Persieds Meteor Shower at Sand Point



Sand Point at dusk



This past weekend was the viewing of the Perseids Meteor Shower. I didn’t find out about it until last Tuesday so I didn’t have much time to plan a trip to go out to watch it. My first thought was to go up our local Green Mountain and night hike, but a much better opportunity presented itself!

Stephen & I at the trailhead

 

Boardwalk trail



My friend, Stephen, and I headed out to the coast Saturday morning towards Ozette . We hiked a short 3 miles along the boardwalk down to Sand Point where we camped out for the night. It was a busy weekend, there were day hikers and backpackers everywhere! We didn’t get to the coast until about 1:30, but we still had lots of day left for exploring. We walked all over Sand Point looking for the best spot to set up camp. Most of the good ones were already taken so we walked north up the coast a few hundred yards (or feet…heck my distance references aren’t the best unless I’m actually mapping it!) and found a perfect and secluded site up on the bank.



Looking at camp from the beach



You couldn’t even see that there was a site there from the beach, just a little pathway in the beach grass. Once we set up the tents you still couldn’t see our camp from the beach! Privacy accomplished. We decided to collect water for the weekend first to get that out of the way.





We had to hike back around Sand Point and down to the little stream flowing into the ocean. The water level was WAY down compared to the last time I was here! We collected our jugs full of brown coast water (I’m pretty sure it was at least a little more clear last time!) Got a few floaties in our bottles this time… I’m all for drinking the colored water but picking chucks out of my teeth? Not so much. Honestly it wasn’t that bad, we just happened to snag a couple pine needles in there that were easily strained out through some netting.



Deer on the beach

 

Low tide



 

We walked at least 8 miles up and down the coast, not including the hike in. We went north 2 miles up to Wedding Rock and checked out the Petroglyphs on the rocks out there. I still can’t find the one of the ship, but I’ve seen pictures of it online! The tide was out enough where we didn’t need to climb up the ropes to get over the point…but we did it anyways since it was fun exploring! I was surprised and amazed how clean the beach was. Of course there was trash here and there, but not nearly as much as I expected! I was delighted! We still managed to pick up a bag worth of trash and two big styrafoam buoy/pontoon things.

 

Sunset at Sand Point

After watching the beautiful sunset at Sand Point we walked South down the beach another couple miles waiting for it to get really dark. Once the sky was completely dark and the stars were out we grabbed our sleeping bags and laid out on the sand to wait for the meteors. Thankfully the north side of the beach (where we were camped) was sand flea free compared to the South beach! I have never seen one before, let alone a whole shower of them so I had no idea what to expect. I was looking for little slivers of light like a shooting star, thinking there would just be more of them. I was so wrong. As the first meteor shot through the sky I loudly yelled out! This was no shooting star, it was a giant flaming ball blazing through the night sky, lighting it up!! I was in awe. It’s started fogging over around 11:30 so we didn’t get to stay up too late watching the shower….I had fallen asleep anyways!

 

Bundled up and waiting for meteors!





Foggy morning of departure

 The next morning we made oatmeal for breakfast…as great of a camping meal it is I sure dislike oatmeal. We packed up camp after breakfast and strapped our trash to our packs with found rope. The extra weight and super awkwardness of the giant floats sure made that easy 3 mile hike into a painful, tired, many break taking trudge back to the car. We got a lot of looks and questions like “What are you planning on doing with those things?”, my response ”Throw them in the dumpster!” Some people thought we were hauling them out for a project or something…nope just doing our part to keep the coast clean! I hope people seeing that will influence them to do the same as much as it did when I first participated in the Coastal Cleanup.

Here’s to another great weekend out at the ocean! It has easily become one of my favorite places to hike, pretty flat and oh so rewarding!

 

Heart broken and fowl-less

It is with a very heavy heart I must admit defeat...I lost my entire flock of chickens last weekend. I had gone out to Seattle the night before for a fun night celebrating my friend's bachelorette party and the next morning when I got home I took one look outside towards the coop and my stomach dropped. I don't want to get into and gorey details, but I could see little lumps scattered around the coop from my back porch with feathers everywhere! My parents came over to help me clean up and my dad and I searched high and low to figure out how the monster got in again. There was no way! Nothing was opened, pulled up, loose...looking at how the bodies/feathers were it looks as though the racoon had attacked them from outside of the coop on the wire fencing side. I still don't understand how my chickens could have been so dumb as to not just walk to the other, protected, side of the coop. It's like they walked up to the fence when the racoon came by and said "pick me!".

While we were still out cleaning up the horrific mess, in the tree above us just on the other side of the fence we saw a racoon! We must have JUST missed the attack, which makes me feel even worse that I could have been so close to saving them. I failed my pets by not being there to protect them.



Aftermath



Monster watching us clean up





















Yesterday we set up some live traps in hopes to catch those chicken killing coons. This morning when I checked the traps low and behold one had an opossum in it!! Not quite the vermin I was hoping for, but those little suckers are mean and scary too. They are also a threat, but I dont think as bad as the coons. We will have to relocate him before putting that trap back to work.

I'm still undecided whether or not I will try again. After all this I don't think I could handle another disaster. I miss them not only as a project I was trying so I could get fresh eggs, but also because they were my pets! Raising them from just a couple days old I grew quite attached. The coop is still up and sometimes I catch myself putting aside veggies to give to them, forgetting that they will just rot if I toss food into the empty coop! After a while I might think about trying again, after I make a coop of steel...

Me...Famous!?

Look, there's me in the Washington Trails magazine!

For being so camera shy I am definitely getting my share of stardom lately!

A couple weeks ago I was approached by our marketing department at work and asked if I would be willing to make a short commercial talking about one of our products. I was so nervous, I’ve never been in a video before! Knowing it would be short and on our website I decided to take the plunge and try something outside of my comfort zone. I came in early and 2 of our great marketing guys made me feel like a star with all the lights and cameras. Unfortunately the audio didn’t work correctly (probably because I kept messing with the microphone and unplugged it a few times…I was nervous!) so we had to reshoot it later that day. The video is now edited and up on our website at www.kitsapcu.org under Gold Checking. I think I look like a goober, but maybe that’s just how I am all the time anyways! ;)

Washington Trails Association is a great organization and resource that I absolutely love and utilize for literally every hike I go on. My friend Kelsie has started volunteering for them, writing and submitting pictures. Not long ago she told me she submitted some pictures to the editor, one of which was a picture of me geocaching. The editor showed interest in the pictures as they were doing a geocaching article in the upcoming (July) issue of their magazine Washington Trails. Kelsie got word that they would in fact be using a picture of me in the article…ME! The picture was taken when Kelsie, Ken and myself went out to the coast and participated in the Annual Coastal Cleanup. We stayed and Sand Point and spend our 3 day weekend picking up trash along the coastline and on the way home we stopped for geocaches, like always. The picture probably looks like we are out in the middle of the woods but really we were at a campground/park overlooking the Straight of Juan de Fuca. I have yet to get the magazine myself and read the article, but a trip to REI soon will fix that and I will probably get a couple copies just so I can give it to my parents too. I’m so excited to not only have my picture in a magazine…but in one that I genuinely enjoy!

My third claim to fame at this time is pretty much just the same as above. Not only am do I have a pic in their magazine, but on WTA’s website that picture is posted again! On their main page it is the picture used as the link to an article about geocaching, then when you click on it…BAM there I am! It doesn’t say it’s me…but we know. ;) Check out http://www.wta.org/

I promise not to let this all go to my head. If you want an autograph just let me know. Haha. I’m totally kidding, really I am, but I do think it’s pretty neat that this has happened. Also, keep an eye out for Kelsie’s work with WTA. It’s even more fun knowing who is actually writing and taking these pictures.

I'm not sure how to post a copy of the video or pictures on here yet...but check out the sites if you want to see them.

Mount Townsend via Dirty Face Ridge



View West during hike

What a gorgeous weekend for Washington! We were in the high 70’s and even into the 80’s! We’ve been so lucky with our weather the past week. *knock on wood* What do I do with a day off and nice weather? HIKE, of course! One of my favorite day hikes I’ve done since I’ve gotten into hiking is Mount Townsend. Only about 1.5 hours from home it’s a challenging hike with some of the most beautiful views I’ve experienced. I hiked to the summit once before two years ago via the Little Quilcene Trail and oh boy was it hard, but sooo worth it…I never want to do those 20something switchbacks again in my life. This time we took the Dirty Face Ridge Trail on the other side of the mountain.

Half of our group departed by 5 am Sunday morning and the other half of us headed out of Bremerton by 6:30. It was a great idea for us to bring walkie talkies so we could find out where each other were…good thing the trail really only goes one way because we got confused on which channels to use!




Up on the peak





The Dirty Face Ridge Trail is a little shorter and a little steeper than the trail I had previously hiked. This first half of this trail was brutal, I trudged along and stopped probably every 5 mins because it was so steep. Thankfully Stephen made me a nice walking stick, he was probably tired of hearing me complain. It is 2.2 miles from the TH to the ridge, this is where we met up with the other half of our group. I couldn’t even report the time it took us to get up there because I was so hot and tired I didn’t even pay attention. We took a nice little break together on top of the ridge, took some pictures and climbed some rocks. This trail definitely had better views than the other side, we determined the names of peaks out in the distance and pointed out where other trails we had each hiked were. It’s something else to look over at a mountain/ridge/pass/valley and be able to say "I’ve hiked there". It makes me feel accomplished.

  

Entering into the Buckhorn Wilderness



The rest of the hike to the summit we pretty much stayed together. We moseyed on up taking time for photo opts and geocaching. There are 1.4 miles left from the ridge to the summit and this half of the hike was much easier. It was also more enjoyable with the great company we "ran into" for the rest of the hike! ;)

SOOOO many people out hiking today! We only saw a couple people on the first half of the hike and a few more groups once we got to the junction where there is yet another trail you can take. Once we got to the summit…goodness it was like there was a party going on up there! Everyone and their neighbor were enjoying the sunshine and beautiful views! Along Dirty Face Ridge we could see west and had beautiful views of the Olympics the entire time so we snagged a great spot below the rocks on the east side so we could look out over a new landscape. As sunny as it was it was still a little smoggy. We could still spot Mt Rainier and Mt Baker and a few other peaks I’m no so familiar with along with the Puget Sound.

We treated ourselves to a well deserved break for almost 2 hours up on the summit. It was nice to get our shoes off and be barefoot (well REAL barefoot). We found the geocache hidden up there also! We later learned that our friend Emily had ended up hiking up to Townsend today also! We didn’t know until we were already headed home and had phones turned back on…Em you should have come and said hi!!

It was difficult headed back down the mountain as well. There was a lot of lose rock to slip through and once we got back to the beginning half it was brutal on the knees. Back at the car we followed Lance’s brilliant idea and walked down a few hundred feet of the Tubal Cain Mine Trail (where the parking lot is) and soaked our feet in the super cold Dungeness River. A very long day of hiking with great friends, just the way I love spending my free time! I will definitely take this trail again when I want to go up to Mt Townsend in the future, can’t beat the views!




Trail headed up to the summit.

 

Looking East out towards the Sound.

  









So many people out today!





Here are some wildflowers I came across today:

Do all chickens go to heaven?

It’s with a heavy heart I had to say good bye to one of my chicks.

It’s been over a month since I brought home these cute little balls of fluff. Finally tragedy struck when I was awoken at 1am yesterday morning by a commotion outside in my backyard. I’m exhausted from the hike I had done the day before so it took me a moment to realize….MY CHICKENS!!!! I sprinted out of bed and grabbed a flashlight fearing the worst. I ran towards the coop in my pjs and my stomach dropped as I saw the mama hen fighting off a raccoon. Thankfully I scared it away and it bolted back out the way it snuck in. My chickens were going crazy and the mama hen did her best to protect them but it breaks my heart to say that the coon ran off with one of the chicks. I was scared and I not sure what to do next so I examine the rest of my flock, who are beyond startled…another chick is badly injured and laying in the corner.

Frantically I’m calling my parents to find out what to do, maybe my dad would come over in the middle of the night to fix the hole and "take care of" that vermin. No one answered, so I sat outside in the dark next to my coop for almost an hour shining the flashlight around and throwing rocks in to the tree above us where I could hear the coon munching on my chick! I could hear it!!!!! Talk about getting sick to your stomach. It didn’t even have the decency to take its kill back to its den or home or whatever those giant rat monsters live in. On top my already horrific night we had a thunder and lighting storm so the sky would constantly light up making this morning events a little more eerie. I’m glad I didn’t see little beady glowing eyes in the trees at every flash.

I was able to get my flock into some dog kennels I had in the garage to extra protect them until I could get that spot patched up. That was difficult in itself because they were so scared they didn’t want to cooperate. The following morning the injured chick was still alive and my dad came by to get her. Hopefully she survives, but she was bleeding and she can’t walk. L Fingers crossed she can come back from this.

I’ve been told this comes with the territory; if I want to be a farmer and raise animals I have to accept the occasional loss. I didn’t think it would be this hard though. This experience made the chick getting stuck in the feeder tube seem like nothing. I’m down one, maybe two, chicks and now I go to bed wondering if they are safe enough. I’m keeping my eye on the coop to make sure I don’t see any spots where anything is trying to get in, if the problem persists I’ll set traps and have someone more brave than myself dispose of these chicken murderers.

Thanks to all my friends for the condolences. I know some people think it’s silly to get upset over a bird, but you raise something from only a couple days old and try to not get attached.

RIP little chickie.

Chick gets stuck!

This will be quick...I just had to share my first catastrophe with my chickens today. I went out to check on them and they had knocked over their feeder and the container part that holds the food seperated from the base. To my horror one of the chicks was inside the container and it was stuck!! I baited it with food and tried to "pour" it out both with no luck. I was starting to really stress. As humanely as I could I tried pulling by her little tail and butt and she still wouldn't budge. Now I'm basically freaking out. I call my parents telling them "emergency .... chicken ...stuck...help....hurry hurry!" My mom was concerned that I had hurt myself, which with hysterical phone call she had every reason to think that. I ended up speeding over to my parents house in my pjs with a chicken in a jar on my passenger seat. Think a miniature ship in a bottle....but with a chick. I get to my parents house and my parents and uncle try to make me calm down assuring my chick will be all right. We ended up having to cut her out of the container. Poor thing, now named "Stucky", was scared and confused...but alive! I could now dry my eyes from the tears I'm not ashamed to admit to. All is well and Stucky is back safe with her family.

Weekend Coastal Hike - Norwegian Memorial/Cedar Creek/Starbuck Mine Ruins

Sinkin in the mud!

Last weekend brought me to the coast for a nice little overnight hike. This being my first time out this way (as are most of the hikes I try to go on besides Green Mt) I learned that normally the gate 2 miles up from the Trail Head is normally closed and locked on this logging road. We got lucky this weekend and drove right to the TH! It was only a 1 mile trail from the TH to the beach but oh boy was it a muddy 1 mile! My new boots (maybe they aren’t so new anymore) sure made me proud, I was able to tromp through the mud without any hesitation. Maybe I was bragging a little to my friend Matt by stomping right through the swampy areas as he tip toed and jumped from dry spot to dry spot… I have to say that I am very impressed how clean he stayed!

It took about an hour to get to the beach. We dropped out packs and went searching for the perfect camp site. We walked down the beach a short ways and settled on a nice space that already had a fire pit set up as well as benches and a table even, all made out of driftwood nailed together. It’s very convenient having a place to sit and relax and the table was up high so it was perfect to stand around to cook…there was even a stool put in place on the ground for the height challenged hikers! ;)



Camp already set up



Tents set up at camp





Norwegian Memorial

 Right after we set up camp it started raining. Darn it! Good thing I’ve invested in the proper rain gear, can’t let a little rain put a damper on the weekend. We set up tarps and quickly gathered some dry wood to get a fire going, thank goodness for fire starters. It rained until maybe 5:00 that evening, though that didn’t keep us from exploring! Kelsie and I hiked up the coast to check out the Norwegian Memorial, dedicated to The Prince Albert that sunk on Jan 2nd, 1903  leaving only 2 survivors. The wind and the rain soaked us and I was surprised at how many people we saw out hiking today! Many groups even had umbrellas, I thought that was weird but I guess it’s not that unusual. We passed a big group camped out not too far north of us, they looked like they had been there a while…they had hammocks set up on the beach and we even saw cases of beer at their camp. Cases! I wonder who got the lovely job of hauling those in from the cars. People from that group were also out gathering styrofoam (unfortunately you can find it ALL OVER the coast) for the HOT TUB they were going to build that night! We didn’t check it out but our unexpected camp guest for the night, Bruce, mentioned the next morning that he went up there and told us how they put some huge logs together and then some foam for insulation and then draped a tarp over that. They had some sort of gimmick with copper pipes that spiraled through their fire heating up the water before spitting it into their homemade tub. Bruce got to enjoy the hot tub with them and said the water was a good 100 degrees. Impressive.




Matt and I in the enterance of the little cave

Starbuck Mine Ruins

Since the rest of Saturday turned out so nice the 3 of us hiked along the coast looking for tsunami treasures and simply enjoying the wonderful weather. We headed south towards Cedar Creek, lots of people were camped out here too. To round the point right before Cedar Creek you have to either wait for the tide to go out enough or scramble up and over the hill where they have ropes and ladders in place to help out. The tide was out just enough for us to climb over the rocks and get around it, and on the other side there was a small cave! Of course I had to go inside. Matt and I crawled in through the small opening and farther back you could see that it opened up a little, but there were also a lot of bugs so we scurried out of there. I won the “race” out of the cave (I’ll never admit defeat) only to have my knee find a rock that was covered in sand. My knee is STILL bruised and swollen to this day from that darn rock! Past Cedar Creek is the remains of the old Starbuck Mine. There wasn’t too much left there but it was neat to find traces of the past out there! Back at camp a doe and her fawn came wandering up the beach in front of our camp. As we stood around the fire we watched as the mama tried to get her baby to follow her as she jumped up the bank. Multiple times the doe tried and each time the fawn couldn’t make it then finally the fawn hopped right up and they moseyed through our camp.

 


 

Camp looking out at the ocean



Camp looking in from the beach



The rest of Saturday evening and through the night was beautiful and rain free, the only snafu I had was that while we spent the day exploring and playing my camelbak spent its day draining in my tent!! My sleeping bag, pad and backpack were all pretty wet. I had to empty out my tent and try to soak up as much water as I could. Lucky for me the sun was starting to come out by now so I was able to lay all my stuff under the tarps and soon enough out into the sunshine. Didn’t realize my sleeping bag was so wet until later in the evening. (Thinking it was dry we had put it in Kelsie’s tent to stay out of the rain only to soak her sleeping pad too!) We spent a while standing by the fire drying out our pads and then my sleeping bag. I never got my pad/bag fully dry as I found out when it was time for bed, but that’s ok…it could have been worse! I’m just glad I caught it early enough in the day, sleeping in a soaking wet sleeping bag wouldn’t stop me from going again…but it sure would have made a miserable night.

Matt, Kelsie, Stefani

We didn’t stay very long Sunday. After breakfast with Bruce and his 2 companions, who showed up around 3 am, we packed up and hit the trail by 11:30. It was another hour long hike back through the squishy mud before we got to our cars. Another great weekend spent outdoors!

**I apologize for the low quality camera phone pictures**

More Pics from the weekend:



Hikers with umbrellas!



Doe and fawn on the beach

lots of bouys on the coast

Tsunami debris

Doe and fawn going thru camp

Lots of big trash too

Muddy trail conditions