SEATLE FRIENDVENTURE: hiking on Mt. Ranier

 

One of my most favorite of people moved from east coast to west in a year long RV adventure. (her blog is HERE). It’s rather awesome. I applaud them greatly for doing it, because how often do you get that kind of opportunity? and how often do you push aside the things that stop us from exploring like “practicalness” or “money”. Yes I just put money into quotations like it wasn’t a real thing. I digress, it’s so real that it hurts BUT perhaps careful planning can stretch our wallets farther when the desire is there? It’s so often I find myself burrowing in my comfort zone. How can I forget that there's a big beautiful world out there full of places and people to see?

BING. Light bulb clicks on. That’s what made this the perfect opportunity for my other favorite gal pal and I to hop on a plane for a weekend rendezvous. In fact she was super awesome and did the hard stuff like planning and finding our tickets.

Funny thing…it had been a while since we loaded up at the airport. We sort of forgot to allow for extra time. When we checked on our tickets the screen told us we’d have to book a new flight. SLIGHT PANIC arose as we stared at each other blinking? we had forty five minutes till the plane left? why would it say that? The attendant told us that we were supposed to allow for an hour minimum to make it through checking. He told us we could try to make it through but not guarantee anything. That’s when we snatched our bags and SCRAMBLED-RAN like chickens. Good news, we totally made it with five minutes before the plane took off, just as they were repeating our names over the intercom.

Many long hours of not so great smells, transitions between hot and cold and 248 pages into a good book, we arrived in sunny Seattle (yay airplanes!). The second we stepped into the dim grey chilly morning air, something primal arose within me.

MOUNTAINS. TREES. MUST CLIMB MOUNTIANS. aarrrggghhh…… PIIIINNNNEEE TREEEEESS.

(in case you’re wondering, airplanes make me annoying hyper upon arrival)

((no wait. it was probably the trees))

((( no I changed my mind, it was because I was about to spend a weekend with my peoples)))

We took a quick stop to the RV to pile on some layers and hiking shoes and drove to the glorious peaks that suddenly popped out of the mist as if to say “ I’M A FREAKING HUGE MOUNTAIN, NOTICE ME! NOTICE ME!”

 

We actually stopped at one trail but it was closed due to a landslide, so we had to drive up the mountain a bit farther. We parked and pranced out into white paradise with REAL snow (this is a strange substance for us South Carolinians to experience). Furthermore, as a native Carolinian, I really should have weighed in my snowball fight skills before joining into that battle. We hiked down the trail towards the falls and slowly the fluff turned to slush that turned to lush. I’ve never seen so many moss and ferns sprouting in unusually places.

Cedars and pines and poplars are everywhere. Fallen trees molded into the sides of the path. Gaping tree roots with hollows beneath them. Rich brown sienna and terra earthen browns in the soil. A dappling of Mushrooms underneath  their shadows. Four of me could have stood around some of the trees with my fingertips touching.

Then there was the refreshing feeling of rain and snow on your cheeks and the feeling of blood pumping to your heart, reminding it to be alive again. Breath in, breath out, the fresh air.

    

at some point this picture happened, we’re not really sure why….but a little Photoshop magic and you can see what’s really going on here…

 

We finished heading uphill back to the car, our sides heaving in the steeper places. We were blessed by one last beautiful scene on the ride home as the sun was setting and casting bright yellow rays across the grey. Cold hands were replaced by warm ones clutching cups of tea as we caught up in talking about life back at the RV.