Well, we are back from our attempt at hiking the Wonderland trail. It was not good
That part of our country has experienced a bad winter (lots of snow) and the trail was at least half covered in snow. Where we should have been hiking in flower filled meadows, we encountered 5-10' of snow. I heard them say that they had not seen that much snow in 20+ years.
Well, we made a valiant effort and I even did some serious snowfield traverses (and i am afraid of heights) I was terrified for my life at some points of slipping off into nowhere--it was that steep!!! I even fell at one point and scraped every layer of skin off my arm near my elbow.
The views and scenery were breathtaking and absolutely stunning though--- (Mt. Rainier)
Anyway, we ended up losing the trail, getting lost and had to make the decision to turn back. It was a good plan but, bummed us out big time. I know we did the right thing but, it just made the rest of the trip a bummer because we weren't doing what we really wanted to
We were kind of upset with the NPS for not marking the trail or informing us of the conditions, and basically telling us "hopefully you will see other footprints to follow" SERIOUSLY!!! ...um O.K. thanks but no thanks. We will trust our compass. We weren't too lost, just on the wrong ridge with a big valley in the way and a lot of snow to deal with. I just was not having fun anymore.
Anyway, we saw Mt. St. Helens (or what is left of it), Olympic National Park--rainforests, went on a whale watch tour and saw Orcas in The San Juan Islands (way cool) and checked out Seattle.
I would post photos but, my camera card became corrupt and i may have lost all pictures--Ugh
I am referring to this trip as "The Bad Ju-Ju trip of 2011" It seemed like everything was just off--We wish we would have just loaded up the dogs in the RV and took off to anywhere for 2 weeks.
I did love all the cycling lanes and cyclists in that part of the country---i was actually jealous of the great cycling community in Washington State.