On A Sparkling Spring Sweater

If Spring wasn't already upon us, I will force it to be Spring with blue sparkles and Easter pastels - baby pink, hush blue, mint green and soft yellow. I've held onto this blazer for ages, never really wearing it but unable to say goodbye - the colors make me too happy aaaand, it's corduroy! I saw this sweater peeking out the goodwill aisle and forgot all else, I knew exactly what I wanted to wear it with; sale, sparkles, sold. Major feel good thrift.

Speeeaking of feel good thrifts - or perhaps what I was subtly leading up to - THE BOOTS. I have to get a better picture of the boots. I haven't water-proofed them and well, it's Seattle. Pictures will just have to be blurry and in terrible lighting...just go with it.

At work a few weeks ago one of the girls announced that the rummage sale had tons of great boots. She showed off her 3 awesome pairs and I stopped listening annoyed that I have big yeti feet. Best part was, any pair for $10!! It actually became quite hilarious as one by one the girls were bringing back their haul. I'm pretty sure every girl that day came back with at least one pair of seriously awesome boots. Ok, fine, I want to at least look. And what do you know, there on the end a beautiful pair of boots in a 10.5 which is close enough. Aaaand I'm in love.

This Beautiful Place - Squak Mountain

Today was a much needed day spent outdoors. Spring is one of my favorite times to go hiking because the whole forrest is reawakening. Fresh new growth is sprouting up on everything and everywhere, so small but so determined to get some of that precious sun! In the Spring, trails are much less crowded and your much more likely to run into a local (just birds on this outing I'm afraid)! With so many options around the Seattle area, and after reading pages and pages of hikes in the area, we basically just put a finger down and went there. Today I hiked up to the summit of Squak Mountain via the Bullitt Gorge Trail. Plants were budding everywhere!

This trail brings you right up to the Bullitt Fireplace, leftover from the Bullitt Family summer home, covered in moss and human scrawling. From there is a small shortcut trail across the top of the mountain which brings you to the summit of Central Peak and the microwave towers. As we drove away at the end of the day I saw the towers and was actually pretty impressed and pleased with myself. At the fireplace we ran into some fellow hikers who were geocachers! All right! They shared their cache find with us. 

 

This is what I wore hiking. Medium layers under my super vest (I love this vest. It's possibly wrong, how much I love this vest) with warm leggings and rainbow socks. In my 'converted' Dakine I brought along some light gloves, a hat and my fleecy bandana which I'm really glad for, it was supposed to be sunny all day but clouds soon overcame the mountain and it definitely cooled off.  

The tree above cracks me up! This hike is very woodsy, so lots of vibrant greens. Ferms, mosses, lichens...GROWTH! Beautiful Spring growth!! Of the many hikes in this park, there is only one vista point which we did not get to, on another side of the mountain. The vista boasts incredible views of Mount Rainer though so a must for next time.  Our trail gradually switchbacked through light woods before making some pretty steep and straight inclines, about 3/4 of the way through (just before the fireplace) it leveled out again and the density lessened.

Here I am at the end, about 4 hours and 6 miles later! PS- that handsome devil in the background is my man, Perry. And yes, I am talking about my car. I like to customize a hike by combining trails, starting out on one trail and ending via another, combining paths or just genrally exploring. This theory is very possible at Squak Mountain but some of the trail crossings aren't fully labeled and the trail names don't match up, so there was some confusion and we ended up coming down almost the same way we went up. There were no maps at the TH - should you find yourself in a no map situation pre-hike, take a PHOTOGRAPH of the map for reference. Fortunately we met a nice hiker and his dog who gave us an extra photo copied map he had, woot! Thank you! 

I love these little green plants! They were everywhere, sprouting up through the deadness of winter like little green polka dots for the forests' floor! I only saw a few mushrooms on the trees and just the little ones in the photo by the log. I'd really like to work on finding more mushrooms during hikes. I don't know if it's because they are hiding off trail or what but so far I haven't really been finding any mushrooms up here! All in all, an enjoyable hike and a successful outing, definitely some much needed natural medicine. : ) This year I didn't make a huge commitment to any New Year resolutions or anything but with so much nearby I really hope to make it outdoors at least once a week. With all that goes on between work and the rest of life, it really is important to get out and breath once and a while.

PS- I wrote this post last night, after the hike and passed out before I even posted! Now thats the mark of a good hike ; )