SurfingSeattle

This morning, I woke up and boarded the Skytrain to the Waterfront.  From there, I walked a couple blocks to Canada Place.  After walking up the cruise ship Boardwalk, I boarded a bus to Capilano Suspension Bridge Park.  As expected with an attraction with over 10,000 reviews on Trip Advisor, the park was overhyped, family-oriented, overpriced and very commercialized.  Most of the scenery inside park could have been seen for free at an average short trail within a short drive of the city.  It really wasn’t much special, but was just an average suspension bridge and views of a river canyon.

How did the attraction become so popular?

• Catering to international tourists (one-time visitors not accustomed to this type of nature)
• Easy accessibility (Free shuttle rides from Canada Place; Easy accessibility throughout the park for old/disabled/handicapped people)”
• Emphasis on an engineering achievement
• Emphasis on absolutes (oldest and longest suspension bridge, etc.)
• Word of mouth/high ratings on trip advisor)

 

 

After returning to Canada Place, I boarded the Skytrain “Canada line” to the nearest stop to Queen Elizabeth Park. From there, I walked about 10 blocks to Queen Elizabeth Park.  Queen Elizabeth Park is located in a relatively rural neighborhood, but there were a few newer and under-development multi-family buildings mixed in to the neighborhood of single family homes.  This ongoing and significant increase in density is exciting as it can transform a neighborhood (it’s walkability, amenities, architecture) a provide a much higher quality of life for many more residents.

Once I entered the park, I came across what was likely the highest point of the park with the observatory and water feature.  From there, I descended to the gardens, which contained beautiful trees, floral arrangements, water features, manicured lawns, and other beautiful landscaping.  Walking on the asphalt walking path through this beautiful park, I was instantly and nostalgically reminded of babajoon and his love and admiration of this type of nature.

 

After Queen Elizabeth Park, I spent a couple of hours grocery shopping, working, and eating at New Westminster Station.  From there, I continued on the Skytrain to the Airbnb, where I showered and watched the DNC on TV for a little bit.

I contacted Lihi and asked if she would be up for meeting to watch the Celebration of Lights at English Bay Beach to watch the fireworks. We agreed to meet at 9:30, but because of the traffic, she ended up arriving at about 10:25, for just the last few minutes of the fireworks.  After the fireworks ended, we walked over to Blendz for a coffee and to chat. Afterwards, we walked to the beachfront walking path and walked for another half an hour. She is really beautiful and sweet, but it sucks that she’s in Vancouver and we probably won’t be hanging out again.  Either way, I’m happy we met and got to spend a few hours together.  We parted ways at about 1:30am, whch was just late enough for me to miss the last Skytrain to Gateway.

Thankful to Google Maps, rather than waiting until the Skytrain opened at 5am, I was able to research a “night bus” that was leaving at 1:40am, which travels all the way to Surrey in 1.5 hours.  As in writing this, it’s 2:45am, and I’ll need to wake up within 4 hours to pack up and board the bus to Whistler.

This morning, I woke up at 7AM and boarded the Skytrain to Burrard Station.  From there, I boarded a bus to Lynn Valley where I met up with a Meetup group to hike Norvan Falls.  Norvan Falls is an easy, flat 14km roundtrip hike which follows the river until arriving at Norvan Falls.  From there, you can continue on to a lake or even Grouse Mountain, but we decided to retrace our steps back to the trailhead.Edit

During the hike, I was mostly speaking to Abdul, a mid-to-late 20s Transplant to Vancouver.  He was born and raised in Afghanistan, and attended graduate school in Phoenix, AZ. He recently moved to Vancouver and is starting work on Thursday at a fish company where he’ll be working on financials.  We had great conversations about politics, business, stocks, investing, and more.

After the hike, I spent a couple hours at Starbucks and wandered a bit around Vancouver before heading back to the Airbnb.  At the AirBNB, I booked a roundtrip bus to Whistler (leaving Thursday morning and returning Friday night), a hostel in whistler, and an AirBnb in Vancouver for Friday night and Saturday night.

All in all, it was a relatively uneventful day, but still had a nice time!

 

 

This morning, I woke up at 7:30 AM and left the house at about 10AM to meet Lihi at Canada Place at 11AM.  Once I met Lihi, we boarded the complimentary shuttle to the base of Grouse Mountain.  The peak of Grouse Mountain overlooks Seattle from 4,000 feet above sea level.  The base of Grouse Mountain is at about 1,500 feet above sea level.  From the base of the mountain, the “Grouse Grind” trail ascends over 2,500 feet in just over 1.5 miles.  This extreme elevation gain in such a short distance is made possible by almost 3,000 steps along the short trail.  The trail is an excellent training hike, and I might actually visit once again just to time myself and see how fast I can complete it in.

Additionally, the trail is almost completely shaded and very scenic, with surrounding views of tall trees and the forest environment.  After about 2 hours of hiking, we reached the top of Grouse Mountain.  At the top of Grouse Mountain, we ate a simple lunch at the seating area overlooking much of Vancouver thousands of feet below us.  After eating lunch, we continued walking along the top of the mountain area.  We walked about ten minutes to the Beaver Trail concession stand, where we ordered a Beaver Tail (1/2 topped with chocolate hazelnut spread and 1/2 topped with Skor Cheesecake).  The Beaver Trail tasted very much like Frybread, it was delicious.  After eating the Beaver Tail, we watched part of the free “Birds in Motion” show, before boarding the gondola down the mountain. We then parted ways at the Waterfront Skytrain Station.

After we parted ways at the Waterfront Skytrain Station, I headed to a medical clinic near Downtown to have my hand looked at by a doctor.  The fee for the clinic visit was approximately $140, which was expensive but I just wanted to get the hand ordeal over with.  The doctor reassured me that my hand was ok and there really isn’t a need for an X-ray.  Additionally, the doctor provided me with a Tetanus Shot.  The Tetanus shot will be especially useful/important to me because of the large amount of time I spend hiking and camping.  Overall, I’m happy and a bit more relieved after the clinic visit.

Afterwards, I visited Gastown, and then headed back to the AirBNB.

This morning, I arrived at Burrard Station at about 12AM from Joffre Lakes.  Because of the Festival of Lights, hotels and hostels were unavailable or completely expensive, so I just boarded the Skytrain to New Westminster Station and spent 5-6 hours updating the blog and catching up on work.  At about 7 AM, I boarded the Skytrain west to Metrotown and spent another couple of hours in the Starbucks there and walking around the huge, empty mall.

At about 10AM, the AirBNB host, Lyn, emailed me to let me know that the room was ready.  I boarded the Skytrain east to Gateway Station, were Lyn’s Husband, Paul, was waiting to pick me up and drive me a few minutes to the Airbnb.  I then showered, checked into the AirBNB, and napped for four hours.

At 4PM, I woke up and took the Skytrain back west to the Main Street Station to attend the Hillel Jews and Brews event.  It was nice meeting Leat (again), the siblings from Argentina, and David and Josh (the local siblings).

After having a drink, I boarded the skytrain to the waterfront.  After I exited and walked a few blocks, I ended up in Gastown.  Gastown is a hip, revitalized, high-pedestrian-traffic neighborhood with restaurants, boutique shops, bars, and other types of businesses catering to nightlife and tourists.  I walked around for about 20 minutes, looking out for a restaurant name that seemed familiar from all the recommendations I had been getting.  A few minutes later, I passed by Tacofino, which had been recommended to me by Graham.  I ordered a burrito, which was very flavorful and filling.  Afterwards, I boarded the skytrain back to Gateway, walked back to the AirBNB, and slept.

This morning, I woke up at about 7AM after a night of sporadic periods of sleep and lying awake.  Because it didn’t seem like anyone else would be awakening soon, I walked up the slope toward the glacier, hoping to find a crossing point where I wouldn’t need to cross barefoot in the ice-cold water.  The attempt resulted in a successful, yet inconveniently-long 30-minute detour around river.  I headed to the outhouse to use the restroom and strolled back to the campsite at around 9AM.

When everyone awoke and ate breakfast, we decided to hike to the Mountain peak surrounding the Upper Joffre Lake basin.  While crossing the river, I fell down on a sharp rock and stopped my fall with the palm of my hand, which led to a painful puncture in my skin and possibly even a fracture.  I’ll be visiting a clinic for an x-ray within the next couple of days.

Instead, we ended up wandering to a dead-end cliff face.  At that point, we just decided to to climb up to the glaciers above the lake.  We slowly ascended the steep slope, which was often covered in loose rocks.  Eventually, we arrived at the glacier which provided a close-up view of the thick, light-blue, monumental expanses of ice.  Facing Upper Joffre Lake, we had an amazing view of not only Upper Joffre Lake, but also Middle and Lower Joffre Lakes.  It was an incredible view to experience, especially when surrounded by the constant sound of the numerous streams flowing down the length of the entire rock slope into Upper Joffre Lakes.

After my fall and minor injury this morning, I began thinking about the parallels that can be drawn between walking on rocks in order to cross a river.  Here are some of the comparisons:

• Stepping across “Rocks”= The next-action steps we take in working toward our goals
• “Strength and muscle” in climbing over the rocks = “talent and wisdom” in accomplishing our goals
• Reaching the destination across the river = Accomplishing your goal
• Impatience/Rushing across the rocks (Higher risk of failure, but could still work) = Hurriedly trying to reach your goals (higher risk of failure, but could still work)
• Taking a few minutes to scope out the rocks and plan your way across = Taking an adequate of time to think about your goals, plan them out, and be clear on how you’ll achieve them
• Reaching an uncrossable point/falling into the water = relapsing/failing in reaching your goal
• If you rush across rocks and are reckless, some rocks might be unstable, slippery, and stop you from being able to cross = If you rush in reaching your goal unintelligently, you will put yourself in a position where you might be prone to pitfalls, relapses, because of the additional pressure

Lessons:

• Take the time to plan how you’ll achieve your goals (how you’ll cross the river).  Don’t just quickly run over rocks and hope that the way you’re choosing will be clear. By moving, you’re risking injury, falling into the water, etc.
• It’s not the most talented/wise people that reach their goals… Often times, it’s the patient, well-planning people that do

After we descended to the campsite, the group had a discussion about whether we should camp another night or drive back to Vancouver tonight.  We decided to drive back to Vancouver, which was my personal preference.  Our decision was heavily influenced by an Ironman Triathlon which would be closing access to the road to Vancouver until at least 4PM in the afternoon.  Also taking into account the traffic from additional cars also waiting to drive home at exactly 4PM, we would have to expect to arrive home Sunday night at 12AM if we were to stay an additional day.  Therefore, we just opted to hike down to the trailhead at 7:30PM.  We reached the trailhead at 9PM, and were back in Vancouver by 12AM.  Since I didn’t have a hotel reserved, I’m currently pulling an all-nighter at the Time Horton’s in New Westminster Station.

Additional photos of Joffre Lakes Trip from other group members:

This morning, I woke up at 7:30 AM and slowly got ready and headed over to Burrard Station where I would be meeting the Meetup Group for the Joffre Lake Hike (https://www.meetup.com/Vancouver-20s-30s-Outdoor-Adventurers/events/232496717/).  The group originally planned on driving up on Friday, camping two nights, and driving back to Vancouver on Sunday.  The group on the trip consisted of the following people:

• Kate
  • Physician
  • Native to Toronto/Canada
  • Passionate about bodybuilding/working out
• Graham
  • Project Design Manager (He creates professional plans based on the architect’s general rendering
• Alicia (Maki)
  • Japanese young lady working in Canada for a couple of years as a massage therapist
• Marky
  • Young lady from Czech Republic working as an assistant/drawer at an architecture firm

By the time we arrived at the Joffre Lake Trailhead, it was already about 2PM.  I completed my permit at the trailhead, and we began hiking the trail.  The trail starts at about 800 meters, which is the approximate elevation of Lower Joffre Lake.  Over the course of the next four kilometers, the trail ascends to approximately 1100 feet, the elevation of Middle Joffre Lake.  Finally, about .5 kilometers later, the trail reaches Upper Joffre Lake at an elevation of 1200 meters.

Throughout the trail, there were stunning views of turquoise blue water, fast-flowing ice-cold rivers, dense forests, and barren rocky mountain slopes.  With every view and sight, I was filled with awe and felt like I needed to take a photo to capture the beauty in front of me.  The photos simply can’t capture the beauty and the experience hiking Joffre Lakes.

As we reached Middle Joffre Lake, there was a secured log extending into the lake from the shore.  Kate, Maki, and I each took turns walking out onto the log and taking photos.   What made it exciting is the freezing cold water in the lake, which would be an ultimate shock/wake-up/experience of falling into.  Thankfully, none of us fell in and we continued on another .5 KM to Upper Joffre Lake.

A few minutes after passing Middle Joffre Lake, we were peering at Upper Joffre Lake and the prominent glaciers nestled in the mountains above the lake.  There are officially only 35 camping sites along Upper Joffre like, which wasn’t enough to accommodate the roughly 50 groups which were camping at Joffre Lakes on Friday night.  To deal with the shortage, many groups were walking in every direction in order to find a flat area large enough to pitch a tent.  We ended up taking the adventure one step further and crossing a freezing cold, glacial river in our bare feet to cross over to a less-populated potential camping area.  Across the river, we found four suitable spots for our four tents.  We then set up camp and spent a relaxing night sleeping with the white noise of a combination of many waterfalls, rivers, and the lake.

 

 

This morning, I woke up and headed to the International District and Chinatown.  I arrived in Chinatown via the SkyTrain at 8AM, which was a bit too early for many of the shops to be opened.  After 30 minutes of walking around and eating a breakfast consisting of veggie-stuffed bread and asian pastries, I walked over to Starbucks to catch up on work for a few hours.

After working at Starbucks, I walked around for another hour or so through Chinatown.  During the walk, I visited International Village Mall, a 3-story Chinese-oriented mall in Chinatown.  The mall was very unexciting, poorly designed, and very random in terms of the types of types of businesses housed there. Here are my thoughts about the mall:

• The Good
  • Food court on 2nd floor is a positive traffic driver.  But on second thought, it might even be worthwhile to have the food court on the 1st floor, in order to increase the 1st floor traffic/rents which is also a bit slow.  2nd Floor could then be converted to office space, medical space, or other uses that aren’t dependent on traffic/visibility
  • For the most part, the unit sizes are small which increases traffic, variety of stores, and likely increases rent PSF
• The Bad
  • Poor/Inefficient layout (especially on 2nd floor with curved corridors).  Should have just created one corridor on each floor
  • Food court should probably have been on 1st floor (in order to increase traffic.) 2nd floor and third floors could have been office space
  • Land could have been used much more efficiently to build a primarily-residential mixed-use property

After visiting Chinatown, I boarded a bus from Burrard Station to University of British Columbia.  The last stop on the bus route was the UBC Campus.  From there, I walked a few blocks until reaching the Museum of Anthropology.

One of the interesting exhibits displayed large, functional pieces of art which were used in Potlatch Ceremonies.  Potlatch Ceremonies are gift-giving celebrations common among Pacific-Northwest Canadian Indians.  The objects in the below photo were used to hold and distribute foods at Potlatch celebrations.  In an attempt to coerce the Indians into assimilating, both the US and Canadian Governments, prohibited Native Americans from celebrating Potlatch events.  As of today, only a small amount of Indians have reinstated their potlatch rituals, even though they are now fully legal.

The second interesting exhibit was a temporary exhibit by a unique artist named Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun.  Lawrence is a native American who strives to convey extremely strong political messages through his artwork.  Lawrence is very direct and clear in what he’s trying to say, regardless of whether it may be seen as hateful, offensive, or malicious by some observers.

What political messages is Lawrence conveying through his artwork:

• Environmentalism
  • White men, the Western World, and corporations are exploiting the world and its natural resources to fulfill their lust of greed.  This exploitation is irreversibly damaging the environment and it is unacceptable
• Tribal-owned land
  • The United States and Canada have stolen land which rightfully belongs to Native Americans.  This stolen land was in some cases simply taken by White Men and in other cases bought at unfair prices from unsuspecting Native Americans
• Native American Independence (Shine light on persecution of Native Americans and seek payment)
  • Lawrence has several pieces of art shining light on the persecution and forced assimilation which the Native Americans were subject to (Horrors of residential schools, criminalization of potlatch)

What are some other notes about Lawrence’s artwork:

• Excellent use of color serves to instill a Native-American creativity and art style into the artwork
• One can almost feel the high levels of hate, resentment, disgust, and vengefulness in the artwork toward oil corporations and western governments.  He hates/mocks governments and he hates/mocks corporations throughout most of his artwork
• His work shows signs of not just despair, but also hope/”courses of action” for the future.  He believes that there are steps that can be taken to partially remediate the wrongs that have been done.  For example, some of his artwork points to the Native Americans taking possession of the land and the possibility of corporations and governments stopping the exploitation of the land

 

 

While walking to and from the Museum of Anthropology, I walked past an 18-story high-rise wood building.  When I peered up at the building, I immediately knew that I was looking at something revolutionary.  Once completed, the building will be the tallest wood building ever built. Here is an article explaining the general construction components.

At 8:30 PM, I left the AirBNB to attend the Jewish Federation Young Adults Rooftop event.  I found out about this event a few days ago from Leat, who I met while swiping on Jswipe.  It was a great socializing event where I conversed a little bit with Leat and Lihi.  During the next week, I’ll hopefully be able to meet up with each of them.

This morning I woke up at about 8:30 AM and traveled by Skytrain to Spokes Bicycle Rentals in Downtown Vancouver.  I rented a bicycle from Spokes for the entire day and proceeded on a lengthy bicycle tour of the city.

From Spokes, I biked a couple of blocks to meet up with the Seawall Trail.  From there, I followed the Seawall trail into Stanley Park.

 

The first stop in Stanley Park were the totem poles.  Like many parts of the West Coast, the area of Vancouver was originally settled by Native Americans whose presence and culture has mostly disappeared from their land.  The totem poles in Stanley Park bring awareness and understanding to the Native American culture by explaining the significance and meaning behind the Totem Pole design.  From what I understood, each of the totem poles is comprised of anywhere from 3-10 sections.  Each of the sections includes a semblance of an animal or human face.  The animal or human face is meant to symbolize pride, appreciation, values, or other ideas that the creators want to publically display.

A few miles into cycling the Seawall, I noticed a side-trail heading into the interior of Stanley Park to Beaver Lake.  Almost immediately the trail was surrounded by greenery and a creek.  After about five minutes of walking, I arrived at Beaver Lake.  Beaver Lake is a rapidly disappearing lake, which is predicted to naturally disappear as early as 2020 without human intervention.  Apparently, it is very common for forest lakes to be overtaken by the forest, especially if they have shallow water levels.  It was interesting to be able to visually see the forest overtaking the lake in a relatively short amount of geological time.  The trees, vegetation, and weeds at the edge of the forest were slowly growing throughout the lake, and it seemed like just a matter of time before

We hear about oceans that once covered large parts of continents, Seas which used to encompass huge areas of California, modern-day desert landscapes which were previously rainforests, and other large-scale natural transitions which have occurred over millions of years.  Due to the enormous scale of these transitions, it can often be difficult to fully grasp and understand the processes due to the large amount of time in which they happen.  For that reason, it was nice to experience Beaver Lake where the process is occurring relatively quickly.

 

 

Much of the architecture throughout Vancouver is stunning, and seems to do a great job at incorporating nature into their designs.  Below is a building I passed while cycling through Vancouver.  It was so beautiful and unique that I just had to stop to take a photo.  The entire building is 48,000 SF, consisting of 16 approximately 3,000 SF units.  More information about the building can be accessed via the following link: http://www.condopedia.com/wiki/Eugenia_Place

 

Along the Seawall trail, the city has installed “open air museums,” which contain publicly-accessible art exhibits which add to the experience of local residents and tourists.  My favorite of these “open air museums” was “A-Maze-Ing” laughter.  This exhibit consists of 10-15 figures of a hysterically laughing person.  The purpose of the art is to create dialogue among people experiencing the art and to get them to think.

Vancouver is one of the top cities I’ve visited so far.  While cycling along False Creek, I began thinking about what makes Vancouver so special.  In doing so, I came up with the following things Vancouver has done and is doing right:

• Architecture
  • The city of Vancouver understands that buildings are not simply investments or homes, they become permanent parts of our natural environment.  When a building is beautiful, unique, or creative it serves to inspire and bring pleasure to every single person who lives in the city and passes by that building.  So many of the high-rise buildings in Vancouver are stunning and can only be described as works of art.  Also, almost all of the office buildings have come sort of over-the-top water feature incorporated into the publicly-visible common areas of the building
• Green spaces
  • Vancouver has done an excellent job at creating and maintaining green areas throughout the city.  Stanley Park is like Vancouver’s version of Central Park, and provides residents and tourists with an opportunity to experience solitude and get lost in nature, all while being within a few minutes of Downtown.
• Density
  • Vancouver has caught on to the idea that high density is a good thing, instead of a bad thing.  The benefits of high density include walkability, less expensive to buid infrastructure/public transporation because it’s a smaller area, more amenities within a shorter distance,
• Public transportation
  • Vancouver built the Sky Train which is a phenomenal public transportation line.  This public transportation system is the reason that Vancouver can build high-density residential and commercial projects throughout Vancouver.

But then again, are there more factors at play in Vancouver’s success.  Here is an article about the vast amount of Asian wealth which has been entering Vancouver during the past few years.  This may be one of the reasons why these high-rise residential projects are economically feasible.

After cycling for about 4 hours, I arrived at Granville Island, which is located across the bay/river from Downtown Vancouver.  Granville Island is a hip, high-pedestrian-traffic area which includes a university, art studios/workshops, boutiques, restaurants, and the Granville Public Market.

Granville Island made a perfect spot to grab lunch, walk around the Island, and rest from the last few hours of cycling.  I walked through Granville Public Market and came across a nice cafe with healthy-looking, vegetarian options.  I ordered a beet salad, broccoli salad, and broccoli quiche, all of which were flavorful and amazing.

 

From Granville Island, I continued along the coast to Kits Beach, one of the most popular beaches in Vancouver.  I redeemed the Groupon I purchased last night, and went kayaking out on the water for a couple hours.  It was a difficult workout, especially following 4 hours of cycling in the heat.  During the kayaking trip, there were beautiful views of the Vancouver skyline and Stanley Park.  After kayaking, I backtracked on the coastal cycling trail for a few miles before taking a bridge across the river to return to Downtown Vancouver.

 

 

After returning the bicycle, I ate at a vietnamese restaurant and headed back to New Westminster to spend the night at the AirBNB.

This morning, I boarded a bus from Tacoma to Downtown Seattle.  When I arrived in Downtown Seattle, I visited a Starbucks where I would spend the next 4-5 hours working and updating the blog.  At 3:30pm, I walked over to the Amtrak Station and bought a ticket to the 4:45pm bus to Vancouver, BC.

The 3 hour, 45 minute bus ride was exactly what I was expecting until we reached the Canadian border.  All the passengers vacated the bus and entered the customs/security building.  Out of the approximately twenty passengers on the bus, the officer asked me to walk over to a second line for a background check.  At the desk, they asked questions such as: “Why haven’t you booked a return bus ticket? How much money do you have to support yourself on this trip? What do you do for work? Do you have a business card? Etc.”  After a few minutes, they asked me to login to my Chase online account to verify funds. We tried  for about 15 minutes but the Internet connection was too slow, so they just allowed me to pass through the border.Edit

For my stay in Vancouver, I reserved a private room in a high-rise, modern building for $34/night.  Navigating my way to the AirBnB, I we pleasantly surprised by the public transportation system in Vancouver.  Vancouver is one of the few cities I’ve been to where public transportation is more reliable and faster than private transportation.

As I exited the train in New Westminster Station, James let me know that I should take an elevator from inside the train station to his apartment.  The lobby of his apartment building was accessible through a door on the 2nd floor of the train station.  This public-transportation-centered residential development emphasize walkability, convenience, amenities, and as close to a 24-hour lifestyle as one can expect in the New Westminster neighborhood of Vancouver.

After dropping off all my things at the AirBNB, I walked downstairs to find a place to use Wifi for a few hours.  I ended up spending four hours working at a 24-hour Tim Horton’s cafe in the New Westminster station, which was a great way to continue catching up on work and blogging.

Here’s a link to interesting real estate projects in Vancouver, BC:  http://vancouver.curbed.com/2014/9/19/10045034/curbed-vancouvers-greatest-hits-your-guide-to-the-city

At about 8AM, we continued hiking on the trail from Scott’s Beach.  Instead of taking the inland detour, we opted for the “almost always impassable” coastal bouldering route. Several times during this 3o minute bouldering adventure,  we had to walk in knee-high in order to make our way between boulders.  However, for the most part, this route was easy to navigate at the still-low tide levels at 8AM.

After a couple more hours of hiking, we descended to Third Beach.  Due to its relatively easy accessibility via a 15 minute walk from Third Beach Trailhead, Third Beach was relatively busy with overnight campers, day-hikers and SCT backpackers.

From Third Beach, we hiked the last 30 minutes of the trail to Third Beach Trailhead.  This last section of the hike began with a steep uphill climb, but soon leveled off and remained flat for the rest of the hike.

 

 

 

Mike’s photos from the trip are below:

On the way back to Seattle, we passed through Fork, WA.  Forks, WA is the setting of the fictional book series Twilight.  The town has taken full advantage of the attention it has received because of the book, going so far as offering Twilight tours, an annual Twilight celebration, and offering a map with Twilight points of interest.

During the car ride toward Seattle, I reserved an AirBNB in Tacoma, about 1 hour south of Seattle.  Tacoma is a relatively rural, older, and lower income suburb of Seattle.  There wasn’t much to do besides eating a quick dinner and taking a well-deserved lazy afternoon.