Girls' Hike Day

At least we TRIED to hike!

Shirley came up with the idea of a girls' hike day for the 5 of us (Shirley, Heather [who couldn't make it], Rachyl, Chelsea, moi)  a while back and we tossed around a few ideas of where to go.  Our weather here, while not as extreme as so many other areas in the country, sure makes lots of things difficult!

The first thing we had to contend with was the hills.  We don't live in a flat area, every hike is either up or down - or up AND down - a hill.  Or a mountain!  So we had to find something for non-hikers.  

Next we had to find something at an elevation that the snow was gone.  Lots of the hikes on Mt Rainier, for example, are at an elevation that the trails are still 80% covered with snow and some even still require use of an ice axe!

We finally found a nice hike to a lake that didn't include too much climbing and lead to a lake AND was at an elevation that the snow had all melted off.  It was out just past our camping spot, Lily Lake.

The drive out there is very pleasant with killer views of Mt Rainier, wildflowers (in season) waterfalls, forests, and wildlife.  Nearly the ENTIRE 100 miles is that way!  So we drove out and enjoyed the drive.  We stopped at Lily Lake so Chelsea could get her first glimpse of it before we camp there next month.  Then we continued on for the last mile.  We crawled that last mile on a terrible rocky road and donned our backpacks for our 2-3 mile trek to Swamp Lake.  Before we hit the trail I asked the other party that was just leaving how the hike was and they informed us that it was nice but they didn't get too far, they had small kids and the trail took you across a river, one that the trail description described as about ankle deep this time of year.

That's fine, we left our kids home so we should be able to cross.

NOT! The river was raging pretty good due to our long, cool, wet spring, probably thigh-high and the rocks in the bottom were bright green, which means VERY slippery!  We guestimated our walk to have been maybe 3/4 of a mile til we were stopped at the river.  Too bad, it was a nice trail, the ups and downs were often and not too steep, enough for a workout without being too strenuous. 

So our 4 - 5 mile hike turned into a mere 1.5 miles.  What to do now?  Rach kept talking about a ghost town that was up another local road that had been closed since 2006 as well due to washed out roads and bridge repair.

We drove down to that road and then up it as far as it would go.  I had researched that ghost town and saw that it was miles past the road closure but we thought we'd give it a shot anyway.  Failure #2.

I suggested that we do an informational investigation of the Bumping Lake campground.  That was a nice accomplishment, there are a few nice sites that members of this crazy camping family may enjoy in future years, since they're all reserved for the rest of our "summer".  We also drove over the dam and found a "store" and "marina" on the opposite side of the lake.  It was a congested, unappealing mess but the store was a cool find.

Most of us had, in the past, visited Boulder Caves which was about 5 miles further down the highway.  We decided to go there since it'd been a while.  My recreation pass got the parking fee covered and we started the walk to the caves.  It turned out to be more of a hike than any of us remembered and Rach just couldn't tough it out, she wasn't prepared for a mostly uphill walk of that length and was also coming down with a stomach bug.  Failure #3.  For Rach anyway.  The rest of us continued on while Rach sat in the air conditioned car, playing a game on her phone and listening to the radio.  

The cave(s?) were/was way more awesome than any of us remembered.  Rach will definitely have to check them out the next time!

Well, not the day we'd planned on but we still enjoyed our "Girls' Day" and will have to do this again!