Adventure is Out There

Posted on September 8th, 2015

I had this fantasy that when Ian and I moved to outdoorsy, lowkey hippie Seattle, we would jump right into the “my body is my temple” mindset.  My weekend wardrobe would consist entirely of discounted Zella spandex.  I would renounce my cookie-baking, pizza eating ways, and we would wake up at the crack of dawn on the weekends to head for hikes in the hills.  I wondered if I would even take up camping to better commune with Mother Gaia.

I was half right.  The affinity Seattlites (not to be confused with satellites, incidentally) have for the great outdoors is infectious.  Our half marathon training leads to lots of long early-morning runs along the bay, and we really prefer to get an early start on the hiking trails to beat the traffic. On the other hand, we have also discovered the best macaroni and cheese of our lives since moving here, so missing out on that would be criminal.  As for the camping… let’s not get carried away here.  But hiking we can do!

I’ve always been a fan of hiking because it doesn’t require a lot of fancy, specialized equipment and there is no wrong way to participate.  Whether you’re walking 3 miles in a local park or 9 miles on a mountain, you did it!  You hiked!  Once you get a solid pair of hiking shoes or boots, you’re essentially set.  I have these (the only time Merrells are socially acceptable), but if you need more ankle support or are hiking somewhere with particularly treacherous terrain, try something like this.  My family and I have hiked in some pretty beautiful places over the years on vacations (Switzerland and Wales are my personal favorites!), but living close enough to go hiking routinely is novel for me.

Throughout the summer, we’ve gone to some beautiful places (my personal favorite pictured above!) but have stayed fairly close to home.  With the gift of a long weekend, we decided to be slightly more adventurous on Monday.  We scoped out a hike at Mount Rainier about two and a half hours away, and set out.

Ha!  When I say it like that, it sounds so easy.  We actually woke up at 5:20am to beat the crowds, stopped at Starbucks, and were heavily caffeinated as we began our journey.  Our journey began in relative darkness, but as the sun came up, I pointed out to Ian that we should make sure to turn off the headlights.  I had a mini panic attack as I envisioned us stuck up a mountain with a dead car battery.  Phew.

As we got higher up the mountain, we had more and more fog and less and less cell phone reception.  Our predawn alarm was rewarded– the trail was relatively desolate.  The only problem with an early hike is the mountain is often shrouded in a fog in the mornings that later burns off, but I kind of enjoyed the mystique that came with being cloaked in the clouds.

The 7+ miles we hiked were a little strenuous.  Of course, we are unaccustomed to the altitude– the hike started at about 5500 feet, and gained about 2000 feet on the trail.  But the gain was gradual and manageable…

Ian agrees.

We enjoyed the usual feeling of superiority accomplishment as we rounded the final bend and headed back towards the lodge.  Congratulating ourselves on a job well done and with visions of a celebratory Chipotle or Chick Fil A lunch dancing in our heads, we climbed into the car.

Where the headlights were on.  And the battery was dead.  Nailed it.  Turns out when we encountered the fog and had (logically) turned the headlights on again, we were a little less careful about turning them back off the second time.

But God bless the National Park Service.  Though we were about 100 miles from civilization, we were only a hundred yards from our new best friend Gary, who jumped us and sent us on our way in about 9 minutes.  One Chick-Fil-A pitstop and two diet lemonades later, we were back in Seattle.

And totally exhausted.