North Bend – Spring Break part 4

The bulk of our spring break trip was spent in a cabin in North Bend, WA. It was on a large property the family we rented the cabin lived on and had a private fishing lake. It also was adjacent to hiking trails that could take us directly to even MORE hiking trails, so it was really nice to be able to explore a bit of the local North Bend trail scene while we were there.

It had a wood pellet burning stove that got flaming hot and two giant oversized chairs that perfect fit one human and one border collie.

It also had a massage chair that was really pretty fancy, although it only fit one human!

It had a kitchen with everything you’d need to be able to cook, a lovely front porch with a deck that had a fire pit and a hot tub! It also had no shower, which left momma feeling like Loki in this picture here.

Now, it did have a bathtub with a shower hose, and to be honest it was a fancy bathtub. But there was no shower curtain, no way to use the shower house without holding it in your hand, and if you were standing you’d be spraying water all over the bedroom because the bathtub was in the bedroom. And in front of two windows – and only one of those windows had curtains.

So that was really the only downside to the cabin, and really only for momma because she refuses to sit in bath water. So she had to figure out ways to hose herself off without filling up the tub. Needless to say, Lolo and I found it quite amusing and would watch every night from the bed.

There was a very dense forest on the property that backs up to a state park, so we had fun exploring here where we could be off leash.

They had two big dogs, perhaps anatolian shepherd dogs we think, that were also on the property. One was a puppy still and very shy and scared of us running up to him at 100 mph, the other never got close to us.

The first hike we did from the property was a very, very popular one that we’d heard about from a number of people who live up in Seattle. It was the Rattlesnake Ledge hike. It is a hike that climbs up through a forest to a lookout over Rattlesnake Lake. Here I am at the first ledge – we found three total ledges – most people stopped at the first one, and there were only two total people we saw beyond that.

The sun is in a terrible position for pictures, but you can see from Rattlesnake Ledge all the way into the Cascades! It was definitely a lovely view. It was also very windy, look at my ears!

Daddy prefers us to wear our leashes on ledges because he’s certain we are going to go flying off the end of it. Momma just says 🙄 because she knows we are keenly aware of our surroundings, especially Lolo when it comes to cliff edges.

Past the first ledge we found where all the snow was, and Lolo and I took some time to cool off in it.

View from the higher ledges is less Rattlesnake Lake since it is now steeply below us, and more a view of some other lake (we have no idea what lake!)

The private fishing lake our cabin is on is visible down in this picture.

Later that afternoon we went to Snoqualmie falls, which was on daddy’s “must see” list for the trip. He wanted to go there because he still loves a TV show (that momma thinks is very boring) called Twin Peaks. So these falls are in the beginning of the TV show apparently. They may also be popular for other reasons because there were a lot of people out to see them.

It could have been the nice weather that had lots of people out too, it was really so warm and sunny. Lolo and I got VERY hot this afternoon, we have not had weather that warm down in California yet this season! The hike is so popular there are plenty of barriers to keep Instagram nutsos from killing themselves trying to take a picture with the falls, so this is the best we got with momma.

Part of the trail eventually leads you to a place you can play in at the river, and we joined the crowds there doing just that to cool down. We also got to eat a Swell Dog Gelato down by the river, too! It was a complete surprise to us, and we are so glad momma brought them with. She and daddy were jealous because they were hot too and wishing they could also be eating ice cream.

The last hike we did out of North Bend was on the morning we left. We woke up early and walked down to wear the State Park trailheads are (same trailhead as Rattlesnake Ledge) but went up another trail to the summit of Cedar Butte. It was a lovely hike before all the Saturday crowds got there, and we had a blast exploring in the thick, mossy forests in the only ‘typical’ PNW weather for our entire trip.