Hurricane Ridge

I went up to Hurricane Ridge in the Olympic Mountains with my mom last Saturday (this picture being one of the results:


This is "pre-burn." You see, I frequently forget to use sunscreen here at home, as there aren't all that many days in the year to get burned in Seattle, and the vast majority of the year, it's overcast or raining and I'm inside working at a computer. So in general, sunscreen is not entirely necessary.

Cut to the part where I'm hiking up an open hill with lots of sun - sans sunscreen - for the better part of 2-3 hours.

My shoulders look like the bottom of one of those dry lake beds - all cracked and flaky with deep breaks where the lack of moisture has split the mud into tiny islands. Except it's my skin, and it's itchy and gross.

It's no more than I deserve, I've read all the stuff about wearing sunscreen daily, etc - but at least I had a fabulous time with my mom and finally got outside. :)

Lena Lake

Yesterday, my mom and I intended to hike up to Lower Lena Lake. But we didn't quite make it.

First, we took the wrong way, and ended up on the long way around on a forest road. After traveling along it for awhile, we saw that up ahead the road had been completely washed out. Oops. So then we had to turn around.

When we finally reached the turnoff to the Lena Lake trailhead, we realized it was too snowy to drive, so we decided to walk the mile in the snow to the trailhead. But the snow was getting sort of soft, so we kept sinking in and it took a little longer than expected.

When we got to the trailhead, it was mostly clear so we hiked for a couple of hours, but it just got too deep towards the top, so we had to turn back. Still, it was a lovely day, and a lovely hike, even if it was raining by the time we had to slog back through the snow on the road to get back to the car. That part was really cold.

We'll have to go back during the summer when it's not quite so crazy to hike in the Olympics. :)