Getting away from people

The one thing that is not lost this summer is hiking. Living in Seattle, there are so many (relatively) nearby mountains and forests to explore.

But, hiking has always been a popular outdoor activity among Seattleites (and all the transplants). Now with the pandemic, if you want to avoid other hikers, you either have to go on a hike further away from the city, or select a hike that is more challenging or technical.

We opted to do the “go further away” route when we decided to hike Goat Peak in the Snoqualmie area. Yes, Snoqualmie isn’t extremely far from Seattle, but in order to get to the trail head, we had to take some pretty run-down forest roads.

We also saw more wildlife on the drive up to the hike, than we did on our hike. We saw a fawn and mother deer walking along the forest road. We also saw a small black bear, too! Well, OK, correction, Bryce saw the bear. It happened so quick that I didn’t even see it because I was looking to the side at the time (and the bear was in front of us).

The drive on the forest road took about an hour or so. (This was after the drive from Seattle to the area). I was starting to wonder if maybe we should have picked another hike …

Then the road got really bumpy and rough. At this point that we decided to turn back around and ditch our car on the side of the road. We didn’t want to risk getting our car stuck. After all, we don’t have 4WD or anything like that, just a normal passenger car. The road was so narrow at this point that Bryce had to back the car down because there was no room to turn the car around.

Even though we started our hike on the road, it was nice with views of mountains. With the exception of a few groups of dirt bikers, we didn’t see anyone else.

When we got to the actual trail, there was more climbing. But, it was so peaceful and nice up there. It was a bit cloudy but it was great to be hiking somewhere where we didn’t have to worry about running into anyone else.

What have you been up to this summer to keep healthy and sane while still adhering to social distancing rules?