I've been in WA for one month and six days. At one month and three days I did my first back packing trip after 10 plus years in the Hila National Forrest. I was a little rusty at my packing but the good thing about the trip is that we stayed in a hut rather than a tent. Staying in a tent means packing a stove, dishes, water purifier etc. This hut had many amenities such as: mats to sleep on (we packed our sleeping bags), shelter obviously, propane stove, a good source of water and many dishes and utensils for gourmet cooking.
I went with seven other women which I never had met before except one, Kari, I did one other hike with her. I met all these ladies through a meetup.com group called Outdoor Women 30's+. So far they have all been extremely kind and an awesome group of women.
We communicated through the website who was bring what so we didn't overlap food or bring to much. I brought homemade oatmeal bars, quinoa salad, tuna and of course, wine! Allot of discussions were mostly about coffee and wine so I knew I was in a good group. Buzz in the morning and buzz before bed! I packed my bag the night before and it felt really heavy but then again I hadn't done this in a very long time.
I pack up the truck and picked up three other women. We finally arrived to the trail head after about 3 hours of driving and a few stops. The trail head was near Mt. Rainier which our view from the hut looked right across it. We loaded our packs and began up the trail. The trail was about 4 miles and it was ALL UP HILL! There were no breaks of flatness and it was in the heat of the day which made it a bit hotter. I under estimated the hike and the load on my back (about 40-45 pounds) and right before the top I had to hydrate with electrolytes due to the weak feeling in my body. Once I had some fuel I was good to go and finished the hike in 2.5 hours. The total elevation gain was 2,500 feet in those 4 miles. Once I made it to the top the view was amazing and was all worth it. I was glad because I was wondering what in the heck I was doing while hiking up. We all made it and unloaded our gear. We had an awesome dinner that night which was tuna/chicken salad on a bed of lettuce, couscous, quinoa salad and of course wine! We sat around and chatted then hit the hay for more hiking the next day.
Day 2 we all woke to my phone alarm that I forgot to turn off from the day before. Some were already awake but others were not and didn't appreciate an alarm while camping but I was forgiven! It was a good thing because what we woke up to was absolutely amazing. There was a blanket of clouds below us and the sunrise was just breath taking. We all hurried out of our sacks and grabbed our cameras. It was going to be an awesome day.
One of the ladies even made fresh blueberry pancakes for breakfast and they were fabulous! Then around 9:15 three of us began our exploring and hiked about 8 miles. We hiked to a lake and then to another hut which was called the Snow Bowl but had burned down. The view from the Snow Bowl was nice but ours was so much better. He had a picnic at the Snow Bowl and hiked for about 3.5 hours with 4,250 elevation gain. We got back to our hut and I was pretty tired so I laid down and actually took a small cat nap. I woke up about 3:30 and asked if it was time to drink some wine. Everyone agreed that it was 5 o'clock somewhere and the pouring began. We had wraps for dinner which included: red beans and rice, chopped cucumber, tomatoes, olives, avocado, and broccoli salad. What a feast! To top it off we had brownies for dessert!
Day 3 we all got up around 6:30 and began to pack up and clean the hut. We all ate left over pancakes and had our morning java. It was sad to leave this beautiful place but were blessed to have gone there and enjoy the time spent. It took about 1.5 hours to hike down which was really easy because it was all down hill. We were then greeted by a cute brown bunny by our vehicles so we fed him our left over lettuce and fresh spinach. He was a happy bunny that day...I'm assuming!
All and all it was a wonderful trip with some amazing women. By the time we got close to home Nancy and I stopped for some Mexican food and enjoyed a nice cold margarita! That was a great way to end the trip.
