Avalanche Awareness for Beginners

Learn about avalanche awareness in Washington

Building an adventurous life informed by curiosity, courage and environmental stewardship:
one hike at a time.

I started Every Two Pines to log my outdoor adventures, triumphs, and failures. Hailing from Seattle, I am love spending time on the trails when I am not working as a marine biologist. I am passionate about backpacking, climbing, snowshoeing and hiking from the tidelands to the high alpine in Washington state.

Sharing this journey is important to me. I followed other adventurer’s pursuits before I gathered the courage to go on my own and try to pay it forward. Whether you are brand new to hiking or a seasoned adventurer, I hope this site serves as support and motivation. I love sharing the areas I care about in Washington and hope it sparks you to treasure the areas you care about as well.

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Backpacking
How-to
Snowshoe
Trip Reports

Second Beach

Artist Point Snow Camp

Woman at waterfall near Source Lake Snowshoe in the snow

Snowshoeing Washington: 10 Steps To Find the Perfect Route

Woman snowshoeing at skyline lake

Skyline Lake

Source Lake on Snoqualmie Pass

Source Lake Snowshoe

Wenatchee Crest Snowshoe

Second Beach

Artist Point Snow Camp

Woman at waterfall near Source Lake Snowshoe in the snow

Snowshoeing Washington: 10 Steps To Find the Perfect Route

Woman snowshoeing at skyline lake

Skyline Lake

Source Lake on Snoqualmie Pass

Source Lake Snowshoe

Wenatchee Crest Snowshoe

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Second Beach

Artist Point Snow Camp

Woman at waterfall near Source Lake Snowshoe in the snow

Snowshoeing Washington: 10 Steps To Find the Perfect Route

Woman at waterfall near Source Lake Snowshoe in the snow

Snowshoeing Washington: 10 Steps To Find the Perfect Route

How To Find Outdoor Gear on a Budget

5 favorite spring backpacking trips for beginners

every2pines

This is the story I tell myself now, a story of be

This is the story I tell myself now, a story of being still.

It is not the story of seeking sloth, a skill you mastered early. Nor a story of standing on a summit as dawn melts away, where you feel like yourself. It is a moment of peace in the midst of unprecedented heaviness. .
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Distraction was your mode of existence for the past two years. Instagram and YouTube videos after waking. Evenings were television, phone in hand to ensure any break in focus on one device has a second device to catch you. You stopped doing yoga when the four minute savasana resulted in far-too-loud-for-a-yoga-class crying three times in a row. Four minutes was too long to be still
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You fell in love in October. It felt like deliverance. You wanted to soak every minute in, fully present, distraction a new enemy. When it abruptly ended in February, the physical pain in your chest was a constant reminder that the relief was temporary. Tremendous hope for the future was its own intoxicating distraction and when the hope left, there was nothing under your feet. You begged everyone you knew to let you forget about the sorrow, to emerge when the time was not measured by hours to endure. Then the rest of the world plunged into sorrow beside you. .
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Now there is this. Three hours last night, laying on your bed, listening as you watched golden hour turn to sunset, turn to night. The heaviness, the loss, the fear that grows when the love promised evaporates, it all lays beside you. You reach down and hold its hand. Stillness.

After my first trip on a deep-sea trawler, fishing

After my first trip on a deep-sea trawler, fishing 100 miles off of the coast, we reached port and I collapsed on the dock. My cheek on pavement that reeked of fish and the detritus of sea, I cried with relief. Six days of unrelenting seasickness, three fishermen for company and no contact with the outside world. After days without food and minimal sleep, I had begun to hallucinate and was convinced our boat would disappear under the waves.
Somehow, I managed to get back on the boat and make the return- journey to Astoria. I finished my 9-month contract, one 6-day trip at a time and it didn’t get better. The isolation was unlike anything I had ever experienced, and I remember it with panic deep in my chest. At sea, I lived hour to hour, too seasick most days to do anything but lay in a bunk and wait for it to be over.
Tonight, as I contemplate the second week of truly sheltering-in-place, memories of those dark nights at sea have been returning. This is a time of counting hours, and willing them to pass. Finding temporary relief in small moments of connection, and moving forward when I realize that the relief was fleeting. Missing the people I have come to accept I likely won’t see before the summer, to mourn the many small losses, to hold the immense privileges that are illuminated in the quiet moments. Wanting something so desperately it is difficult to hold and I continue marching forward without it, hour by hour, because I must. These are things to be endured.

I hold onto the texture of pavement, the scent of days old fish baking in a net, and the immense relief that all things have an end. There is a port somewhere where the waves will no longer threaten to consume my small boat in an immense ocean. I will climb onto that dock, I will lay my cheek on its flawed surface and I will rejoice.

Every time I am in the park I hope to see elk—th

Every time I am in the park I hope to see elk—they are incredible beasts and such a quintessential part of the region, but they have eluded me. Then, a cold winter morning on a rainy river hike, I rounded the corner and there was a herd, calmly standing among the trees. After so many trails, wandering through poo-filled fields or searching in the places the hikers just ahead of us had sworn they had seen them, I stopped remembering to consider it a possibility. It took my breathe away. .

Hopes a funny thing. It’s easy to take for granted when it’s there, easy to forget what it feels like when it’s gone. Sheer want isn’t enough to make something happen or sway someone’s actions, just as it is unlikely to impact the roaming decisions of a herd of elk because I want so badly to see them. What are my human hopes next to animal hunger, need for safety, search for shelter?

The lesson I walked away with was to keep hiking, continue to round corners and put myself in a place to be surprised. Elk were elusive until they weren’t. Wanting was useless until it wasn’t. Hope was never a waste.

⁠Carving a bit of time these past few weekends t

⁠Carving a bit of time these past few weekends to be outside, including the first snow backpacking trip of the season. Love feeling small next to these peaks.
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#pnwlife #pnwonderland #pnwcollective #rei1440project #exploremore #wildernessculture #goatworthy #wanderwashington #cascadiaexplored #throughthepines #thenwadventure #alphacollective #ourpnw #werehikers #hikehappy #hikingaddict #hikewashington #sweatyhappydirty #amongthewild #blackpineadventure #nrthwst #themountainsarecalling #exploremore #ourcamplife #optoutside #bestofthenorthwest

We've both heard it all before Ooh but I feel some

We've both heard it all before
Ooh but I feel something happening again
Hey coach, I'm ready, put me in
-Shakey Graves
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Finally got out for a fall hike this weekend and felt really good to be back in the mountains. Three lakes, larches, snow. Doesn't get better.
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.#outdoorwomen #adventureanywhere #getoutside #greettheoutdoors #optoutside #wildernesspeople #foryourmountaine #pnwlife #pnwonderland #pnwcollective #wanderwashington #ourpnw #werehikers #hikewashington #sweatyhappydirty #outdoorblogger #pnwwilderness #cascadiaexplored #folkscenery #werehikers #throughthepines #pnw_compass #findmeoutdoors #pnwroamers #wildernessculture #thehikemovement

In the sunshine, among friends, beneath one of my

In the sunshine, among friends, beneath one of my favorite mountains. 'tis a good place to be
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In a week that has been a lot (a lot) of putting myself in new positions, talking to new people and constantly being out of my comfort zone, it felt awfully good to be somewhere easy. Felt transported to another world filled with bears and glaciers.
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#pnwlife #pnwonderland #pnwcollective #rei1440project #exploremore #wildernessculture #goatworthy #wanderwashington #cascadiaexplored #throughthepines #thenwadventure #alphacollective #ourpnw #werehikers #hikehappy #hikingaddict #hikewashington #sweatyhappydirty #amongthewild #blackpineadventure #nrthwst #themountainsarecalling #exploremore #ourcamplife #optoutside #bestofthenorthwest

and here you stand. heart⁠ like a four-poster be

and here you stand. heart⁠
like a four-poster bed. heart like a canvas.⁠
heart leaking something so strong⁠
they can smell it in the street.⁠
-Marty McConnell⁠
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Lately my feelings have been right at the surface. I am learning to be just fine with that.
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#wishyouwerenorthwest #pnwmoods #justpnw #wanderwashington #pnw #pnwonderland #keepitwild #neverstopexploring #nrthwst #themoderndayexplorer #northwestcreatives #thatpnwlife #forceofnature #adventureculture #throughthepines #optoutside #campingcollective #adventurethatislife #folkgood #wearethewild #wildernessculture #seeyououtthere #forgeyourownpath #visualscollective #upperleftusa #beautifuldestinations #livefolk #earthoutdoors #alphacollective #exploretocreate

This morning I am climbing on a boat, layered in f

This morning I am climbing on a boat, layered in fleece and down to survey the Salish Sea for endangered rockfish. Hard to believe that a week ago I was swimming in alpine lakes to cool off. .
A reminder that things can change so much faster than you can imagine when you are in the thick of it. Both a terrifying and hopeful concept all at once.
📷 @fieldstoferries
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#getoutside #exploremore #wanderwashington #outdoorwomen #herpnwlife #likeamountaingirl #mountainlife #mountainchicks #wildernessbadass #wildernessbabe #womenwhohike #womenwhoexplore #wildwoman #staywild #passionpassport #wanderlust #weekendwarrior #themountainsarecalling #adventuretime #lifeofadventure #every2pines

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