I have no apologies for the vast amount of pictures in this post. In fact, you should thank me. The Olympic Mountains are just so beautiful.
The next day was a relaxing morning in the most beautiful forest in the world (I'm sure of it) and then we started out on our hike. The really great thing about being sick the week of your backpacking trip is that your hubs feels the need to take more of the weight for you. Hence, his pack was 50 lbs while mine was a mere 25 lbs. I think I'll pull the sick trick next time we go too. JUST kidding. But for our hike that day I was packless and Ty carried our food and some extra clothing. We hiked to Flapjack Lakes (gorgeous! the water was so clear and so blue), ate our PB&T lunch (peanut butter and tortilla...I was skeptical, but it was really good), then continued on to Gladys Divide. My Granny who passed away last year is named Gladys, so I was especially happy with the name of our trail. On the way we spotted a bear high up in a mountain meadow. We checked each other out for a while (pretty sure he/she was looking right at us) before continuing on and then I checked the trees near the trail for the rest of the hike to see if that bear had any friends. :) We wanted to hike Mount Gladys, but because of the snow it was tough enough to find the trail for the Divide...we thought we lost it for a little while. I just don't think we had the equipment or would have been able to find the trail for the mountain. We spent some time up there enjoying the gorgeous views and then hiked our way down the mountain, picked up our other pack, and continued on another mile or so.
Our intent was to camp at Big Log Camp that night, but as we were crossing Madeline Creek we noticed that right down near the creek there were some unofficial campsites. We decided that we liked the seclusion of it (even if it meant no bathroom...cause the bathrooms are rather gross anyway) and set up camp. Ahhh....right on the river, gorgeous forest, just me and my favorite person in the world, no distractions. I was almost brought to tears with the romance and perfection of it all. We were tired from hiking 12 miles that day, but had a lot of time to relax and talk and kiss...it was bliss. I told Tyler that night that it was up there with the most romantic things we'd ever done. We WERE totally by ourselves for a while, but had two campers join us at a site a little ways away. Luckily they came just as Ty was taking a shower with the camping shower he bought for the trip. Ha! Possibly one of my favorite memories from the trip was when Ty yelled, "Dana! There are PEOPLE!" and I looked over to see two hikers looking straight at our camp. I couldn't stop laughing.
The next day we were super lazy...just as we'd planned. We didn't wake up until 8:30 and then didn't get out of our tent until 9:30. We had breakfast, relaxed for a while, took down camp, and slowly hiked out the 4.5 miles to our car, taking pictures of the beauty along the way.
I absolutely LOVED this trip. I think all couples should backpack to get away. It was heaven. No phones, no televisions, hardly any other people around. Nothing. Just you and the gorgeous wilderness. It probably helps to go backpacking with a ruggedly (I love when he gets some scruff) handsome Eagle Scout who loves a good map, can tie knots and build fires like nobody's business, carries a heavier load than he has to, and can rig up a place for a shower and some bear wire wherever he is. I'm even more in love.
We started our adventure on Thursday evening with a 3.5 mile hike to Spike Camp. We didn't arrive at camp until about 9:30 p.m. The trail was getting pretty dark toward the end, but we were just shy of breaking out the head lamps. We set up camp, ate our Subway sandwiches (I'm sure there's some backpacking code against such food, but it was easy and delicious), sat around the fire a bit and hit the hay.
The next day was a relaxing morning in the most beautiful forest in the world (I'm sure of it) and then we started out on our hike. The really great thing about being sick the week of your backpacking trip is that your hubs feels the need to take more of the weight for you. Hence, his pack was 50 lbs while mine was a mere 25 lbs. I think I'll pull the sick trick next time we go too. JUST kidding. But for our hike that day I was packless and Ty carried our food and some extra clothing. We hiked to Flapjack Lakes (gorgeous! the water was so clear and so blue), ate our PB&T lunch (peanut butter and tortilla...I was skeptical, but it was really good), then continued on to Gladys Divide. My Granny who passed away last year is named Gladys, so I was especially happy with the name of our trail. On the way we spotted a bear high up in a mountain meadow. We checked each other out for a while (pretty sure he/she was looking right at us) before continuing on and then I checked the trees near the trail for the rest of the hike to see if that bear had any friends. :) We wanted to hike Mount Gladys, but because of the snow it was tough enough to find the trail for the Divide...we thought we lost it for a little while. I just don't think we had the equipment or would have been able to find the trail for the mountain. We spent some time up there enjoying the gorgeous views and then hiked our way down the mountain, picked up our other pack, and continued on another mile or so.
Our intent was to camp at Big Log Camp that night, but as we were crossing Madeline Creek we noticed that right down near the creek there were some unofficial campsites. We decided that we liked the seclusion of it (even if it meant no bathroom...cause the bathrooms are rather gross anyway) and set up camp. Ahhh....right on the river, gorgeous forest, just me and my favorite person in the world, no distractions. I was almost brought to tears with the romance and perfection of it all. We were tired from hiking 12 miles that day, but had a lot of time to relax and talk and kiss...it was bliss. I told Tyler that night that it was up there with the most romantic things we'd ever done. We WERE totally by ourselves for a while, but had two campers join us at a site a little ways away. Luckily they came just as Ty was taking a shower with the camping shower he bought for the trip. Ha! Possibly one of my favorite memories from the trip was when Ty yelled, "Dana! There are PEOPLE!" and I looked over to see two hikers looking straight at our camp. I couldn't stop laughing.
The next day we were super lazy...just as we'd planned. We didn't wake up until 8:30 and then didn't get out of our tent until 9:30. We had breakfast, relaxed for a while, took down camp, and slowly hiked out the 4.5 miles to our car, taking pictures of the beauty along the way.
I absolutely LOVED this trip. I think all couples should backpack to get away. It was heaven. No phones, no televisions, hardly any other people around. Nothing. Just you and the gorgeous wilderness. It probably helps to go backpacking with a ruggedly (I love when he gets some scruff) handsome Eagle Scout who loves a good map, can tie knots and build fires like nobody's business, carries a heavier load than he has to, and can rig up a place for a shower and some bear wire wherever he is. I'm even more in love.
6 comments:
That sounds like a great trip. I'm not sure you have to backpack for romance though. A nice hotel works too. :)
And I love all the pictures. We still haven't made it to the Olympics. One of these days....
WOW!!! There was A LOT of snow. Looks like a beautiful trip. Glad you were able to get away.
awesome. beautiful and WOW! so glad it worked out and that you are better.
Dana, that is gorgeous!! How fun for the two of you to get away and enjoy all that beauty. The only way to see all that's hidden in the Olympics is to hike into it for a few days. Nothing can match it!. I LOVE all your pictures! So sorry you were sick, hope you're all better!
Looks like a little slice of heaven. I would be lying if I said I wasn't completely jealous! I'm so glad you two derserving parents got to share this experience! What a blessing!
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