Our most recent hike was a last minute find on the way to a rock shop. The weather was dicey so we decided to go for a hike at the next place that was off of the water. Thomas Cove Coastal Reserve did not disappoint!

We timed the hike beautifully with the weather and managed to luck into a easy, pretty trail. We spent most of the hike in a tidal area that would have been under water at high tide. It definitely made for a more interesting walk since we were able to see a lot more of the coastline than is possible at high tide. That being said, I think it would be interesting to see the contrast. Since we want to go back to the rock shop, we may try to time our return to Thomas Cove with high tide.

Lloyd and Holly enjoying the hike.

The tides here are crazy! This is all under water at high tide.

Can’t beat the view.

A couple of weeks ago, we decided to go to a bakery and then on a short hike. Lloyd did a bit of research to find a good bakery outside of Dartmouth/Halifax for something different and found Wellington Bakery and a nearby park that looked like to could be nice. While the bakery was disappointing, the park worked out very well. We actually had a walking toddler the whole way out, too, so added bonus!

The walk was flat and relatively easy – an important consideration with two little ones – and featured a nice woods and a pretty lake. There were a LOT of picnic tables at the lake so either it’s a very popular park in the summer or its where picnic tables go to retire. Either way, we would definitely go back to the park, but probably not the bakery.

Admiring the trees.

This is typical of the walk on the way out.

Grand Lake. We did not go swimming.

We decided to get out last weekend and go for a hike. The Norawarren Trail in Herring Cove looked like a good hike for a toddler so we thought we’d give it a shot.

Our first impression upon arrival was not positive as the trailhead started in a subdivision. However, it didn’t take long for the trail to feel remote. We saw other groups, but only a handful during the two hours we spent on the trail – so better than some actually remote hikes we’ve done in the past!

The trail was well maintained and generally easy to hike. A good portion of the hike was over rock (granite?) so the path was very solid and smooth as it was worn to bare rock. It wound through a well-treed woods and passed a good-sized pond. We stopped there due to a hungry baby and a tired toddler. The only complaint about the hike itself was that there weren’t any human entrances to the pond, just lots of dog entrances. It would have been nice to be able to stick our feet in the water after the hike out.

On the whole, 8/10 would hike again.

An example of the typical trail. Holly was a great hiker on the way out.

The surface on the latter half of the hike. Somebody loved it!

Water achieved!

There were a couple of tired kids on the way back.

Backlog post (January 17, 2021): The holidays were a bit quiet for us this year, and as Nova Scotia was recommending against travel over the holiday’s due to Corona virus so no exciting trips :(. But last week those recommendations were lifted so we drove south along the water an took a little family hike in a small park.

Cleveland Beach is a small island – or peninsula  – depending on the tide with probably less than a kilometer of trail, but the inclement weather (wind gusts up to 60 km/hr and intermittent rain) in combination with a walking 1 year old made that kilometer count. Even though it was a short trip, it was very nice to get back out of the city again, and hopefully we can keep trips like this up for a while.

Less than intrepid exploration.

As it starts to warm up and get sunny everyday here in the Pacific Northwest, one thing is clear – Mt. Rainer dominates the skyline. To get into the season, we decided to go out to the mountain for a hike. Since it is only early May, a lot of the access roads are still closed so we picked a major road, Route 165, and drove as far as we could to Mowich Lake, stopping at the farthest open trail head.

So we got to do an awesome, and rather quiet, hike down to a river and up the hill to Mowich Lake, then back the “road” to the car. The one big bummer was that while I brought my nice camera, I forgot the SD card at home…. so I hope you all like cell phone pics. Overall, quite happy with the hike, but we will probably never do it again as there are just so many cool hikes to do around Rainer and this one doesn’t really stand out as awesome as it was.

The hike started as it should – a log bridge over a cascading creek.

Sometimes the shitty sensor of a cell phone camera makes a photo artsy?

Now with Rainier views!

Mowich Lake was still very frozen. It almost comes across in the picture, but the lake was a haunting, pale blue – probably the highlight of the trip.

The 5 mile hike back in 3 to 12 feet of sort-of-melting snow left something to be desired, unless you desired post-holing every step.

Now that it is fall, Jasmine and I are taking advantage of the season and going on hikes all over the greater Seattle area. This weekend, we took a trip northeast of here to the Tolt River Park in Carnation just off of the Snoqualmie River. It is fun to get out of the city and suburbs for a bit on the weekend and have an enjoyable day wandering around the trees and river.

The park was next to the town of Carnation which grew many of the titular flower so I had to include a picture of a flower farm.

The first part of the hike was the prettiest – a nice river crossing on a very wobbly bridge.

Behold my attempts at pretty photography.

There was access to the river so we got to spend time on the banks skipping stones.

And we also hiked up a mossy mountain trail which seemed like an appropriate name at time, though fern hill may have been more accurate.