I get the “why do you live in Seattle” often enough that I decided to write something about hiking. Here’s why I do it:

1. Forces you to be up early on a weekend.. to pack your favourite snacks.
2. No laptop/low connectivity for most of the day.. to have your favourite snacks.
3. Make friends on the hike.. to make friends on the hike (not everything is about food).
4. And finally to have high calorie food after the hike (or maybe everything is).

I love moving through the forest before the sun is beating down on me, with the air crisp and a cool breeze in my hair.

Mt Rainier, the most gorgeous of ‘em all. Supposed to be an active-ish volcano but we decided to build a city preeeeetty close to it, eh what’s the worst that could happen.

On sunny days like this, your Seattle Bingo card will have “Summer is coming”, “The Mountain is out” and “Let’s play pickleball”.

Back to hiking, this next one is Mt. Baker, which is a bit more pointy, probably because it’s not blowing its head off as often as Rainier (or because of ice/snow accumulation if we want to be scientific about it).

Mt Baker trails are also very popular for huckleberries (but ask a guide to find out which ones are safe to eat).

Restaurant with a view:

Colchuck lake, my longest hike yet, at 10 miles and 2200 ft of elevation. Don’t mind that family sunbathing there, hopefully Goutham can blur them out before printing. But that’s the real color of the water in Colchuck lake, emerald green. Froze my ass off after swimming in it for a couple of mins, but it was totally worth it.

Wallace Falls:

Appendix: other fun stuff on hikes