Colter Adventure rentals. Experience the Pacific Northwest in the best way.

Learn about the outdoors in the best lab.

Choose your own view and build your own best experience.

I was very lucky to have a lot of time outside as a kid. Playing in the woods, making shelters, playing in creeks, watching animals and figuring out which plants I could eat. From the beginning, Colter Co. has been about learning outdoor skills and enjoying your time outside and help share those experiences I grew up having. I have always been looking for ways to do that better. This marks a big move forward in achieving that. I have built out a rentable adventure-mobile! It has all the gear you need to be able to explore places that will inspire and teach you. Living at the foothills of Mt. Rainier puts us in a great place to also reach the Cascade mountains, the Olympic Peninsula, the Puget Sound, Mt. St. Helens, the Washington Coast and many more beautiful places and experiences.

We took a 2022 Subaru Crosstrek, added a lift and off-road tires to be able to handle even rougher roads, and outfitted it with a roof top tent and all the gear you need for a great camping experience.

If you are looking for a unique and beautiful trip with a friend book some time now! Just bring some clothes and a sense of adventure. We provide the rest.

New Colter Co. tee shirt designs.

We have been wanting to do more tee shirts for a while and we have found a way to be able to offer more designs in more color options! We are working with Bonfire.com to print our designs. We have two designs available right now for sale, but with bonfire we will be able to add more quickly so keep an eye on our Instagram feed for updates on new designs.

You can see our current tee shirt designs here.

Lake 22 Trail review; an accessible alpine excursion.

This trail review was written by a hiker and guest contributor, Sarah Okey (@sokey10). Thank you for sharing, Sarah!

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I’m a fan of all kinds of trails but if I had to pick a hike “type” it would be alpine lake trails. We’re fortunate out here in the Northwest to have our fair share of alpine lake escapes and so on Labor Day to celebrate the holiday, myself and a few friends decided to head to Lake 22 - a very popular hike just over an hour north of Seattle. The trailhead for Lake 22 is near Mt. Pilchuck State Park (another incredible hike!), just outside of Granite Falls, WA. 

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TRAIL INFORMATION

 Date we hiked: September 2 – Labor Day!

 Distance: 5.4 miles to the lake, roundtrip

 Elevation gain: 1,350

 Difficulty: Easy to moderate

 Kid friendly: Yes

 Dogs: Yes, on leash

 Permits: None

 Parking passes: Northwest Forest Pass

 Other considerations: This is a super popular trail so go early or be prepared to have a tough time finding parking. There is a warning listed on WTA.org: Cars blocking the highway near the Lake 22 trailhead will be towed. Park in designated areas only or visit this trail during the week to avoid parking concerns

 Gear: None required (at least from May-November). Note that it is rocky and you do cross a few creeks so waterproof hiking boots are ideal.

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I cannot emphasize it enough - get there EARLY or be prepared to hike with crowds. Given its accessibility to the city, Lake 22 is a popular pick - specifically during May-early September. We left the city around 7:15AM, putting us at the trailhead around 8:30AM. The parking lot was already starting to get full, so we were glad we had set an early wakeup time. 

Although we were barely into September, the hike already had hints of fall. A few leaves were starting to shift colors and the air was crisp.

We were all pleasantly surprised/reminded how well-maintained the trail was. The beginning portion includes a lot of dirt stairs which make it an easy climb for the first portion of the trail. We wound our way through the forest, crossing a bridge over a creek before the incline really started. 

 About a mile and a half in, the trail opens up to a beautiful vista looking North towards Liberty Mountain on the other side of Mountain Loop Highway. This part of the trail becomes quite a bit rockier as you make your way back and forth along the switchbacks. We were focused on getting up the trail when we realized we needed to take a break to stop and take the view in!

As we made our way to the top, we started to see the clearing of the lake and could hear dogs splashing around in the water. It took us just shy of an hour to get the lake.

Although I had been to Lake 22 before, there is something absolutely breathtaking about walking up to the clearing of an alpine lake, even if you know what’s coming. There was still snow on the far side of the lake (not any impediment to the trail), despite it being in the 70s and at the end of summer. 

We walked around to the end of the boardwalk to get a bit closer to the water. We didn’t get in the water but watched some hikers blow up kayaks and jump right in. There is a trail that goes around the perimeter of the lake but we didn’t go all the way around. The lake loop adds about 1.5 miles to the total trip. 

 We hung out by the lake for a bit, soaked in the beauty and snapped some pics before heading back down the trail. On the way down the trail was really starting to get crowded (started heading down around 10:15). The sun was also more directly overhead making the non-tree covered parts of the trail quite a bit hotter.

Lake 22 is a staple Seattle hike. It’s a great quick easy/moderate well-marked trail with a highly rewarding finish. On a hot day, wear your swimsuit and jump right in!

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If you’re interested in being a guest contributor for trail reviews or another outdoor skill subject, please email us at info@coltercousa.com 

DIY Backpacking Blueberry Granola

I recently bought some freeze dried granola for a backpacking trip. Everybody loved it! Way more than I expected. As a parent of kids that are sporadically picky eaters it makes picking backpacking food a sensitive subject. I was happy to find something they liked. The bonus is that it’s super easy to prepare. Just add a half cup of cold water. On mornings you need to get up and moving fast it’s a great solution.

The downside is that they are $6 a piece. To be fair, that’s cheaper than most freeze dried meals, but still. I decided to see what it would cost to do it myself. The most expensive ingredient was the freeze dried blueberries. I decided to use freeze dried because the shelf life is very long, but if you were going to make a batch of these to be used with in a few days you could use dehydrated or dried fruit (like raisins) which would be a lot cheaper. I added 1/3 cup of powdered milk and a scoop of tasteless protein powder for a little extra kick.

Each of these servings cost about $2.25 to make. Will it have a 25 year shelf life? No, it will not. But it will be fine for several weeks, or longer even. I don’t work fo the FDA, so I can’t really say for sure :)

I did take the extra step of putting it into a FoodSaver bag and vacuum sealing it with an oxygen absorber packet to be safe. I am planning a trip in a couple weeks so that was probably overkill.

I gave one of these to my son and he liked it just as much as the $6 version. Win!

Here’s the full recipe. Feel free to pin this, or share it! Let me know how it goes for you.