The Carly and Lois Road Show
Look what I dredged up from the internet Carly! |
Rainier is always worth an early wake up! |
me: "hey, you OK with camping?"
Carly: "yeah"
me: "OK I have some hikes I think you should do. Are you OK with a lot of hiking?"
Carly: " yeah"
me: "great, OK we need to go to bed now (~midnight) and wake up at 6 AM tomorrow"
Carly: "that's nothing, my partner wakes up at 4 AM everyday"
me: "that's the spirit"
Brave Carly can't be stopped by snow |
On a clear Friday in early Fall, Rainier is perfect and relatively uncrowded. We made the 3 hour pilgrimage there before rush hour traffic (only getting lost about 9 times), got out of the car at the Paradise Trail head, and just started hiking on whatever trail went up and looked good. Our expedition was like Virginia Woolf's dream - we rambled up the mountain (OK, it was actually a pretty grueling pace because Carly was as fit as she was in HS) and discussed modern feminism, our life successes and failures in regards to our gender, and what we thought might be the best path forward for women and use of our time.
This conversation was picked up multiple times throughout the weekend, and it was so totally refreshing. I spend my life surrounded by men -- between bicycling, working at Microsoft, and dating men there are very few young women in my world. To have 3 days of idealogical validation and reaffirmation that I wasn't nuts (whew!) was akin to having a massive weight lifted.
A moment of introspection |
We probably hiked upwards of 2000 feet and over 12 miles, meandering through the mountains till 4ish PM. From there, we ate dinner, and then drove to the Eastern Olympic Peninsula along Highway 101 to the Lake of the Angels trailhead. We completely missed the trailhead at night, basically found a random spot to camp on the side of the road, and set up the tent in the pouring rain (Welcome to Seattle Carly!). After conking out like rocks, we woke up early for the beginning of day 2...
#survivor |
Lake of the Angels was a brutal hike, like a brutal, vicious, omg that was freaking hard hike. For a 7 mile round trip, 3400 ft elevation gain hike, I was not expecting what we got. First off, within 15 minutes of the hike, we got off trail and maliciously attacked by some yellow jackets that chased us and stung us repeatedly. Apparently they had been pissed off proper by some hikers ahead of us who also went off trail, but man those buggers were mean. Carly got stung 5 times, and I got one guy who chased me (I was like 15 feet away behind Carly when the stinging began), crawled into my boot, and then wrecked havoc. It was horrible. Fortunately (?) while running away from them, we actually found the trail. Small mercies...
Innocent Heroines on Hurricane Ridge |
Carly learns the wonder of plush car camping (aka inflating the mattress with a foot pump) |
Day 3: The Dungeness Spit, Port Townsend, and Smelling Awful
Well this isn't too bad... |
After a brief stop at the light house (apparently they were spying on us before we arrived -- so glad I didn't pee out there in the 'wilderness'!!), we returned to Leaf and decided to 'start' making our way home to the Sea Tac airport to drop off Carly. At this point, we smell so bad that it's unmaskable. Like we constantly can smell how terrible we reek everytime we move or twitch or lift our arms (that was the worst). Even better (worse?) our legs are totally shredded at this point - all forms of walking, sitting, and breathing cause immediate sharp pains in our devastated quads. Our bodies are just done with us and basically want to not move, sleep for days, and ice cream.
A perfect sunset on a stellar trip |
We take a small detour in Port Townsend (Thai food and super slow paced town strolling!) before heading to Kingston to catch the ferry (ice cream stop!). We watch the sunset from the ferry and as I drive Carly to the airport, we can't believe how fast this trip has gone and how much ground we've covered. Our bodies, minds, phone batteries, and enthusiasm for feminism are pretty much exhausted and ready for recovery at this point.
Overall, it was an incredible trip. I honestly can't believe how much we accomplished in so little time; it feels like weeks have passed. It was amazing to see Carly, and I wish all friendships were so easily rekindled -- it definitely felt like we've been best friends all along instead of women rekindling a friendship as adults now. I'm looking for more Carly trips in the future :D
PS the shower felt AWESOME except apparently warm water can re-activate histamines in bee stings. So my foot swelled up and became incredibly itchy after the shower... D'OH!
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