WOW what a hike!!

Summary: Dayhike where I said "wow" a million times
Link to all of the Pics: Here
So I thought last weeks hike was cool but Natalie and I got out this Sunday and did a hike that blew it away!!

We started off the day by getting up at 6:45 and going down to the Iron Girl 10k at Greenlake that Natalie ran. It was a very cool event with 2700 women running. I had been planning to go for a day hike after watching her race but when she finished she said she still had enough energy to make the hike, Iron Girl that she is.

So we headed up to the cascades with a rough plan of what to hike. We had actually tried this trail earlier in the year but turned around when it got to be late afternoon and the only people we saw going up had ice axes.

We started out at 2200 feet and headed up Hibox Canyon. After about 2-3 miles of pretty flat walking we started heading up. The first stop was at a really pretty alpine lake. From there we headed up the trail to see what was up there, still not too much of a plan in mind. As soon as we started climbing I got the bug to take the trail up to the top of Alta mountain (6400 feet). We checked out the ridge line and it looked pretty do-able. The Marmots and Pika's again whisteled us on. Natalie was still feeling pretty good so we kept going. As we climbed the scenery kept getting better and better. After many many false summit we hit the top. What a view!! From the top we could see Mt Rainier, Mt Hood, and Mt Saint Helens, along with all of the other cascades peaks surrounding us. After hanging out at the summit a little too long and saying wow about 1000 more times we decided we should head down.

In the end it turns out we did wait around at the top too long. The last hour we hiked in the dark with my headlight and finially hit the car at 9:00pm. It was a long day and we were wiped out but it was worth every step... I can't wait to go back and explore some of the other surrounding peaks.

Next week we are off to hike Mt Saint Helens.... Should be another great set of pics for that one. We are crossing our fingers on the weather.