So we finally, finally got out hiking again on the 4th of July. With wedding planning, marathon training (cut short for yours truly, after discovering I have no articular cartilage left in my knee), travel, and out of town guests, it’s been quite a challenge finding a free day to get out and hit the trail. Huzzah for mid-week holidays! Not only did it break up the week nicely (anyone else feel like it was Thursday-Friday-Saturday-Thursday-Friday?), but we finally had a 100% to ourselves, commitment free day.

Tuesday afternoon Lisa and I were trying to figure out where we’d end up going, and we both stumbled across a mention of Surprise Lake on the WTA site. Surprisingly (guffaw), neither of us had heard of it before — this was even more shocking when we saw how many of our hiking guidebooks had it listed (just about all of them). From the descriptions we read it sounded like the perfect choice for a hot day — shade, follows a creek, and ends at a large lake! Yes, please.

The trail didn’t disappoint! The trail follows the creek for the first two or two and a half miles, with plenty of waterfalls to distract you. The moderate uphill grade is consistent but never really too difficult, and the effort was made easier by our first use of trekking poles (ah, knees…). We encountered patches of snow as we neared the lake (with Ava deciding to “stop, drop, and roll” at each, of course), and there were a few short sections of the trail covered by a foot or so of the white stuff, but the lake itself was totally snow-free. We found our way to a nice lunch spot in the sun, enjoyed our PB&Js, and just relaxed for a bit while Ava begged us to let her play in the cold, cold, water.

We checked the clock and decided it was time to head back, so we packed up, let Ava play in the lake one more time (and do NASCAR laps in the snow) and adjusted our poles for the descent, knowing we’d come back some day. A triumphant return to the trail!

View the Surprise Lake pictures.

I’ve been extremely lazy about updating the site; I’ve finally put up a snowshoe we did in the last week of January.

Skyline Ridge was a great bonus to our weekend in Leavenworth - we hit it on the way back to Seattle.  It was recommended to us during breakfast by a couple we met at the Run of the River B&B.  It’s located at Stevens Pass, right across from the ski resort — so you don’t need any sno-park or trailhead parking passes.  It was a bit steeper than we were expecting, but the weather was great, the sky was clear, and the views were spectacular.  We had limited time, so we didn’t end up climbing a cool little peak at the top of the ridge, but hopefully we’ll get to it next visit.

Lisa and I have been so busy training for and running our half marathons that we haven’t had an opportunity to go on a hike since Labor Day weekend. Sunday we went to an old favorite, Little Si. It was raining pretty hard in the morning, but by noon it had stopped and the skies were clearing. That all changed once we made it to the trail — we started in a torrential downpour, saw briefly sunny skies, then sleet, fog, snow, and heavy winds… we had it all. I didn’t take any pictures during the heavy rains or snow, (and not enough overall to warrant a new entry on the main site) but I managed to get a few shots of the fog and the trail itself.

It felt really good to get out again.