July 29, 2016- Crystal Mountain Hike

I was anxious to get up to Mt. Rainer with my mom. It has been a beautiful week in Seattle and the Mountain has been taunting me. We decided to try the Crystal Mountain gondola and hike around the top of the mountain. The hike didn't turn out quite as we planned. Once we got to the top, we read about a 2.5-mile hike down to the base of the mountain. That sounded doable since Mom is still recovering from her back surgery. Well, we started and must have missed the turn off for the hike we wanted. The signage on the hiking trails was horrible. We ended up doing a much longer hike, probably close to 7 miles. We took a few wrong turns and finally decided to follow the horse tracks down since we knew they were housed at the base. Finally got back and were relieved to get into the car.

This was a beautiful hike. Lots of wildflowers, creeks, and meadows. If we had been better prepared, and not so surprised, this would have been a more enjoyable hike.

Lessons learned: have a good map, learn to read a compass, and have your phone charged. I had a map on my phone, but it was about to die on me.

Glad to get out with Mom and so proud of how tough she is! She's an amazing lady.

Henskin Lake

Beautiful Waterfall

Penny of course

MT. Rainier

Mt. Adams

Mt. St. Helens in the distance

Gondola up to the top

July 16, 2016- Thorp Lake

Beautiful hike to Thorp Lake with my honey's, Mark and Penny. We were on the way to pick up Nate after a week of trail crew. We thought we knew where the trail started, but there was a road sign to Thorp Lake so we parked there. Nice, but steep hike to the lake. We thought I would be a 3-mile hike, but it was much shorter since we parked at the wrong trailhead. Once we got to the lake, we talked to some campers who suggested we hike up to the lookout. We didn't make it up there but were able to stop at a beautiful spot for a snack before we hiked out to pick up Nate.

View from the snack spot.

View of the lake from above.

Beautiful wildflowers

July 9th, 2016- Snow Lake Hike Snoqualmie Pass

We were headed up to drop off Nate for his week of trail crew with WTA.org. He was going to be working at Pete Lake for the week rebuilding a hiking trail. Mark and I decided to take a hike with Penny on our way home. The Snow Lake trail is just off I-90 in the Hyak parking lot. Easy to get to.

We got to the trail head at 11:30am. The parking lot was full so we were expecting a ton of people. On the way up there were lots of bigger groups coming down. The trail is in great condition. As you start the switchback portion of the hike, there are lots of rocks, so make sure you watch your footing. There were trail runners heading up and down as we hiked. They must have better footing than I do. The trail is uphill, but gradual enough. Once we got to the top of the trail, we had a great view of the lake, but it was a little foggy. Once we hiked down into the lake, the fog started lifting. It's a beautiful lake. We found a nice spot to eat lunch. Ate quickly as we were on a timeline and headed back. There weren't any bugs at all, but it was a little cold. A light down jacket was perfect for a nice lunch break. Heading back uphill to get to the ridge is always fun, but the trail back down was easy. We did see some others coming up as we were heading out at about 2:30. Great day hike.

Beautiful waterfall at the mouth of Snow Lake

A foggy Snow Lake

A muddy dog!!!

Lunch time

Nate on his way to a week of trail crew