Checking in from Pacific Northwest!
July 6, 2025
After all of our long days traversing the land, PNW2A was ready for some aquatic action. Waking up in the early hours of the day we were welcomed into the next section with pancakes provided by Thomas and Alex. This breakfast set us up for a successful morning of paddling. The group took this task in stride and absolutely crushed our first day. Special shout to Alex for being told to paddle “less aggressively” by one of our guides because she was going too fast. Our girl is determined and absolutely dominated on the water. Additionally, Charlotte made a stellar paddle partner for myself (Sofie). Great conversations and laughs made the time on the water fly by. Once we arrived to Jones Island we enjoyed everything the state park had to offer. From tide pools, to tanning, to crab catching, we had a wonderful afternoon soaking in the sun. As a personal birthday treat CC and Bee spearheaded a choreographed dance with the rest of the group. Extremely special shout out to Thomas incorporating the Saquon Jump into the dance. Much appreciated. Post burrito bowl dinner we gathered for Moonup as we watched the sunset over the gorgeous San Juans.
The next morning we arose to the sweet sounds of crows squawking outside of our tents. We packed up camp and got on our way for our aquatic journey towards Posey island. We were greeted by bald eagles and seals alike during our adventure back to the main island. After a quick lunch at Posey island we made our way back to Friday Harbor. Luckily Friday Harbor was readily equipped with ice cream! We enjoyed our sweet treats and explored the town. Bea, Bee, CC, Alex, Charlotte, and Morgan got some Friday Harbor X USA merch in preparation for our impending patriotic celebrations. We traversed through the streets of the town until our ferry was ready to transport us back to the mainland. We took the battle bus across Washington and dropped in at our campsite for the evening. As Morgan sliced up watermelon for the group Thomas, CC, and Alex got to work on cheffing our salad and Mac. We all indulged in this delicious and balanced meal and topped it off with some fire roasted hot dogs. We closed out the evening with moon up and charades mediated by Charlotte and Henry.
Our travel day started off strong with m&m pancakes handcrafted by Bee and Nations. Some of them may have been scrambled… but that’s besides the point. After indulging in an extremely delicious breakfast we got on our way towards big dawgs humble abode. We laughed, we sang, we traveled and finally made it to the promised land. Once we settled in, Nations and Bee concocted some delectable local huckleberry beverages for the crowd. Henry enlightened us with his skilled masseuse knowledge and we all grubbed on the James Spencer Sofie Marino classic of stir fry and brookies.
CC and Thomas got the group set for our exciting day of rafting. Morgan was missing her Northern specialty of a bacon egg and cheese on a bagel so the chefs got to work on recreating this delicacy. Though the bagels weren’t as fresh as the ones in New Jersey, she as well as the rest of the group thoroughly enjoyed them (just kidding, Morgan said the bagel could never compare to a NJ bagel). While Bea and Sofie sipped on Starbucks, rafting started with a bang of a class 4 waterfall. The group then followed the first section with a cliff jumping adventure. It was certainly memorable and very peaceful. We floated down the White Salmon all the way until it fed into the Columbia River where we were able to observe some of the most talented wind sport athletes in the world! We hopped into the van and had a relaxing and sleepy voyage towards Smith Rock State Park. We arrived just in time for one of the most beautiful sunsets we had ever set our eyes on. We then experienced a rare and quite impactful desert rainstorm as we munched on our pizza bagels. The rain carried us into a deep and much needed slumber, setting us up for success for our morning of climbing and celebration.
We are soaking up the last few days of our trip and don’t want it to end!
– James + Sofie
Wild Fun in the Wilderness
July 2, 2025
Wilderness Warriors-
We made it out of the backcountry! Four days and three nights of work hard play hard memories under our belt.
Once we collected the gaggle at the airport we shipped up to the stunning North Cascades and set up camp for night one. On the way we of course had to swing by Annie’s Pizza for some Washington State style pizza and some death sack which was championed by Henry. Upon arriving to our first campsite Morgan and Thomas made our jobs easy and took us through an extremely in depth and high quality tent building lesson. We settled in and had our first of many great moon ups.
James and Sofie kicked off the next morning with some delicious and well balanced breakfast burritos. After everyone’s bowls were licked clean we proceeded to duffle shuffle and loaded our necessities into our packs. We said goodbye to civilization and our boat driver John shipped us into the depths of the Cascades. We started our humble backpacking beginnings with the Backpacker Special of pb&j tortillas over a gorgeous lookout and got on our way. Great conversations were had and with much exciting encouragement we landed at Lightening Creek, our first backcountry campsite. After a full day of walking along Ross Lake we finally took a dip into the gorgeous water. A short lived swim rolled into dinner where Nations, Bea, and Alex made some Michelin star chicken pesto pasta. As we congregated for moon up we were politely joined by the rain. We drifted off to sleep with the sweet sounds of precipitation on Ross Lake.
The next morning we arose with high spirits ready to take on our next day of traversing through the North Cascades. We got fueled up and prepped for our hardest day of the section. Led by Alex and powered by oatmeal, Katy Perry, and Tyler Childers, we pushed through the initial uphills of the day. After a well deserved lunch Morgan led us the rest of the way to Nightmare camp, our night two campsite. We settled into our home for the evening. After a delicious burrito dinner we were treated with an LNT lesson conducted by Nations and Henry. Once we learned the seven principals, we gathered around a fire with Shelia, an abandoned baby bird who fell out of her nest earlier in the evening and our newest member of PNW2A. Shelia is just like us, a risk taker, lover of fire, and appreciates drama from time to time. Bee crafted new real estate for Shelia’s evening with us. Though Shelia’s time with the group was short, we all truly cherished the spirit and energy she brought to the group. She carried on with her self guided motherless journey at Nightmare camp as we closed up the evening with moon up.
On the third day we packed up, ate a delicious breakfast of hash browns and summer sausage and said goodbye to our campsite. As we took one the trail spirits were high and everyone was in their back packing groove. We made short work of our 5 mile hike, carried on by some tunes and great trial conversations. Our home for the night was Hozomeen Lake camp, the most beautiful of our campsites. This alpine lake is crystal clear and surrounded by jagged peaks. once we arrived we dropped our packs, got the swimming suits out and went for a refreshing swim in the cold blue water. After our polar plunge we warmed up by the fire, an endless supply of firewood was provided by Nations and Thomas. As afternoon turned into evening Morgan, Bee, and Thomas began prepping our dinner of Jambalaya. It turned out amazing and had everyone coming back for seconds. We then cleaned up dinner while the LODs Henry and CC planed Moon up. As the sun began to set we gathered around the fire for moon up it was filled with great questions, laughter and handstands.
Today was an early morning and we were up with the sun for our 9am water taxi. Our time in the back country has come to an end after a short 4 mile hike where we came within sight of the Canadian border. Big shout out to Charlotte for her great attitude and finishing the hike strong. We hopped in our boat and cruised through the beautiful Ross Lake back to our trail head then just another mile to the van. We had officially finished our adventure in the northern cascades and celebrated with some long awaited apples and clementines. As we left the mountains in our rearview we stopped at Cascade burger for a delicious well deserved meal of burgers and shakes. After finishing our delicious lunch we head down the road for another hour to Annacortes to catch the ferry only stopping for fresh fruit at a produce stand. We made it to the ferry and drove our van newly dubbed the Iron Patriot on to the boat headed to Friday harbor and our kayaking section. After arriving we drove to our campsite at Lakedale resort. We dined on chicken Alfredo made by Bee, Bea, and Henry which was thoroughly enjoyed by the crowd. Moon up was quite the adventure this evening, concluding with two person push up attempts successfully completed by Henry and Thomas and attempted by bee and CC. Now onto the next activity: sea kayaking!! see you in the next trip update.
CC- hi mom and dad and win! I’m having a great time, I hope Santa Barbara is great! Happy 4th of July!! Love you guys
Morgan- hey mom I survived backpacking (no blisters!!!!) tell Sydney to tell Lucas I say hi
Bea- hi mom and dad! I had so much fun backpacking but I miss you! And love you! Tell Walter I say hi
Alex- hey mom and dad! I hope you guys are having a good time, I miss you! Backpacking was fun! Tell CC that I say hi and tell ben hi when he gets home
Bee- hi mom and dad! I just finished backpacking and…I ate oatmeal! I miss you and tell Sallie I say hi
Charlotte- hi mom and dad thank you so much for letting me go on this trip! I’m having a blast! Love and miss y’all so much!!!
Thomas- I’m doing good, hope North Carolina is amazing! Love yall🤛
Henry- what’s good, hope yall are great. Hope everything in palmetto bluff is amazing. I hope the moke isn’t breaking down again😜
Nations- hope everyone is doing good. I hope Harrison learns the plays. Have fun with the heat!🥶🥵
Safe Arrival!
June 25, 2025
Hello Pacific Northwest Families,
We heard from our leaders that the group has landed safely in Seattle. The trip is off to a great start, and we cannot wait to hear more stories from their adventure! Please remember our leaders and students will be unplugged during their trips, but we will be posting trip updates throughout the next week. This will allow you to follow along with the trip. You can also follow us on Instagram, @moondanceadventures, to see more of what we are up to.
-Moondance HQ
