Introduction

Welcome to my blog!

Is this a regular hiking blog?  No, it is not.  I created this blog first to fulfill a requirement for my Technical Writing course at Everett Community College.  More than for credit, I genuinely love hiking and the outdoors, and Mountain Loop Highway has a special place in my heart.  It is local and easy to access, and has some incredible hikes.  My goal is to encourage readers to get out and experience the Pacific Northwest in all its glory, whether on Mountain Loop or somewhere else.

Mountain Loop is a 52 mile-long, mostly paved scenic highway leading through the Central and North Cascades.  I chose to write about the southern half of the highway because it is almost due east of Everett Community College and is most relevant to my readers since they either attend Everett or most live in the area.

My experience hiking has been short so far, but condensed.  My obsession with the outdoors started in summer of 2013 after climbing Mount Pilchuck.  Since then I have done almost all of the hikes on Mountain Loop, certainly on the southern portion, most three times or more.  Besides that I have done many hiking trips off I-90, Highway 20, Highway 2, and Mount Baker Highway.  I tracked my mileage between June 26th and September 22nd 2014, and I hiked over 200 miles in under three months.  I got the bug, and I ran with it, never looking back.  I want other people to understand my obsession with the PNW and what I have come to call my mountains.

Some Vocab

For those of you who are discovering hiking for the first time, or who are confused to whom or what I am referring, it seems prudent to elaborate on a few topics and define a few terms:

Switchbacks: Zig-zags going upwards, cut into a mountain so the trail will not be as steep.  These make for much safer trails.

Kristen: My ultimate hiking buddy, friend and partner in crime (if it is a crime to love the outdoors as much as we do).

Mountain Weather: Mountains tend to make their own weather.  As air moves over a mountain, the moisture condenses into clouds, or the clouds condense into liquid water, and it rains.  So, often the clouds that pass over us in Everett end up being rain by the time they pass the mountains in their journey east.  The shapes and massive size of mountains can create wind tunnels and pockets of high and low pressure that don't usually happen in places that are flat and unobstructed.  All of this makes for some very unpredictable weather.  The only thing you can generally depend on at these higher elevations is that it will be colder than at sea level--about three degrees Fahrenheit for every thousand feet.

Scramble: No, this is has nothing to do with eggs.  I use this term anytime when a hike requires using hands to climb--usually across fields of large boulders.

PNW: Pacific Northwest.

Camping vs. Backpacking: Camping is usually referring to camping with a car and sleeping in a tent at an established campsite.  Backpacking, on the other hand, is when you carry everything you need for an overnight trip on your back... in a pack.  "Making camp" when backpacking is just when you're setting up your tent or sleeping arrangements for the night.  Any sort of camping I talk about on this blog in reference to one of the hikes is almost certainly talking about campsites for backpackers.

Paracord: Lightweight nylon rope.  It is extremely versatile for overnight hikes, and I often use it to hang a bag of my more smelly items (food, deodorant, and bug spray, for example) in a tree away from bears.

Mountaineer: Someone who climbs mountains.  When hikers talk about mountaineers, they usually are talking about people with a particular set of technical skills to climb using ropes and harness and/or ice axes and crampons.  "Mountaineers" denotes climbing mountains like Mount Baker or Rainier.  "Hikers" climb smaller and less dangerous peaks.

Rock Cairns: These are stacks of three or more rocks (which therefore cannot be placed by nature) which courteous hikers place to show you you're on the right path.  Do not knock down rock carins unless they are misleading, as they are extremely helpful to lost hikers!  Even add to them if you like, so long as you are not leading a weary hiker off the trail with a needlessly-placed rock tower.