Something I haven't posted about before is how our Hike For Discovery Team starts each hike. We meet at the trailhead at 8am and gather in a big circle. We have about 44 teammates. Six hikers are going to Rocky Mountain National Park - including me! and about 38 are going to the Mt. Rainier Wonderland Trail. On any given Saturday, we have about 25, give or take, hikers gathered. And each hike, we gather in this circle and talk about the trail we're about to hike and the gear we should be using, how much food and so on. But an important part of this circle is the discussion of why we're there. Each week we gather names of family, friends and strangers that we have met or heard of along the way, share a bit of their story and then hike for them.
We have our honored patients/teammates that we as a team hike for - Dylan and Kim. You can find their stories on my blog page. I have added the names of my Mom, Sandra; my father, Hebron; my father-in-law, Ben; and my friends' mom, Mama Pigg. This week I am hiking for Cora. You can see her sweet little face pictured on my blog as well as what her Godmother wrote about her. There is also a link to Gloria's Angels. A great organization that is helping to organize funds and volunteers to help families like Cora's. And now on to the hike....
This particular Saturday was one of the first in a long time to threaten rain. It was gloomy and grey and I was bummed - only because I was worried the view at Rattlesnake Ledge would be fogged in. This trail starts out at Rattlesnake Lake and starts climbing immediately. It's 2 miles to the ledge and a steady climb. Once we got to the ledge it was still fairly early and still fogged in. So after a short break we headed out to East Peak. This would bring us to the point we had hiked to last week from Snoqualmie Point.
This was a hard hike for me today. I don't know if it's because I was tired or because of the elevation we gained in the first two miles, but my body was screaming at me. So even though I continued on to East Peak, I took it really slow. But once there we rested for about 30 minutes and ate lunch. When our entire team had reached East Peak (we get kinda spread out on the trail) and had a chance to eat, we headed back down. Usually the hike up is easier for me and I tend to go slower headed downhill. But today the hike down was easier and I felt so much better than on the way up. I stopped off at Rattlesnake Ledge to see if the clouds had burned off and was treated to a lovely view!
When all was said and done, we hiked 8.8 miles and gained approximately 2700 feet in cumulative elevation. I went home physically drained but excited to have completed another training hike. Can't wait for the next one!
We have our honored patients/teammates that we as a team hike for - Dylan and Kim. You can find their stories on my blog page. I have added the names of my Mom, Sandra; my father, Hebron; my father-in-law, Ben; and my friends' mom, Mama Pigg. This week I am hiking for Cora. You can see her sweet little face pictured on my blog as well as what her Godmother wrote about her. There is also a link to Gloria's Angels. A great organization that is helping to organize funds and volunteers to help families like Cora's. And now on to the hike....
This particular Saturday was one of the first in a long time to threaten rain. It was gloomy and grey and I was bummed - only because I was worried the view at Rattlesnake Ledge would be fogged in. This trail starts out at Rattlesnake Lake and starts climbing immediately. It's 2 miles to the ledge and a steady climb. Once we got to the ledge it was still fairly early and still fogged in. So after a short break we headed out to East Peak. This would bring us to the point we had hiked to last week from Snoqualmie Point.
This was a hard hike for me today. I don't know if it's because I was tired or because of the elevation we gained in the first two miles, but my body was screaming at me. So even though I continued on to East Peak, I took it really slow. But once there we rested for about 30 minutes and ate lunch. When our entire team had reached East Peak (we get kinda spread out on the trail) and had a chance to eat, we headed back down. Usually the hike up is easier for me and I tend to go slower headed downhill. But today the hike down was easier and I felt so much better than on the way up. I stopped off at Rattlesnake Ledge to see if the clouds had burned off and was treated to a lovely view!
When all was said and done, we hiked 8.8 miles and gained approximately 2700 feet in cumulative elevation. I went home physically drained but excited to have completed another training hike. Can't wait for the next one!
