Lueders Haus Blog

These new popup tent trailers look pretty cool. I could see the SylvanSport Go trailer on our family’s future road trips.

Headed out last Saturday for a hike on Mount Rainier. The weather was not ideal to say the least. This picture was taken on Sunday which was the nice day. We hiked in a shower on Saturday.

We hiked west out of the Sunrise parking lot across Berkeley Park. Over Skyscraper pass and down to our campsite at Granite Creek. About five miles, one way. Never saw the Mountain and it never broke sixty degrees the whole trip. Off to the Enchantments next weekend.

Made our way out to Yakima on Sunday morning for the Yakima Canyon Ride. They closed about 20 miles of SR 821 to cars and let a few hundreds bikers lose on it. It was a beautiful day for riding. Lots of sun, warm but not too hot. This is one of my favorite roads in all of Washington. Everything you could want for a river canyon road, great views and few homes. The ride was out and back, starting from the south end, with a slight decent on the way back. I got a nasty sun burn on my back (need actual bike jersey) that I’m just about over. Pictures up here.

Took the new skate skis out to Hyak for a test run this morning. It was definitely late season skiing conditions, a bit slushy. Neither of us had skate skied before but the general idea was easier to pick up then I had thought. Both of us were able to propel ourselves forward for a few hours before heading home. Sherry was practical a natural on her skies. I will need some more practice and some lessons next season.

The weather cleared up just enough for us to head over the mountains on Saturday morning for some post thirtieth birthday cross country skiing near Leavenworth. We arrived at Lake Wenatachee State Park a little after ten and skied both the North and South sides of the park. Both trails were short (3-5k), flat, and nearly empty. They were through pine forest with occasional lake views.

Afterwards we drove a few miles farther down the road to Chiwawa Sno-Park to ski the “See & Ski” trail. This was our favorite trail of the area, it follows the Wenatachee River for most of the way before looping back to the trail head. After its 6.5k we were pretty beat so we packed up and head to our hotel in Leavenworth.

Being my thirtieth we figured we would live it up a bit and stay in style at the Sleeping Lady resort just outside of town. The place happened to be full of pharmacist talking drugs this weekend but we didn’t mind. The included dinner and breakfast was some of the best food I’ve had in Leavenworth. The cabin was nice and quiet and the ski trails started near by so it was the perfect place to stay.

This morning we skied the Icicle River Tails and the Golf Course Trails in Leavenworth then grabbed a bite to eat the Sleeping Lady’s Cafe before heading back to Seattle. Leavenworth’s trails were nice, flat with a few small hills, but a bit crowded compared to Saturday’s skiing. Checkout all the photos here.

Got up early on Saturday and headed up into the mountains for some more cross country skiing. We arrived at the Cabin Creek parking lot around 9:15am. Either because of the cloudy weather or the earlier hour it was nowhere near as crowded as last weekend. Due to some mechanical problems it was groomed but no tracks set for us classic skiers. We skied the Viking loop twice before heading back down to the Snoqualmie Brewery for lunch.

Snuck in a few more days of fun before we headed back to work on Wednesday. Sunday we got to see Bill Frisell (with Danny Barns) at the Tractor. Monday and Tuesday we headed up into the mountains for our first cross country skiing of the year. For New Year’s Eve we had a nice four course dinner at Tilth but did not stay up for the glitchy Seattle fireworks.

We had our first snow of the winter here in Seattle yesterday. It even stuck to the ground here in North Seattle, but the rain today mostly washed it away. We have a few more days of rain in the forecast. Hopefully that will give us enough snow in the mountains to go skiing in a few weeks.

I made good use of the foul weather to make some beer. I haven’t brewed since last winter when I tried to master all grain brewing. This time I kept it simple and did a batch of brown ale using malt extract. I did mix things up a bit and went back to the five gallon batch size. Which means had to buy a five gallon used keg at the homebrew store and upgrade my beer fridge to one that fits the keg. My online research led me to a Sanyo compact refrigerator that seems to be perfect for homebrewers. There are even web sites detailing how to attach a tap on the top but I will leave that project for later. I used the BeerSmith software again which was really helpful to keep track of everything.

Tonight I’m making the last batch of the “Five Minute Bread” from the NY Times. We have had great results so far with this recipe. It is not all that different from actual French Bread recipes. The key step just seems to be time, letting the dough rise for 12-24 hours before baking.

After a long summer of doing other things, we (well, the first time for me anyway) finally got a chance to get out into the backcountry in the Olympic mountains over Labor Day weekend. We hiked from Obstruction Point down into the Grand Valley, following the ridge trail down to the valley, spending the night in a sweet lakeside site at Grand Lake.

Cold, driving rain up-valley and dwindling daylight prevented us from hiking all the way up to Grand Pass, but we did swing by Moose Lake and the other lakes up-valley.

On the return trip, we completed our loop by following the trail as it dropped even further down the valley, following a pretty creek through classic giant old-growth forest before climbing back up through sub-alpine meadows to finish it off with a grueling slog up about a quarter-mile of scree.

The good news is the rain held off until the last 20 minutes of the climb – but that last push to the top was cold and wet. All and all, a fantastic weekend in the mountains!

We had a snow filled Saturday at Stevens Pass Nordic area. We climbed the nordic trails all the way up to the chairlift on the back side of Stevens downhill ski area. It was snowing pretty much the whole time and we found ourselves in the middle of a Biathlon. After getting back to Seattle we took our hunger to Via Tribunali. The atmosphere and pies were good. I would say we still prefer Tutta Bella even if it has high chairs. Afterwards we strolled up Broadway to Coco La Ti Da for some very hip deserts.