Wallace Falls and Icicle Ridge

2012 Hiking Season Begins with a Double Header!

It has been an unusually sunny spring in the Puget Sound region, so we are hoping for an early melt of the snowpack and lots of good hiking this summer.  It seems like we just stopped skiing a few weeks ago---probably because we DID just stop skiing at the end of April. Skiing is out--hiking is in and we are ready to get on with it.  We are upping the ante once again with a 50 mile challenge for Summer 2012 and a grand prize that includes a train trip to Vancouver, B.C.  This weekend, we headed to some guaranteed sunshine in Leavenworth, WA, where we nabbed two fantastic hikes, ate some Schnitzel, and played Bavarian themed mini-golf (with lots of beer for the parents).  Major changes this year in the boys' hiking abilities--they are 7 and 9 now and the gummy bears we brought along for bribery were mostly consumed by Justin.  Maybe they are just resigned to the family hikes, but I think they are starting to get it.  10 miles down and it isn't even June yet---see the next two entries for details.

Wallace Falls
Distance 5.5 miles
Elevation Gain 1200 feet
Highest Point 1500 feet
http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/wallace-falls

Nice hike, for some reason we took very few photos.  It seems that we did manage to capture an ewok in the forest, however.

Icicle Ridge
Distance 4 miles
Elevation Gain 1800 feet
Highest Point 3000 feet
http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/icicle-ridge-1

Skepticism.

Catching Up: 2012 Hiking Summary

Summer 2012:  The 50 Mile Challenge!

Somehow I fell way behind on these hike postings, so all of 2012 will be posted at once with mostly stats and photos and not a whole lot of commentary.  I remember it as a good hiking season, with Burroughs Mtn. as the most awesome hike we have ever undertaken.  I think we hit the 50 mile mark, but I can't remember all of the hikes we did and I have to rely on photos to remind me--so if we didn't have the camera I didn't record the hike. We also went to India in October and walked a crazy amount in Rajasthan, so I guess that counts, too.   In any case, the kids won a trip to Vancouver, B.C. (by train) that we will be taking any day now and I think we stopped having to bribe them with jelly beans.  Also, we bought a house in August and that pretty much ended the hiking season for us, but marked the beginning of the "schlepping and spending season."