Just Plodding Along

The Wonderland Trail was supposed to be our big backpacking trip of the summer. 10 days. Lots of elevation gain and lots of elevation loss around Mt. Rainier. It was kind of the true test of what we were made of backpack wise. Heavy packs, lots of walking. Good times. The Monday of our first day we woke up to rain. While not unheard of in the Pacific Northwest.......after a week of sunshine we were not pleased. We loaded the car up anyway and headed for Mt. Rainier. We decided to begin our adventure at Longmire. It is a popular place so we figured our car would be safe there. We had a plan of how we wanted to attack the mountain. It involved on average between eight to ten miles of hiking a day. The entire trail is 93 miles. Not easy but not epic distance wise. When we went in for our permit (this year there was no reservations it is on a first come first serve basis) we were told our plan wouldn't work. There are only so many people allowed at each camping area so the ran...

A lack of fast or any internet at all and having too much fun has left me with a bit to catch up on blog wise. So blogging from my phone, what could go wrong....probably just the usual spelling, grammer and formating issues as usual. Beginning of this month the hubs and I hit the open road heading west to the Black Canyon of Gunnison for the first stop on our National Parks tour. We stayed at the North Rim which has a smaller camping area and several trails. We did a short Chasm View hike the first evening we were there and the next morning instead of heading down into the canyon we hiked up the Green Mountain Trail (8 miles round trip) for some awesome scenic views (a common thing in National Parks I am finding). This was the first hike we used our hiking poles on and they are amazing. I never want to hike without poles again. They are way helpful for balancing and using arm strength (if you have any, bit of a t-rex going on over here) for getting up amd down steep inclines. We fin...