"I mean, just the fact that I can even make that ridiculous statement makes my heart high-5 my soul. "
With snow still pretty thick in the mountains, it wasn't quite yet time to break out the backpacking gear. Still, its spring - how can you not get out there?
So John, Jayson, Cheri, Kristi, Pat, and I all caught the early morning ferry from Anacortes to Orcas Island for a little old fashioned car camping over Easter weekend. Probably the single biggest thing that I missed about living away from Seattle for two years was the camping. Aside from a couple day hikes out of New York and some camping experiences on the road last year, there was a serious lack of getting out in the woods time. In fact, before moving back the only backpacking trip I had gone on while being away actually involved me flying back to Seattle from New York just to do so.
Its just amazing all of the diversity of life you see out here - I mean, do you people realize that this is one of the most beautiful places in the entire world and inch for inch of soil, holds more life and biodiversity than probably 90% of the planet?!?! This trip alone saw multiple fawns munching on fauna just a bit up the road from our camp and bald eagles soaring over the sun roof on the drive over; the amount of wildlife I've seen already this year makes the whole thing a little...blah ("oh look...ANOTHER bald eagle. how quaint.") I mean, just the fact that I can even make that ridiculous statement makes my heart high-5 my soul.
Mountain Lake, Orcas Island
We were incredibly lucky on Saturday to have the skies clear up, giving us some awesome views atop Mt. Constitution. Due to a "navigational error", we hiked the longer route to the Twin Lakes and then up, giving us about a 8.5 mile hike for the day...with the 1.2 miles up Constitution gaining over 1,100 feet of elevation, it was a tough slog.
Tired and weary, we would hike back down to the camp to begin what hopefully could very well become an Easter tradition: the World's Greatest Smores (tm)and the Fire Altar Peep sacrifice....pics to come on that little encounter.
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