On Monday we tagged along with Marie, Joel, James, and Alex on an awesome hike in the Cascades. We started at about 2800 feet and maybe made it up to about 5000 feet. It’s hard to say for sure because I don’t know exactly how far we were from the top!

The hike was about three hours up and three hours down. The first half of the uphill was a series of very steep, very slippery switchbacks up a hill full of pine trees. (The needles caused the slipperiness.) I definitely found this part of the hike to be the most difficult, both going up and going down.

But then all of a sudden the view opened up, and it was quite stunning!

We crossed a little creek, just downstream from a gorgeous waterfall.

We kept climbing up and up. Then, all of a sudden, there were little piles of snow and black rocky peaks everywhere.

We stopped to rest and eat at what we thought was the lake at the top, but actually there turned out to be a higher lake (or so someone told us). We didn’t care, since all we wanted at this point was to sit down and stuff ourselves with peanuts, cashews, dried cranberries, bread, crackers, hummus, cheese, chocolate, and olives for about 45 minutes straight, and then nap on the rocks for another 45 minutes.

Joel and Marie brought their dog Henry, who had the best day ever on this hike. You can see him wading in the frozen lake:

Then we turned around and headed down. The light had changed, so everything looked different. I mostly looked down as I hiked, though, because I was constantly worried about twisting or breaking my ankles. (Neither happened, but only because I have ankles of steel. I did keep stepping on them weirdly and causing them to roll in unnatural ways, but I was uninjured.)

The last part of the hike — going down the slippery switchbacks — was rather brutal for me. I had to step gingerly down, because my shoes had no traction and I didn’t want to fall. I finally made it down and was very relieved. Then my calves ached for four days. I could barely descend a stairway on Tuesday! By now, five days later, they finally feel almost normal.

Even though I am no good at hiking downhill, I still had a great time. I would love to do a hike like this again.