It was the weekend of surprises for Steve, well at least two. Crowley came down from Vancouver and Kaz flew in from Cincinnati. Somehow we had convinced Steve not to go hiking somewhere Friday after work. There were plans to do something Saturday that led Steve to come up to my place Friday after work. What he didn't know is that while he was on his way up from Renton, I was picking Kaz up at the airport. Steve got to my place to find it unoccupied, as Shadle was running errands. Steve called me while I was about 10 minutes away... he decided to go get food while waiting for me to let him into my place. This opportunity was almost too perfect. Kaz and I arrived while Steve was out getting food...Kaz hid out of sight in Steve's absence. I met Steve at my apartment door and started conversing when Kaz just magically 'appeared' into view. Steve just stopped midsentence and stared blankly at him for a split second. Then the smile of disbelief spread across his face. He just realized he had been setup. Let the weekend begin.
The first day of the weekend was to a place called the Hidden Lakes. This hike had been attempted by our group at least one before. The first time we went, their could not have been a more perfect day...but then one particular car/driver combination hit not only one, but two major obstacles. The combination of this one-two punch of debris rendered the car's fuel system semi-useless. The gas pump still worked but it was pumping more fuel to the road and undercarriage than the engine. At first we did not realize this, however, as we neared the end of the road, Shadle smelled the gas fumes. We parked the car and quickly realized that the car was in BAD shape. We had a choice...well one of us had a choice, do the hike and worry about the car later... or push the car back to the nearest town and hope that it could get fixed.
I should point out that Steve, Blaze (the dog), and I really really really wanted to go hiking...we were pretty much already on the trail It was a perfect day... the sun had just finished rising, the visibility was amazing, the temperature was just right...everything was perfect. Except for the car. The executive decision was made to scrap the hike and fix the car. The remainder of this story is actually quite hilarious and involves pushing a car 15ish miles before 8am, getting drunk in a parking lot by 10am, and rescued by an old friend on a bridge by noon.
Ok, enough of the babble and onto the picture of our successful summit of the Hidden Lakes peak.
the frost level from the night before is pretty obvious here
a look at one of the peaks on the way up
we have reached the snow level
blaze likes snow
Blaze was one of the first up to the top...he's watchin the rest of us make it
YATTA!!
Kaz is tired...
sweet lookout
cloud or mountain? Can you find Mt. Rainier?
once the clouds cleared out, the views were awesome
a look at the Hidden Lake peak on the way back down
this is what icicles look like up close
it was getting late and the fog was rolling in
