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Time for another hike! This time, the foursome (Varun, Neha, Vodka and I) headed off to Surprise Creek off Highway 2. This is a pretty long hike to the lake (over 9 miles RT), there was no way I expected to finish it with kids in tow, but it sounded scenic enough to be gratifying even if we did just part of it.
Sunday turned out pretty cloudy and muggy. After a little searching, we found the unmarked service road (past mile marker 58) to the right of Hwy 2, about 10 miles past Skykomish. We drove over the railroad tracks and went on a bumpy road for about 1/4 mile to get to the trailhead. It was a lot more crowded than we expected, tons of overnight backpackers. In fact, V&N were the only kids on the trail! And no llamas on this trail :)
The trail initially starts out under the power lines, but soon veers away into the forest. It is pretty well maintained, lots of wooden steps along the way. The first creek crossing is really cool - a huge fallen tree across the water.
Obviously, the kids decided this was the coolest part of the hike - we crossed the bridge about 20 times as Vodka kept splashing around in the water below!! There are tons of waterfalls and wading pools along the first couple of miles. We probably went up another 3/4 miles - as the trail started switchbacking up the valley face. Neha was getting tired by then, so we stopped at the next flat area. The sun started coming out just then, it was beautiful to see the light on the waterfall below.
Time to head back, I ended up toting Neha on my back most of the way down - almost 40 lbs ==> good training for Rainier :)
Pretty neat writeup about the trail here.
Finally, finally we started hiking this season! With all this damn running, it has been hard to find time for hiking! We were originally thinking of hitting Mt.Forgotten or Mt.Dickerman on sunday, but we got a somewhat late start (like always :) ), so we picked a closer hike - Melakwa Lake (Exit 47 off I-90).
After getting lost in the maze of the Denny Creek campground, we finally found our way out to the real trail. Wait! We're supposed to be hiking alongside llamas? Is that a good idea? And does this mean Vodka can't be on this trail?!
It was a beautiful day, there were several folks on the trail, but it definitely wasn't overcrowded. We saw tons of native plants along the way - trillium, polygonatum, dogwoods, columbines and more.
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The first waterfall was pretty crowded - guess a lot of the campers at Denny Creek were hanging out here - bummer we couldn't hang out here - I love hopping around on the bare rocks near the water.
We crossed the bridge and continued hiking up towards Keekwulee Falls (we even saw some skinny-dipping action from afar!) The trail got steeper and we soon hit the switchbacks across the boulder fields.
We finally crested at Hemlock Pass after trudging through a couple of slick snow patches. From here, it was about 1/2 mile down through mud and slush to Melakwa Lake. We then made our way along the western edge - across the steep snow face to this outcrcopping on the north-western edge of the lake. Sorry Autumn, we'll try to avoid such adventures next time :)
Time for lunch - amazing how food tastes *so* good after all that hiking! Scrambled egg sandwiches, grapes, cherries ... *yum*! Just as we finished eating, the sun disappeared behind the clouds and a cool wind started blowing - too bad, we were hoping to take a dip in the water! Instead, we plodded back through the snow to the south end of the lake and tried to take a few more pictures until the bugs chased us back down!
Phew! Even with all that scrambling across the snow, our kneecaps escaped the Duval Curse :)
The perfect birthday eve meal. Seriously, it couldn't get any better than this. And we got to see Vee and Martin for the second time in a week! Wooooo!! We finally got around to taking Bobbie and Nami up to BSM after months of threatening to drag them there. And Daria came with us too. *so* much of fun!So, this is among our top 10 restaurants. *ever*. Even outside of the fact that our friends own the place :) I've had midnight cravings for the nudi ravioli - seriously mindblowing! And that is the only restaurant where I tried a steak - loved it! We started off with a li'l snack - a thin tortilla chip with a pineapple-mango-onion-something else salsa that was fabulous - a perfect starter! I can still taste it in my mouth. And then the signature Bistro San Martini - *so* tasty! We then ordered the asparagus (Daria and I can *never* resist fresh asparagus :)) and the ravioli. And Martin brought us a plate of stuffed tomatoes - *so* yummy! And then we sampled the cucumber soup - I'm not a fan of cucumber soup - ever since I had the weird cold cucumber -puree (aka soup!) at Ray's Boathouse, I've been semi-turned off on cucumber.I got my usual veggie-surprise entree - roasted yams, potatoes, asparagus, beans on a bed of risotto with the trademark potato chip on top - *divine*! I couldn't eat it all there, so we got it boxed, but I quickly ate up the leftovers once we got home :) Pupp and Bobbie got the scallops - I tried one and it was really tasty, I might have to try it again sometime soon. Nami got the oven roasted chicken and loved it, Daria was pretty much drooling over her food, I didn't remember what she got, Pupp says she got the lamb chops. :)Dessert was just one piece of the decadent Naughty Chocolate Cake with a hint of cayenne - delightful! And I even got a candle :)We love that BSM - feels like home - fabulous food, lots of love and friends all around.
