About
Greetings, Traveller.
Don’t Look Down is the humble little blog where we’ll attempt to document our hiking and/or backpacking adventures in the Pacific Northwest.
Who is we, you ask? A fair question deserves a fair answer: We’re Jeremy BeBeau & Nicole BeBeau, born and bred Wisconsinites who moved to Seattle in 2002 and were immediately impressed by the mountains and water that surrounded us. Each summer since has seen an increase in camping trips and day hikes, and we’ve finally added backpacking to our arsenal.
This blog is for our friends and family, or anyone looking for details on the hikes and places herein. Please, feel free to leave a comment or ask a question–I’ll answer.
Don't Look Down 
yay! you went backpacking, good on you guys. i liked your story and photos. beautiful views!!! it makes me miss that area, but we are in an outdoor heaven here so i can’t stay sad too long 🙂 this reminds me that i have been wanting to start a blog and i don’t really know how. any tips? i hate myspace, too, and that is the only place i have some photos people can look at. but i am tired of emailing photos to people and would rather have a blog people can check periodically. hugs to you both — we miss you!
Sarah K
This is awesome.
and
You two look great.
xx
chris.
Hi Jeremy/Nicole,
I’ve been a regular visitor of your blog ever since I discovered it couple of months ago. And I do enjoy your descriptive walkthrough of all your adventures, some of which had inspired me to do the same myself.
I was looking at your blog on Skyline Divide, and wonder what type of camera you were using. I’ve been taking pictures of my hike too, using a Nikon D70 camera, with 18-200mm telephoto lens. No way are my pictures comparable to yours. I figure I could do with some brushing up on my SLR skills. Pray tell, will ya?
Thanks in advance,
Bee
Thanks, Bee! Glad to hear that you enjoy the blog. Which hikes have you gone on this year?
As for my camera:
Last year, as for Skyline Divide, I was using a Nikon D40, just with the 18-55mm kit lens. That just happened to be a very pretty night. 😉
All of my photos last year and many of this year were taken with the D40. Pretty recently I upgraded to a D90, though.
Are you using the 18-200mm VR? I hear that’s a really good lens, and you don’t have to swap lenses often to get some nice zoom shots…
Enjoy the rest of summer and fall!
Jeremy
Hi Jeremy,
I’ve been to Lake Serene, Rattlesnake Ledge, Sunrise, Paradise and Mt Burroughs (inspired by you) in Mt Rainier NP. I’ve also been to Hurricane Ridge but I truly enjoyed the Grand Lake trail there, simply beautiful. I’ve just started hiking, so I usually picked trails with <2000ft elevation. But for this weekend, I'm gonna try Skyline Divide (again, inspired by you) – new challenge! I hope to be able to do backpacking someday.
D40 is pretty lightweight, easy to carry around. I'm amazed you could capture such awesome pictures with your D40. Did you do any photo editing (no offense)? Any tips you could share? Its a shame when Mother Nature is at her best, yet I couldn't capture her beauty in my shots. Yes, I am using 18-200mm VR, very versatile lens, I bring it everywhere I go.
Btw, there's this camera shop called Glazers where they rent out lenses. So you could play with different lenses, before committing one of your own. Here's their website: http://www.glazerscamera.com/
Keep it going! I'll be looking forward to more of your adventures! 🙂
Ah, you’ve done some hikes I’ve been wanting to do for a while! Good work.
As for photo editing, I do usually bump up the contrast and saturation a bit, but that’s mostly it. Oh, and I often add a little vignetting if I feel like it. I did find myself using a polarizing filter a lot in the past, but not so much lately, as it made my skies too blue. Actually, same goes for post-processing–It doesn’t seem like I have to do as much with the D90; stuff seems a bit more vibrant than it did with the D40, and much closer to how it looked “in real life.”
Your blog is full of fantastically useful information delivered in a clear, entertaining way. You guys are awesome!
Thanks for the detailed descriptions of how to get to those beautiful vistas you photographed. 🙂
Thanks a lot, Puss/Inman. Hopefully I’ll be adding some more stuff soon!
Great site! Already planning a hike to Lake Ingalls 🙂 Keep up the fine work!
Fantastic to find your blog! Do you ever get to the Olympic National Park?
Thank you! I really need to add a few updates, actually. Not that I’ve gotten out too much with my new daughter—yet.
I’ve been over to the peninsula a few times. Our first backpack (and multi-night backpack) was along the coast; it was amazing. We also did a few things on the east side (Marmot Pass, etc.). I am hoping to do more in the future—there are several trips on my radar…