Backpacking and friends

This weekend, I went on a quickie backpacking adventure in the cascade mountains. It was sort of a last minute decision for me to go but once I decided to, I couldn't wait to get out of the city. We left on Friday afternoon and drove about an hour out of Seattle into the mountains- about to Snoqualmie pass. I've never really "backpacked" before... as in carrying a rather hefty pack into and up the mountains. A pack in which contains everything to survive a night out in the wilderness. And it should be known that I have never peed in the woods before. When I've been camping there have always been outhouses. So while I hike and love the woods, this was fairly crazy for a relative virgin (in the stay in the forest respect)... We left after work and hiked about 4 miles up and in. AND LET ME JUST SAY. I have never been so disgustingly sweaty in my whole life. WOW. What a workout. Apparently it's a lot harder to bolt up a mountain with a 40-50 pound backpack. No kidding.

Once we got up, we hiked more down and in towards an alpine lake where we set up camp for the night. Once we were all set up, we just enjoyed the views, drank some wine, chatted and ate. It was so perfect and peaceful. A few of the views:
Coming in on Friday night... and yes, that would be snow. S.N.O.W!

Sunset shot over the mountains. Crazy thing that night- there were thunderstorms! I kept wondering what was flashing and thought there were other people who were just taking pictures. NOPE, that giant clap of thunder tells me the "flash" was lightning. COOL. So not only was I braving it in the woods in a tent, I was doing that while there were thunderstorms!

The next morning, we woke up to this. Absolutely gorgeous. We hung around camp for a couple of hours then set out to hike back down the mountain. Going down was SO much easier. But we still got sufficiently sweaty. Needless to say, I smelled. And, can I just say also? I SUCK at peeing in the woods. Enough said about that.

And one more shot of the view. Breathtaking.

Later that evening, I am de-sweatified, looking more normal and out and about hanging with friends. Above is a picture of my friend Shauna... the first and last picture I took all night. I was happy to be hanging with friends, refreshed after spending the night and day in the woods... and oh so happy to be around working plumbing again. (That being said, I would do another backpacking trip in a heartbeat... just might want to work on the whole squatting concept. Eww, too much information!)