The weather was looking grim on the west side of the Cascades, and I heard that a prerelease version of a brand new guidebook was going to be there. We found a campsite in the dark after 6 hours of traffic (lesson learned: don’t try to leave Seattle at 3) and a bit of rattling down a washboarded gravel road. Next time I might try to get a cabin or room, the lodging there looks really nice.

We went for a climbing tour with the author of the guidebook (who also developed most of the routes), and a bunch of other people there to take a look at the book. There were a few people from Seattle and a bunch of locals—guides, Outward Bound instructors (they have a basecamp there and help maintain one of the climbing areas), and people working at the local inns to support their playing outside lifestyle.

There’s tons of other outdoor stuff to do there. We went on a short hike, but there’s also mountain biking, road biking, padddling, horseback riding (and that’s not counting all of the winter stuff). Several people we talked to said that they bought property the first time they went up there, I can definitely see why…