Our Toughest Yet!

Hello to All,

Wednesday 6th

The Green State of Washington, if one doesn’t know it already, is truly a beautiful part of the world. We don’t mean the cities or the successful corporations. The natural features of this state continue to amaze us. Okay, that’s probably enough to justify our stipend from the State Forestry and Tourism Board. Now onto one of the best hikes ever.

‘Can you suggest a challenging hike,” we asked. ‘There’s the 4th of July,’ the helpful ranger replied. ‘We were thinking of something much sooner,’ we answered, ‘we are leaving in a couple of days.’
‘That’s the name of the hike, silly,” she smiled.

Statistics: It is twelve or thirteen miles, depending on which trail map one reads. If you ask our thighs, more like eighteen miles. It was a first for us in two departments.


Wrock Turn!

The elevation gain, wait for it, was 4,500 feet. Wow, although it sounds like we are ‘patting our own backs’, we felt pleased. We are normally happy when the gain is over 2,300 feet. The other first is that in nearly six hours, there was not another person on the trail. We suppose it is a workday. We had our editor to ourselves the whole way. What a treat.

Jungle Jen

The hike is uphill, all the way to the peak, varying from steep to very steep. Surrounded by jagged mountain peaks, forest and at times jungle conditions, small streams and a beautiful blue sky, it was a remarkable day notwithstanding the level of difficulty. The morning commenced clear and bright, ending that way, too.

Lost the Trail...again!

During the middle part of the day, a mist moved into the valley, enveloping the area and providing us with a surreal sight. Nature and its Master sure have a way of putting on a show. Once we were through the jungle section, we remained for most of the way on the outside edge. This allowed us views of the mountains above and the valley below. Near the top, we were able to ‘eyeball’ the peaks nearly at the same altitude. It was superb.


Up, Up and... er Up!

It was fascinating and a little sad to see the results of the fire damage of the nineties. Should you glance at the pictures, you’ll notice stripped trees and charred rocks. However, nature heals itself, albeit slowly. Then again, what’s the rush. The trees will be here long after we have left the planet—always a sobering thought.

Fall... all the way down

We enjoyed a quick lunch while watching a pair of birds soar over the mountain tops.


Lunch :-)

Positioned so high up while looking across at the other pinnacles and into the valley, we were awed and inspired.

Birds eye view!

We suppose a ‘bird’s eye view’ might not be an inappropriate comment. Then we thought about Grindelwald. The idea of having a train or gondola take us down the slope was attractive but hypothetical. Banish the idea, we thought. Before you know it, we’ll be taking the train up as well and then thinking of getting a job with Amtrak. Besides, we are probably quicker than Amtrak anyway.


Here comes the Editor!

We are a long way from San Diego and know that we should be turning the car to face southwards soon. However, just to show good faith to this state, we extended our stay by a couple of days. It looks like we’ll have to travel the 1,100 odd miles in about six hours, at this rate.

Cheers,
Jenni and Jeffrey