She who hikes and climbs

Life has been so crazy lately that I have barley had time to think...well it feels that way. With it getting dark at around 4 pm and working there has not been anytime to get out and hike. So needless to say when I found out that I didn't have to work, the kids were on Christmas break and L had the day off, we planned a hike! We decided on Fortson Ponds and Whitehorse Trail because L's dad gave me a book about hikes to do in Snohomish County a few Sabbath's ago when we were over for lunch. After going through the book we decided to do Fortson Ponds and the Whitehorse Trail. It is flat and an easy 2 miles, plus my boys could ride their bikes. (They have been begging to bring their bikes along on every hike that we have done.) And we decided that we could leave later in the afternoon and go the opposite direction of all of the traffic after I did all of my Christmas shopping; that morning! We left my house at about 1:00 pm and drove the 38 minuets (according to the map...

Since I was a little girl I have loved the snow, and every year have excitedly awaited the arrival of the new snow fall. There is something so magical and exciting about snow and how it changes the landscape. I was literally counting  down the days until the ski areas opened, because it means winter, (finally,) skiing (even though I am new to it) and ice climbing! So you can imagine how excited I was when my husband surprised me with a day trip to go skiing at Mount Baker on Sabbath to celebrate our anniversary early. We left at 7 a.m. and arrived at the Heather Meadows parking lot a little after 9 a.m. The drive is very pleasant and the rode gets very whindy as you drive up. The parking lot is very large. You will find people camped in campers, r.v.s. and vans. There is a sledding area and when the ice is in, ice climbing. The Heather Meadows sits at 4300 feet elevation and has 8 chair lifts with routes from easy to experts only. (I only did ...

I thought that I would let you know why I have not posted anything new. This is because we all became sick, then my eldest had to have surgery, and we went to a memorial for a fellow church member. So that being said I am hoping that I/we can get out next week. I hope that you all have had some amazing hiking adventurers!

Today my husband and I took the kids hiking to Lord Hill Regional Park in Snohomish. It was a beautiful day and an easy hike. I do recommend that you download the pdf map since it shows you all of the trails. There are maps located in certain areas but the trails can be a little confusing. Lord Hill has a total of 10 miles of trails and is a multi use trail meaning bikes, hikers, and people on horse back, making it a rather popular area to use. The parking lot is large, but, be prepared to park on the shoulder because of how busy it is.  There is this really cool Silo near the parking lot near the trail head and of course the information sign with a map and all of the warning signs and don't feed the wildlife. There is also a port a potty... but it was gross and there is only one. On the left hand side of the trail you immediately come to this Cedar tree, and you have to climb it. Then the trail goes down hill and into the woods A short while lat...

I have been in the mood to do a long hike for a while, but nothing similar to Mount Dickerman. One that I couldn't bring the kids or the dog on but I didn't know what hike I wanted to do. Then one day a few weeks ago I was looking through facebook and saw a picture of Gem Lake. I decided to look it up and see what it was like. After reading about it I decided that it was the hike for me. I asked my friend L if she wanted to come, she said yes of course and we set the date and made the plans. But we didn't go to Gem Lake, we went to Snow Lake instead because the best laid plans can always be waylaid. Snow Lake and Gem lake are both off of I-90  at Alpental,  you will drive past houses to get to the parking lot which is very large and was very full for a rainy day, which was rather surprising. I don't recommend this trail if you have any sort of ankle problems, unless you have a very good pair of hiking boots. We approached the trail and saw that since w...