about every other person in Washington was also out on the trail trying to enjoy the great outdoors. it made enjoying the scenery a little less enjoyable when you’re hiking with what feels like a million other people.

Snow Lake

A hike we enjoyed even more than Rattlesnake was a trail in the Snoqualmie area of the state called Snow Lake. We had wanted to try to find a hike that was a little more secluded without quite as many people as what we had encountered when hiking Rattlesnake Ledge. And boy did we find it.

Throughout the majority of the six-mile hike, we saw maybe less than twenty people. And then there were the views throughout the hike and the finale view of Snow Lake at the top. It held true to its namesake, still being frozen over and covered with snow.

This was three weeks into June.

Hoh Rainforest National Park

When I say rainforest, I literally mean rainforest. It’s one of the few deciduous rainforests in the world, and having been in rainforests in South America, it threw me off, for sure. I’m used to hot, muggy rainforests, but what I encountered was a cool, shockingly green landscape that still somehow managed to feel humid despite the coolness in the air. You can blame the shocking green to the fourteen feet of rain the forest gets on a yearly basis.

I spent the majority of the morning hiking a relatively flat trail through the heart of Hoh, passing a lot of hikers who had camped out in the rainforest the night before. You can get permits to backcountry hike and camp relatively easy, which I’ll have to keep in mind the next time around.

Norse Peak

This was one of the more strenuous hikes we did this summer, but also the most unique. Where we were hiking had been part of a wildfire three years ago, so the majority of the landscape we saw was completely charred and destroyed from the fire. And while it was eery to see, it was also beautiful. Life was already beginning to crop up, with small saplings sprouting everywhere, not to mention wildflowers as far as the eye could see. And while the views from the top were disappointingly obscured by clouds, it was a beautiful sight to see nonetheless. Truly one of the the more amazing hikes of the summer.

Mailbox Peak

I have to chuckle as I think back on this hike, mainly because of how difficult it was. A good friend came up to visit us for a long weekend, and before coming had told us that she wanted to do a hike while here. When looking through the trails I’d been told were some of the best to do, Mailbox Peak came up. It looked close enough to us that we didn’t have to worry about driving forever to get to, and it looked like it had some pretty incredible views. The only catch was that it was listed as “difficult” by AllTrails, an app I used the majority of the summer to find the best hikes. Before leaving, I made sure everyone was aware of the difficulty of the hike. Everyone was still onboard, so we set off.

Come to find out, AllTrails was one thousand percent correct in the difficulty rating. It was honestly one of the hardest hikes I did all summer, some of our group not even making it to the summit. That didn’t stop us from still enjoying the views, which were plenty.

If you do this hike, make sure you bring your A-game. It’s no joke.

Rialto Beach

One of the things I read when searching for hikes at the start of the summer was that the beach camping in Olympic National Park is an absolute must for anyone visiting. One of those, “you have to do it at least once in your life,” kind of things.

In fact, “Go beach camping” was on my bucket list - now another item I’ve managed to check off.

The four mile hike to Rialto Beach was actually fairly strenuous, having chosen the tricky time of high tide to start hiking. But the views were absolutely stunning. We’ve all seen pictures of the Oregon and Washington coastlines with their driftwood-scattered beaches and monstrous rocks jutting out of the ocean, but seeing it in person was something else.

Hiking for the four miles, I wasn’t totally sure where to lay down camp for the evening. I used AllTrails when planning for the hike and had downloaded the hiking map before setting off. One of the few campsites that was available happened to be on the other side of an enormous cliff face. I found out the next day when hiking back at low tide that there was a way around it when the tide was out, but at high tide, my only option was to go up.

So with my forty-five pound pack, I took off up the side of this cliff face, an incredibly narrow but well-worn trail from other hikers who’d also planned poorly and hadn’t considered the tide when starting their hike. The views at the top were enough to make my jaw drop. It was like everything I’d ever seen in photographs, but unable to be properly captured in my own.

It was shortly after this that I managed to find an amazing campsite in a tidal basin. It was still high tide, so I couldn’t seen any of the tide pools. That’d be for the next morning when the tide was lower. But the high tide had brought with it a good number of seals who played with one another not far off the shore. Every once in a while, one would come up close to the shoreline, their eyes peering overtop of the water at the tall, lanky guy sitting up on the shore.

I had packed a few beers and spent the majority of the evening sitting on the beach, watching the sun set. It was by far one of the most beautiful sunsets I’ve ever seen, and certainly an evening I won’t ever forget.

Camp Muir

Finally, what was undeniably the most incredible hike of this summer, and honestly probably of my life so far. I kept hearing of this Camp Muir hike in Mount Rainier National Park that wasn’t for the faint of heart. It’s an actual camp located at ten thousand feet that serves as the mid-point for those looking to summit the mountain. Keep in mind, the elevation of Mount Rainier itself is only four thousand feet more at fourteen thousand feet…

I had researched this hike fairly extensively, trying my best to be prepared. I read that there would be plenty of snow to hike through and to bring equipment to help with that. I also read that the hike down could be made a little more entertaining by bringing a trash bag to use as a sled to slide down mountain on your way down. I was doubtful, but packed one nonetheless.

The first half of the hike was fairly easy. There was no snow, and while the elevation gain was fairly hefty, it wasn’t too difficult. But as soon as I reached the snow fields, things were instantly ten times more strenuous, only getting harder as I climbed higher and the air around me became thinner.

Reaching the summit after five hours of hiking, it was one of the most amazing views I had all summer. In the distance you could see Mount Hood - Oregon’s tallest mountain - peaking out of the clouds, almost as though it were waving to it’s sister Rainier. I enjoyed a beer and lunch before setting back off down the mountainside.

And yes, the trash bag trick did work. How many times in life can one say they’ve went sledding on a trash bag at ten thousand feet?