Sunday, March 23, 2014

Larch Mountain - 3/22/14

I am on a roll! I'm not running for a couple weeks, so I'm really upping my cross training - including hiking!

Brad, Sean, Karen, Eddie and I drove up, up, up to Larch Mountain for a snowy Saturday hike.
Snow closes the road every year until May, so we parked at the gate and hoofed it up the road about 1.7 miles to the spot where we'd normally park and jump on the trail. Because of the added mileage on the road, we decided to skip the loop and just head up the right (and steep!) side straight to Sherrard Point:
The road's patchy snow and ice got deeper as we climbed. We assumed the trail, which goes through dense forest, would be more snow-free. It was not. We decided the snow just added extra intensity and calorie burning to our workout :)

We kept going, knowing the clear, wind-free day would provide a perfect view at the top.
Oh, yeah - there it is:
We had the summit all to ourselves. Perfect!
I think it's really cool that Brad has stood atop all five peaks - Hood, Jefferson, St. Helens, Rainier and Adams! I've been on three - not too shabby :)
Eddie was so well behaved!
I love a hike with a beautiful reward - especially when shared with good friends :)

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