Fasser Family Blog

The 2011 edition of the annual boyz hike was a big success with an excellent destination, great weather, good fishing and some stories to tell. Dave Dawson picked the hike this year which took us to the 7 Lakes Basin in the Olympic National Park. Attendees included Dave, Jeff, Will, Johnny G., Ralph and myself.

Our hike began on Thursday afternoon a little before 2pm. This was a little late to be starting a 10 mile hike, but logistically there was a good bit of travel to get to the Olympic Park Ranger station in Port Angeles, get gear situated and move the circus. Jeff Thompson brought a portable scale and we weighed ourselves with and without packs – before and after the hike. We won’t go into details on weight but my pack was the heaviest (76 lbs!) so some re-distribution was in order.

The hike through the first part of the trail to the Sol Duc Falls and then up to Deer Lake was packed with tourists and day hikers. The Sol Duc Falls was a great stop on the way back for rest and photos (see below). We reached the 7 lakes basin at dusk and passed beautiful semi-frozen over lakes at Lunch lake and beyond. The sunset was fantastic, but we lost our trail and decided to camp up in the basin – good call Will! Dave ended up staying at Deer Lake Thursday night and caught up to us on Friday.

The next morning was blue bird sky and we found the trail to Morganroth within minutes. An hour later, we are at the lake and setting up camp right on the water with a great group hang-out spot and some majestic tent areas. There is a small lake called no-name that feeds into Morganroth and a creek that runs between – great spot for pulling water and added the babbling brook soundtrack. Our group was the only one at the lake – nice!

Activities of the week included:
- Day hike to the waterfall into no-name
- Fishing the lakes
- Napping/reading in the hammock
- Modest frisbee golf
- Cribbage by the lake
- Trips to the snow pack to for the ingredients for bourbon slushies
- Lots of cooking and eating and laughing

On Friday night, we were about to get out the headlamps when two hikers stumbled into our universe- Debbie and Fabrice/Fabio (?). They had no packs (only a day pack), minimal food and water and were clearly out of their element. What had started out at a day trip to Bogachiel Peak and back to the lot (which would be a 20+ mile endeavor) turned into a lost wander through the basin. We gave them food, clothing, pads and a blanket so they had a spot to sleep for the night. They were very appreciative and very lucky someone was at the lake to help or else it would have been a much worse night for them.

Sunday morning we packed up and cruised out early. The hike down was a spectacular as the hike up, but this time we hit the early morning sun. Ralph and John bagged Bogachiel Peak on the way out and we did the ceremonial weigh-in at the parking lot. We all lost 15 or so pounds from our pack. We stopped in PA to drop off bear cannisters at the ranger station and got some beers/dinner at the tavern 9 and headed home.

Day two in Tucson started out well enough but trying to find our way to the shopping district was a bit rough. We were trying to find the fabulous shopping district that I kept reading about on line which we never really found. Despite the internet being such an amazing resource for us on this trip, it was bullshit when it came to recommending shopping areas. We headed to 4th Avenue which promised to be Tucson’s eclectic shopping district. That is code for stoner head shops and skate punk clothing mixed in with some Buddhist weird ass stuff. We didn’t hang long here as we were in mixed company. However, Lindsay did score a fabulous frock and that made it somewhat worthwhile.

Next stop was downtown Tucson. We saw a lot of impact on the economic downturn of the last couple years. Sadly most of the store fronts were empty. The downtown though is really pretty. I really appreciated how beautiful the public buildings are. It was a really very nice down town. There just was not a lot going on.

We found a great local spot for lunch today. Our people are always up for Mexican food and a local business- man directed us to the fabulous hole in the wall Alejandro’s. There were a half dozen momma’s back in the kitchen fixin’ up some pretty authentic fare. I had the chicken mole and I have to say it was so good! The guacamole was amazing as were the super fresh chips. A+!

Not wanting to spend any more time in the sun that afternoon (thanks to a very angry sunburn on my back from yesterday) Linz & I ditched our group at the house for pool time and Lindsay and I went off in pursuit of retail therapy. We got a few hits and few misses that afternoon too. I had a blast with Linz bouncing in and out of the high end shops of Tucson. We(I) are too cheap to spend the kind of money that they wanted for t-shirts and flip flops so we came home with just a few sweet items.
That night, the classic teriyaki chicken, salad, melon, and left over corn bread. Not bad at all.

Our first full day in Tucson began with a lovely breakfast outside on the patio. The sun is already nice and warm. We were given the recommendation to hike Pima Canyon from Mike Richards’ brother and it turned out to be a great one. Just a short drive from the house we reached the trail head in what appeared to be a residential area. My mom’s place is in the Catalina Foothills, which is a really pretty part of Tucson. We started out on our hike and immediately felt that we were no longer in Seattle. With temperatures reaching the low 90’s that day, we were friggin hot! So, off we went.

It didn’t take long before we were rewarded with substantial views of greater Tucson at our backs. Once rounding a bend, we lost sight on the city and were in this fabulous forest of Saguaro Cacti. It was so hot. We stayed strong and made it in 3 plus miles. Both kids were such troopers.
There was no loop or specific destination here. We could have gone on and on. We learned from returning hikers that the damn was dry and therefore there was no water. We stopped for Jolly Ranchers at a popular hiker stop and then made our way down.
We decided to run back (as we often do on our hikes) and it was so hot that I thought I was going to pass out. Turns out that when you run down a mountain and it is 90 degrees outside, you get over heated.

Okay, so a great start to our vacation. Lindsay’s and my favorite part of the hike were the giant Saguaro forest. Scott’s favorite was the view of Tucson. Jackson’s favorite, had to be the sprint back to the car! He was done with that heat. As promised by the internet, the canyon was truly beautiful and the cotton wood groves deep in the Pima Canyon were stunning and a welcome respite from the intense sun.

Now that we were back in La Paloma it was time to go to the pool! We spent the afternoon horizontal in a pool lounge chair. Linz, Scott & I read books while Jackson splashed in the pool. Scott and I drank cold beer. What a fabulous pool and it is located right across the street from my mom’s place. Dinner was barbeque ribs, baked beans, melon, and corn bread. It was all a perfect end to a perfect day.

Ola!

It’s Wednesday and we’re headed to the Grand Canyon today. We’ve had a blast in the foothills of Tucson spending time with Mike and Shirley. The kids love the pool, we’ve had great Mexican food, we hiked Pima Canyon, visited the Colossal Caves south of Tucson and had a chance to visit downtown. We have several stops planned for today before getting to the hotel – primarily Montezuma’s Castle and the town of Senora.

Greetings,

Lindsay had an amazing adventure with her class to Costa Rica. She’s working on a blog post for that, but I wanted to get some of her pictures up for you to see.

Lindsay is currently enjoying sun, food, spanish, dancing and community service in Costa Rica with the 8th grade spanish class from Seattle Girls School. The link below has more picture and notes on what’s going on. We miss her so much!

http://sgsincostarica.blogspot.com/

We love Mazama. Love, love, love it. The different climate from Seattle, the friends we have there, the cabin, the space, the neighbors, the river, the store and the friends we have over. We made a lot of trips over there this summer and had a blast. Some of the fun activities (chronicled in the pictures below) included:

• Our first trip to the pool in Twisp
• The Mazama Mom’s Weekend with all of the kids
• A rafting/tubing trip from the cabin down to the Mazama Country Store
• Disco party in the garage, under the party lights (new boom box!)
• Michelle’s birthday dinner
• Scott and Jackson cutting down their first tree (first two trees that is)
• Lindsay and Scott doing our first overnight camp out Louis Lake (catching fish in the AM!)
• Our neighbors Spruce and Mary visiting the Methow Valley for the first time
• Another dinner and disco party
• Our annual trip with David, Nancy and Roman Harto to the Winthrop Rodeo
• Meeting Kim and Steve who just bought the North Cascades Basecamp – Wonderful people and a great spot for lodging in the Methow Valley – Mazama

Enjoy the photos!

Our annual boyz hike took us into the deep into the Northeastern Hills of the Cascade Mountains – Lyman Lakes – courtesy of our planner this year Eric Plateau. The hike included a drive to Chelan, some excellent Chicken Fried Steak at the Apple Cup Diner, a boat ride on Lake Chelan to Lucerne, a school bus ride 11 miles in and up to Holden Village and then 9 miles on the trail. The journey to the trail head was really fun and interesting and had it’s own set of stories.

However, the jewel of the trip was the hike. From Holden Village, we passed an old copper mine, dozens of waterfalls, hundreds of mushrooms, boulder fields, forest floor, long vista, Hart Lake (for lunch), streams, bridges and very few other people. It was an incredibly beautiful hike despite getting rained on the last 4 miles. Fortunately, we had incredible weather for the next two full days we were there and then had rain on the way out – our timing was stellar.

Once we hit Lower Lyman Lake – the beauty only went up – literally – to upper Lyman and the Lyman Glacier. The usual activities occurred – eating, drinking, fishing, Frisbee golf, day hikes, glacier snow gathering and wild animal stare-downs (marmots and deer mostly).  Eric and I were fortunate enough to hook some trout in Lower Lyman, Greg and I donated disc’s to the mountain Gods and Dave got to spend a dry night at Rebel Camp.

Below are my photos from the trip. Next year it is Dave’s turn to pick and based on early discussions, we’re going back to the Olympic Peninsula. We’ll regale you with the gory details at our next poker session. Cheers.

We had a great time in our trips to Mazama in the Spring including over Memorial Day weekend. All of the Memory Lane neighbors were there and the kids had a blast playing together, we went on a great hike up the East Branch of the Methow River – up where the Needles Fire was in 2002. The river is raging and the foliage is returning. We look forward to heading back for Michelle’s birthday weekend.

Enjoy the photos!

It’s hard to be back at work after such a wonderful 9 days in Mazama. We had 5 dogs, great snow, lots of good food, great downtime and visits with friends. We were able to ice skate (twice), cross country ski (three times), sled (lots – some with the dogs pulling), snowshoe, help light and watch a huge bonfire on New Years Eve (see other post on this), play games (Cribbage and Monopoly being the favorites) and generally lounge around.  Pictures of the week are below – I’ll post a second blog post just for the New Years Eve pictures.