Month: October 2023

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Durant at Red Ridge Farm

This time we were off for a visit to Durant’s to explore the property and have a tour of the Olive oil making process. This outing was planned by Lori as she had been to the place before. We got there early to give some time to explore before our official tour began. We parked by the wine sampling building and check it out first. From there the path goes through the garden plant section and on to the gift shop. We were to start our tour from the gift shop so we checked in early. We had some time to kill so we walked down to the lavender and flower garden and then returned for our tour.

It turned out that Lori, Jeanette, Sylvia and I were the only ones to show for the tour so we got a private tour. The feature part of the tour was the Olive oil processing area. We were a few weeks early this year to see the crush but it was quite so we could walk around the equipment. After the tour of the Olive oil processing we moved on to the sampling. After an explanation of what there was to sample we left to sample the olive oil and vinegar as much as we wanted. It was a fun time sampling and blending olive oil and vinegar to make different combination. The ladies found several the liked and made their purchases. Then it was off for lunch at Murryhill Taphouse.

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LL Stub Stewart State Park

This was not the hike we were hoping for. The forecast was for heavy rain coming in about 2 pm so we were planning on getting a quick exploratory hike in at Stub Stewart State Park before the heavy rain arrive. Well the the heavy rain arrive about four and half hours early. I for one was not prepared for hiking for hours in heavy rain. We went ahead with the gear we had hoping this was just a shower. Mushrooms were out in force with a large variety of them popping up. As the trail got muddier and slippery we decide not to follow the old climber’s mantra “it does not have to be fun to be fun” and turned around. We got in a little under 4 miles with a little over 500 elevation gain in two and quarter hours. After peeling off soaked rain gear we headed for lunch Helvetia Tavern. We decide this was a good shake down hike to test our rain gear and prepare the wet season ahead. I found my fifteen year old rain coat was not up for the season ahead.

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Puget Sound Ferry Outing

Lori loves riding a ferry so we took on the three ferry challage on the Puget Sound. We got an early start to be able get three ferry rides in one trip. We started in Bremerton Washington to take the state ferry over to Seattle. This was our longest ferry ride at an hour long. We were able to get out of the car and expore the ship and see the sights. When we got to Seattle we did a quick drive around the waterfront and see if it would be safe to come back to another day and explore. We headed to our next ferry that departed from Fauntlroy. Lori knew a long scenic route through West Seattle. I had never been in this area before and found it charming. Our next ferry was a 17 minute trip to Vashon Island. We had enough time to get out of the car, get some pop corn, find a seat on the main deck, have a few bites before it was time to get back to the car to disembark.

On Vashon Island we did a walk around downtown that was about four blocks long. We grab some burgers and frys at Perry’s for lunch. Lori throught it was a proper greasy spoon. They Perry’s has no seating so we went back to the car to eat. In short while we had a homeless person yelling at the car window wanting us to give him something. Lori quickly drove away. Even in what had been the idealic island retreat they now have a homeless problem.

We quickly drove to the southern end of the island to wait in line to catch our last ferry of the day from Vashon Island to Point Disappointment in Tacoma. We got packed in so tight on the ferry we could not even open the car doors. This was a short ten minute ride before we disembarked and head for home.

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Herman Creek Trail

A hike of Herman Creek Trail. This was my peaceful walk in the woods trail until the fire of 2017. I started on this hike with mind set of doing a walk in the woods but it was another difficult trail going through burn area. I do have give a shoat out to the trails crews that got this trail open again. I could see place where their work turn a lost trail back to a trail with a tread to follow. I went as far up as Whisky Creek and turned around there. I got in 13.5 miles with 2300 ft gain in 7 hours. Biggest happing on this hike was seeing a Momma bear and her two cubs climbing up from top of a waterfall when they heard me coming. I have never seen a bear in the wild before.