Introduction
Okay, so I'm way behind with the hiking goal. Obviously, I didn't take into account that I have to work for a living. However, I'm lucky to have good friends who are almost always up for a hike - on the second of the month, Jayson, Jessica, and I went on a hike up Granite Mountain with the dogs. This was actually a pretty new situation, in that BJ has never met Zoe and didn't really get along with Amber. However, the dogs behaved perfectly and we actually had the longest stretch of time where the dogs didn't try to kill each other (another sign that BJ is getting older). It probably helped that the hike was tough and hot enough to settle even the Weimeraners down by the end of the trip.
Granite Mountain is an 8 mile hike that goes up about ~3800 feet. The trail runs wooded for about a mile until you reach a juncture that allows you to go to pleasantly cool and tranquil lakes, or up a sauna of death and destruction. We, naturally, chose the latter. After a couple hours of sweating gallons of sweat and cursing ourselves for our ambition, we made it. Not much to this hike to differentiate itself from the rest of the I-90 crowd. Its farther east than Mt. Si and a bit longer, so fewer crowds (though we did hike past girl on cell phone). The views were nice, highlighted by Mt. Ranier making a surprise cameo visit, but nothing you can't get anywhere else.
Yes, I've become a trail snob.
I think next time we take the pack and take the same hike to the lakes about 11 miles out from the trailhead. Hopefully I'll have the Nikon back by then - these were taken by my old Canon Digital Elph (2.1 mp!).
