Friday, September 7, 2012

A Season of Hiking

I have not done well documenting all of our outdoor adventures. That may surprise you, since every-other post is about an outdoor adventure.

Arches National Park

We went to Arches for our Spring Break in March. We had a good time and Wesley even joined us for an overnight campout.

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Dark Angel

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Delicate Arch

Greider Lakes

Our next hike was in a much different climate. It was May and still rainy and cold and there was snow. We went to Greider Lakes in Washington and it was tough. The road washed out so you had to hike 2 miles before getting to the trailhead (missed that in the trail description) and then we climbed incredibly high up 40 switch backs. I'm not sure if we'll do this one again. But, it was very beautiful up there.

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The lower lake

Cherry Creek Falls

This was a pretty easy hike, but it was a good one. We went in June to Cherry Creek Falls. This place is beautiful. We went with Andrew's coworker and friend, Ben.

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At the waterfall

Heather Lake

We are slowly discovering that everywhere worth hiking to here in Washington involves getting up on top of the glacial plain to the alpine lakes. At the end of July, we hiked to Heather Lake and it was beautiful. We will go again.

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Heather Lake behind the trees

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It seriously is that color--so clear and beautiful

Mt. Pilchuck

We hiked Mt. Pilchuck at the end of August and it was HOT and full of people (which we never like). But, we went with Ben and some of his friends and had a good time. You had an amazing view of EVERYTHING! The day was clear so we could see Mt. Baker and Mt. Rainier (both are volcanoes), the rugged and beautiful Cascades, downtown Seattle in the distance, all of Snohomish county, the Puget Sound, and the Olympic Mountains in the west. Amazing. I also felt like a power woman cuz I made it to the top at 30 weeks pregnant! Don't tell my OB/GYN, I'm not sure she or other doctors would be too happy about that.

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Great granite features on the way

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On top of Pilchuck with the Three Fingers behind us (future exploration??)

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I'm pregnant and I know it

Tonga Ridge

Just on Friday we hiked on Tonga Ridge. Like I mentioned before, everywhere worth going to is at about 5000 feet elevation (with us hiking up from 1000 or hopefully 3000 feet). Lucky for us, we got to drive to that elevation before starting the hike, so the hike was relatively flat. We saw some great mountain views, but missed the turn off to go to Sawyer Peak. Oh well. We were distracted by HUCKLEBERRIES! They were delicious. We picked a ton.

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The view of mountains across from us

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Me picking huckleberries

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Andrew picking huckleberries

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Wildflowers

Conclusion? The season ain't over yet!

We've had a great hiking season. I think that we will probably go on another hike or two before Baby Girl Platypus comes. And after she comes, we will have a few months and then we'll probably go snowshoeing.

So come visit us and we'll hike!

1 comment:

Eliza said...

Has Michael every told you his huckleberry ice cream story? He should.

I am impressed that you are that pregnant and still hiking. When I was that pregnant, hiking meant getting to the bathroom and making it back in bed successfully in the middle of the night. :)