Thursday, July 17, 2014

TBT Hiking Post from Hubby - Hidden Lake Lookout

It's Thursday!! I started this last week, but for those new to my blog, on Thursdays, since it is "Throw Back Thursday" I thought it would be cool to reminisce on some old posts that used to be on our (me and hubby's) old web site "hanks-hikes.com". It was discontinued when we had our first child and after we moved to the East coast. We just didn't have the time and didn't want to continue paying for the domain.

So, now that I have this blog and a portion of it has to do with hiking, I will be adding many of those posts here on Thursday's. It would be a waste to leave these cool hikes just in files on our computer, and better for the world to see and share so many amazing places we have been.

Today's hike is one of my favorites, Hidden Lake Lookout in the North Cascades. I think most of my favorite hikes are lookouts as they have the best views! I believe this was my second hike with Hubby and we had a wonderful time! :)

Hidden Lake Lookout, September 5, 2006

For Sharon's first trip to the North Cascades, we decided on the Hidden Lake Lookout trail. We drove up a bumpy gravel road to find just one other car at the TH. We quickly passed that group and barely saw any others on the trail all day.

As we went up the trail, we came across some nice wildflowers. We could have used a machete, though, to get through all the spider webs.

We even found some pretty columbine.

Eventually we passed the overgrown trail and reached a dirt trail mixed with some rocky talus. This is looking back on the trail we had hiked.

Here's the upper part of the trail. Around this point we started to be able to see our destination.

You can see the lookout at the top. What an incredible location!

When we reached the ridge, Hidden Lake finally came into view. Here's my first look.

Some more talus and we reached the summit. Of course, we did some celebratory dances.

Here's my version of the dance.

Here's us together near the top.

Of course, the first thing we did was climb up to the tippy top. Sharon's showing off her climbing moves.

We ate lunch together on top, having it to ourselves, and lounged around enjoying the views.

A little bit of sunbathing and on to explore the lookout.

Me inside the lookout. Check out those views!

Sharon reading inside the lookout. It sure beats the library.

Practicing my fire safety skills.

Too much playing makes you sleepy. :-)

Time to wake up!

Here's the view of the lake from the top.

We'd been on top more than an hour, so we took one last picture together w/ the lake in the background and then headed down, making sure to savor the views.