• Home
    • hiking
    • Travel
  • life
    • About
    • Hike Recaps
  • Photos
  • About Me
Menu

tiny pines

Street Address
City, State, Zip
Phone Number

Your Custom Text Here

tiny pines

  • Home
  • adventures
    • hiking
    • Travel
  • life
  • Alpine Trails Book Club
    • About
    • Hike Recaps
  • Photos
  • About Me

Life: Week 40

October 21, 2018 Laura Norsen
upload.jpg

Cider pressing with Andy’s family at their property on Vashon Island is my absolute favorite fall tradition. While it’s only a short ferry ride from Seattle, Vashon feels like a peaceful and remote retreat, far from the noise and bright lights of the city. After talking about it for years, this year Andy and I finally managed to spend the weekend in the Birdhouse - a tiny off-the-grid cabin nestled amid the old-growth maples. We got a late start Saturday morning, but still arrived on Vashon with plenty of time to wander around town, exploring main street and stocking up on pastries, tea, coffee, and cider. After all our drinking and window shopping, we loaded all our goodies into our packs for the short hike down to our home for the night. It was surprisingly cold in the Birdhouse, but our toasty sleeping bags kept us plenty warm!

Read more
In 2018, life, week 40 Tags fall, vashon, cabin
1 Comment

Life: Week 36

September 18, 2018 Laura Norsen
upload.jpg

This was a short but stressful week at work, with Monday off for the Labor Day holiday and Friday off for a short anniversary vacation. Happily, the long weekend more than made up for the stress of the short work week! After much debate, Andy and I decided to spend the weekend at my parents cabin near Snoqualmie Pass. This was definitely a good choice, even if it was made mostly because we’d recently purchased a new mattress, and the old one had been siting in our living room until we could take it up to the cabin to swap it out for one of the horrendously uncomfortable ones there. Since it’s such a short drive, we decided to bring our cat with us, and it didn’t take long for him to get settled in. When I mentioned our plan to my dad, he was dubious, and bringing our cat did turn out to be a bit of a mistake, but only because now I’ll feel terrible any time we go to the cabin without bringing him along!

Read more
In 2018, life, week 36 Tags cabin, central cascades, summer, food, lakes
Comment

Life: Week 31

August 19, 2018 Laura Norsen
upload.jpg

After yet another week of hot temps at home, I was happy for another weekend escape - this time up into the mountains. Friday night after work, I headed east to join my parents at their cabin, and after a short drive I was greeted with a mai tai and a dinner of homemade tamales. Since Sunday was my dad's birthday, I baked my all-time favorite cake for dessert. Growing up, my dad's birthdays were always celebrated at the family cabin, and his birthday cakes - baked in a wood burning oven - always managed to be both burnt and undercooked. This cake, baked with an intentionally jiggly middle, seemed like the perfect homage to the cakes my grandmother baked in that old oven. In place of a birthday candle, my mom lit a match to stick in the cake, and amusing and convenient substitution - perhaps a new cabin birthday tradition?

Read more
In 2018, life, week 31 Tags lakes, summer, cabin, central cascades
2 Comments

Life: Week 21

June 8, 2018 Laura Norsen
upload.jpg

Holiday weekends mean crowds, traffic, and stress, so in the past Andy and I have tended to just spend long weekends close to home. Especially after weeks of overtime at work, a quiet weekend at home sounded pretty perfect. That is until I noticed that WTA had work parties scheduled for both Saturday and Sunday on a trail that's only a 15 minute walk from my parents cabin! By the time I saw this, both days were full, but I put both myself and Andy on the wait list and crossed my fingers. If we managed to snag spots for either day, we could spend the remainder of the weekend at the cabin with my family - even better than spending the weekend at home. At the last minute, two spots opened up, but they'd moved the work party to the nearby Denny Creek trail. Instead of walking from the cabin to meet the group Saturday morning, we'd have to drive. Regardless of the location, the work was fantastic as always. Andy spent most of the day building rock steps, and I worked on drainage. Drainage maintenance is mucky, filthy work, but it's so satisfying to see clear water once again flowing down a drainage trench when you'd started with a debris filled mud pit and water running across the trail!

Read more
In 2018, life, week 21 Tags cabin, trail work, central cascades, rivers
1 Comment

Life: Week 20

June 3, 2018 Laura Norsen
upload.jpg

In a stressful and overwhelming spring, with many long days spent alone in my stuffy home office, Alpine Trails Book Club has twice provided exactly the escape I needed to maintain my sanity. This time around, it our weekend away as much closer to home, and it was my turn to host a few members of our group Saturday night at Andy's family cabin near Lake Wenatchee. We left home to a light spring rain and arrived to sunshine, wildflowers, and an unholy number of mosquitoes at the cabin. Being so early in the year, I hadn't expected the tiny bloodsuckers and we'd come completely unprepared! Thankfully there was some (probably very old, but still functional) bug spray in the cabin, and others had thought to bring some. The smoky fire we built seemed to help too, but after an hour or so, a group of us fled to the park at the south end of Lake Wenatchee for a peaceful walk that provided an escape from the swarm. By the time we returned to the cabin for dinner, it had started to rain, but we didn't let that stop us from roasting sausages over the fire! Some strategically placed bark kept both the fire an our dinner dry while we hid on the covered deck of the cabin. Sunday morning, we packed up and headed for Leavenworth for a pre-hike coffee (with a fantastic view!) before meeting the group for our hike on Icicle Ridge. 

Read more
In 2018, life, week 20 Tags central cascades, cabin, spring, books
Comment
← Newer Posts Older Posts →

About me

51174846_588023631765_48341394514771968_n.jpg

Hi there! I'm Laura, and I'm an alpine addict. When I'm not out on the trail, I'm most likely at home snuggled up with my cat and a good book.



latest instagram

Even the avalanche lilies can't help staring at lovely Lady Tahoma!
Think cold thoughts... 🌨️🌬️❄️ 108° outside and 91° inside my house has me dreaming of foggy alpine lakes, icy glacial waterfalls, and snowy lowland  paths. #melting #pnw #summer #sheexplores #washington #vscocam
Perks of volunteering with @washingtontrails - sometimes you get a view like this just above where you parked your car. Plus there are candy breaks! #nationaltrailsday
Weeding isn't so bad with such good company! Moments later, this little guy paused to rest on my hand. #inmygarden #pnw #pnwlife
Quintessential Puget Sound view 😍
This place is always lovely, but this time of year is when it truly shines. I feel like I say this about every season, but spring is my favorite!
I accidentally wrote a poem on today's #alpinetrailsbookclub hike. Trees, moss stumps, ferns, rocks, muck, and rain, rain, rain.

It was a soggy one, but lovely nonetheless.
Trees festooned in green, even in the dead of winter. 💚
The spooky vibe of the trails around the summit of Squak Mountain speaks to the dark & spooky part of my soul. 🖤 Also, this short (cold, rainy, super hygge) hike with a wonderful friend was exactly what I needed to kick myself out of my 2020 glo
I wonder - are they called licorice ferns because they taste of licorice? Important questions.

latest hikes

Featured
Iron Goat - Wellington Ghost Town
Oct 25, 2021
Iron Goat - Wellington Ghost Town
Oct 25, 2021
Oct 25, 2021
Lime Kiln State Park
Jul 1, 2019
Lime Kiln State Park
Jul 1, 2019
Jul 1, 2019
Lime Kiln
Jun 16, 2019
Lime Kiln
Jun 16, 2019
Jun 16, 2019

Archive

Select Month
  • October 2021 1
  • December 2020 1
  • November 2020 4
  • October 2020 3
  • September 2020 4
  • August 2020 3
  • July 2020 2
  • July 2019 3
  • June 2019 5
  • May 2019 5
  • April 2019 5
  • March 2019 4
  • February 2019 4
  • January 2019 5
  • December 2018 3
  • November 2018 4
  • October 2018 5
  • September 2018 5
  • August 2018 6
  • July 2018 7
  • June 2018 4
  • May 2018 6
  • April 2018 5
  • March 2018 4
  • February 2018 5
  • January 2018 5
  • December 2017 5
  • November 2017 5
  • October 2017 6
  • September 2017 5
  • August 2017 4
  • July 2017 5
  • June 2017 6
  • May 2017 6
  • April 2017 5
  • March 2017 6
  • February 2017 4
  • January 2017 8
  • December 2016 4
  • November 2016 6
  • October 2016 6
  • September 2016 5
  • August 2016 6
  • July 2016 5
  • June 2016 6
  • May 2016 7
  • April 2016 4
  • March 2016 7
  • February 2016 6
  • January 2016 7
  • December 2015 5
  • November 2015 5
  • October 2015 7
  • September 2015 3
  • August 2015 3
  • July 2015 2
  • June 2015 6

blogs i read
 

alpine lily
pacific northwest seasons
trail snail
a day without rain
happiest outdoors
every two pines
smitten kitchen
my name is yeh
posie gets cozy
hei astrid
deep red blues

590 Tahoe Keys Blvd, South Lake Tahoe, CA 96150