I. Am. So. Behind. My posting has taken a back seat to anything and everything else in life. Which is absolutely fine, but when I have a handful of hikes I want to document in my online diary it’s much harder when I am months behind. The hike I want to share today is from July 27th, nearly two months ago. This is a hike I had heard about a few years ago, and finally got around to prioritizing.

Duncan and I set out to hike the Klahhane Ridge in Olympic National Park. I had been to this area of the park before (the Hurricane Ridge entrance), but only a couple of times. I had forgotten how breathtaking this part of the Olympics were, and no matter which hike you embark on from the Hurricane Ridge area you will see sweeping views of mountains and trees.

The Klahhane Ridge trail has two starting locations. The steeper and more direct route begins at the Switchback Trail. For a longer and more gradual trail to the ridge you can start from the Hurricane Ridge main parking lot. We chose the Switchback Trail, which only has maybe 5-8 parking spots, so it’s best to arrive early.

We arrived before 0730 and easily snagged a parking spot. We saw a few other hikers, but had the trail mostly to ourselves on the way up. The trail to the ridge from the parking lot is short, but once you are on the ridge there are multiple options for continuing on. My main goal was to hike this trail until we were able to see Lake Angeles.

We could have hiked all the way DOWN to Lake Angeles, but this means we would have had to go back up (obviously.)

The ridge itself is mild, but for someone like me who is afraid of thin trails with drop offs there were a few spots that gave me pause. I managed to get past them, and then we entered the back side of the ridge where there were open meadows with zero drop offs. We sat for some lunch before continuing on to where we could see Lake Angeles from above.

Overall the trail was very quiet which was surprising for a Sunday mid summer.

I would have loved to continue on to the bottom of the lake, but I have hiked to Lake Angeles many times before and ultimately did not need to see it again. It wasn’t worth the effort of going down and then back up. Although my ego always wants to “complete” a trail. This trail had multiple branch offs for somewhat of a choose your own adventure trail so I didn’t feel tooooo bad skipping the lake.

We turned around and walked a little bit on another trail before calling it a day and heading back to the car. We ended with just over 8 miles, and just under 3k feet of elevation gain for the day.

One of my favorite things to do when visiting a national park is checking out the visitor center. Sadly the Hurricane Ridge visitor center burned down in 2023, but they do have a smaller ranger station down the road. We stopped in here on the way out to browse the trinkets before heading back home. I don’t typically buy anything, I just like to look.

We ended the day filling up our bellies at Red Robin. Somehow this place doesn’t leave me feeling like a total bag of garbage after eating their food, and for that I go every so often. I can’t say the same for Duncan, but that’s likely because he drank a milkshake meant for two despite being sensitive to dairy. LOL. Alas, sometimes it’s worth the pain.

Q: Do you like national park visitor centers?

1. Time for another rapid fire, minimal transition post where I can brain and photo dump multiple things that have happened in my life the past couple months (we’ve had a lot of EMC posts lately.) This post will be cat heavy. Is that anything new though? I don’t think so.

Speaking of cats…has anyone been seeing the trend on social media where people are buying their cats a concrete slab? I try not to fall prey to these things, but I HAD TO TRY IT with Little. I bought a 16×16 concrete slab for just under $6 and hoped for the best. Naturally, my cat was beyond disinterested in this. It’s fun watching videos of other cats loving the slab, but mine barely even sniffed it. HA.

2. Duncan and I went to hike Mount Si recently, his first time. This hike is notorious for Canada Jay’s dive bombing hikers for their snacks. I’m not usually one to feed the wildlife, but look…us not feeding them won’t change a damn thing here. People will never stop. Instead, we can opt to feed them species appropriate snacks like bird seed.

Or, like in the photo below…we can pretend to feed them, only for them to see an empty hand. I call this photo: “disappointment.”

3. You won’t be able to tell from any of the photos in this post, but my hair is the longest it’s been since 2017. The downside of growing out a pixie cut is that it grows really wonky. I had a mullet/rat tail like section that was longer than the majority of my hair, and this week I’d had enough. I cut the mullet myself, only to ask my mom to help me. It’s not perfect, but at least most of my hair is “even.”

I will get a proper haircut eventually. LOL.

4. A while back I agreed to watch my friends kid so she and her sister could go to a concert. The time came, and I had a blast from the past evening. We started with perler beads, where I made the most beautiful creature known to man. Then I introduced her kid to the wonderful world of the N64 (I went easy on him.) And we ended the day with a jump on the trampoline. FULLY equipped with a net, just like the one I had as a kid.

Safety first.

5. My Garmin watch was acting a fool recently. The elevation gain on my hikes was constantly messed up, it was no longer accurately recording my distances for hikes or runs, and it was just all around spazzy. I contacted Garmin to see if there was anything I could do to help this, and they offered to send me a free exchange.

The watches they use for this are refurbished, but I figured anything was better than what I had.

The watch I received was as good as new initially. Unfortunately it had some pixelation issues, but they immediately fixed the problem and I’m getting another “new” to me watch. Black and Decker needs to take notes…(see number 9 in that post.)

6. Back in February Duncan bought tickets to see my favorite artist for my birthday. The time came, and we set off for the concert at the farm. While I LOVED seeing Gregory Alan Isakov, I don’t think the outdoor concert scene is for me. I was wildly distracted (and annoyed? even though it’s totally in their right?) by the people constantly walking around.

I was spoiled seeing Gregory for the first time with the Seattle Symphony (LOOK AT that baby child in that post, I wish I could go slap her and tell her to relax her freaking forehead in those photos. This is why my forehead is now wrinkled.) A background symphony is now my standard – inside, no one moves around, acoustics on POINT.

I still had a good time and I’m glad we went. Greg (we’ve met, so naturally we’re on a first name basis. We’re basically besties) was fantastic as always.

7. If you’ve been around here for a while you will remember this post from a year ago. The specific call out in that post is the hubcap story. I lost a hubcap, but it wasn’t the first time. Because this had happened before, when I saw a rogue Toyota Camry hubcap on the side of the road sometime around 2014 I picked it up and stored it for when I needed it.

I ended up needing it last year, and sadly I have since lost that replacement hubcap. I recently had to get a new tire (my third one this year wtf) and when they put the hubcap back on it must have been the final straw. When Duncan and I parked at the Gregory Alan Isakov concert I notice it was missing. That free hubcap lasted me a year, and I will call that a win.

I am back on the hunt for another rogue hubcap on the side of the road, wish me luck.

8. Recently at work we received a random one off Nalgene that we don’t typically carry. I already own a Nalgene, and I use it for hikes where a glass jar will not be a good idea (I exclusively drink and eat out of glass. Yes, I’m one of those.) Because of this I did not need another Nalgene. One is more than enough. However, this Nalgene was very cute and I made a comment about it to my coworker.

I expressed to him how much I liked it, but I didn’t need two Nalgene’s. He knew we likely wouldn’t be getting anymore of these and he decided to buy it for me. This made the Nalgene suddenly very special, and I am reminded of the magnitude of a small gesture. This made my day, and now I can just rotate between the two Nalgene’s I own. Or I can give my other one away. So many options.

9. I’m getting the itch again to sign up for a half marathon. I truly don’t know what is wrong with me. I swore after my last one I would not run another one for a WHILE. That one destroyed me not only physically, but mentally as well. Somehow after the summer season passes I tend to forget how much I abhor the last few weeks of training for a half.

I might try to start training earlier and run exclusively throughout the winter. Maybe that will help?

10. Last, but most certainly not least Duncan and I went on a triple date recently to Ziggy’s Cat Lounge. I went here once last year, and this time it was just the six of us in the room. We had a magical time, and I was reunited with two of their resident black cats. They recently got ANOTHER resident black cat (named Binx, how fitting), and they were all so sweet.

I managed to capture a photo of Duncan in his element…feeding wild animals (this is a call back to him being Snow White on Mt. Si with the bird.)

My favorite thing about this visit is that all of us own cats and are very happy with the cats we own. Sometimes cat owners just want to have coffee and socialize together in public…with other cats.

Q: What’s your confession?

Say that title five times fast…this hike was just as wild as the title of it. Let’s just jump right in! The goal of this hike was to get to Moose Lake, starting at the Obstruction Point trail head (in the Hurricane Ridge area) of Olympic National Park. My friend had warned me that the road down to the trail head was sketchy, but overall my anxiety meter stayed low.

The road to the trail head did have some steep drop-offs, but it wasn’t nearly as sketchy as I anticipated. I get the heebie jeebies driving (and hiking) on thin roads with steep drop-offs, but this one I could easily do again. Hiking down to Moose Lake…maybe not so much. I’m being overly dramatic because that’s who I am, but in all reality hiking DOWN at the beginning of the hike is absolutely not my scene.

I would much rather get the hard climb out of the way first, but I am still glad we did this hike. The first half of the trail from Grand Valley to Moose Lake is beautiful. Open plains, wide terrain, sweeping views of the Olympics, what more could I ask for? (Someone we passed said they saw a bear, but thankfully we didn’t see it.)

Caitlin and Duncan accompanied me on this hike, both of whom had hiked this one before. After the epic views started to get further away from us we began to descend more and more drastically. Going downhill for me is often harder than going uphill. I slip more, I use leg muscles that are often neglected, and it’s a bit of a mind game going down knowing you’ll have to go right back up.

We made it to the lake after a couple of hours and enjoyed some food while I debated if I was going to swim or not. I did not swim because I was being a big fat wimp, but I should have swam to waste more time before the suck fest began. I think most people go back up the same trail to keep this hike an out and back, but we wanted to do the loop version, so we continued on the trail.

From Moose Lake we headed towards Badger Valley. Aka hell on earth in that moment. The trail was a bit neglected in some areas, but nothing unmanageable. Once we hit the incline, I wasn’t sure we would ever get out of there. All three of us were tired to begin with on this hike, and climbing up was brutal (honestly the stats don’t even make this seem that hard, but man were we dying.)

It’s always nice to suffer with others when we are all in the same stage of suffering. After what felt like forever we came to an opening of Badger Valley and my goodness was it beautiful.

We couldn’t tell where the trail finished, but we just kept putting one foot in front of the other, passively complaining to each other (all the while laughing at our shared masochism), and daydreaming about what we would eat when we finished. Finally we made it to the top of the never ending incline and victory was ours.

We started this hike around 0945 and finished around 1645. Seven hours including breaks and stopping at the lake. Hard to say the full stats on this one because my watch officially shit the bed (I have since received a *new* refurbished version of my same watch for free, shout out to Garmin for being so great), but from Duncan’s watch this was 10.5 miles total with somewhere around 2800ft of gain…but like…all in one spot.

Which we all have done much worse, but some days the body just says “nah, not today.”

This is absolutely my favorite kind of type 2 fun. In the moment it can suck, but I LOVE finishing a hike like this. I will remember this one for a while. Thankful for two people who like to suffer with me. I won’t be going back to Moose Lake for a while, but I will likely explore some of the other trail possibilities from this trail head. Or maybe I’ll just go back to Moose Lake, it’s amazing how quickly I forget suffering.

Q: Where do you find a sense of accomplishment?

In October of 2021 I went for a hike with some of my pals that was somewhat difficult. I chalked this up to the fact that I was in peak fatigue week of my cycle, and I have been wanting to revisit this trail ever since. I had to show it who was boss after all. I managed to wrangle my pal Caitlin into doing this trail with me, and in typical Brittany fashion I wanted to do more than I had done the first time.

The trail starts at the Rachel Lake trail head. From here you hike to Rachel Lake (duh) where you can either decide to stop, or to continue on. If you decide to continue on you will eventually come to a fork in the road. Go to the left and you hit Rampart Lakes (this I what I did the first time, and then went back down.) Go to the right and you hit Lila Lake. I was unaware of Lila Lake the first time I did this hike, but once I knew she was an option I knew I wanted to go to Lila AND Rampart.

And of course Rachel, she is the first real beauty along the way.

I made sure to hike this trail during a high energy week of my cycle, but little did I know this would not make a difference. This was just as hard as it was the first time I hiked it, and it will be another couple years before I go again. The trail from the parking lot to Rachel Lake is non stop climbing over roots and stumps and big steps that were rough on the entire body going up and going down.

Parkour hiking aside, this was one of my favorite hikes of the season. We decided to go to Lila after Rachel, and this was all new terrain for me. The weather was perfect, the trail was quiet, and once we hit Rachel the rest was pretty easy. There was a bit more climbing, but overall the hard part was done.

The trail continues even further past Lila Lake, but this was a perfect spot for us to stop and eat lunch before continuing on. We dabbled with the idea of swimming at some point in the day, but we never ended up making that happen. We saw a few other hikers while sitting at Lila, but overall we had most of the trail to ourselves.

I typically preface the option of adding extra side quests to my hikes with a psychological spin. I say something like “let’s just get to X and if we are still feeling good we can shoot for Y too.” I say this knowing damn well the likelihood of us doing both are very high. Since Caitlin is my main hiking partner, she’s the one I usually say this too.

It’s typically more of a mind game thinking of the whole hike as one option, and breaking it up like this makes it easier to digest. Hence the psychological spin.

Most of the time Caitlin is game for whatever, but once in a while she is a bit more hesitant. She felt the fatigue after the climb up and was less enthusiastic than I was about continuing on to see Rampart Lakes (a network of many smaller lakes.) After it was all said and done she thanked me for pushing her because Rampart Lakes are equally beautiful.

We clocked 13 miles for the day with a little over 3000ft of elevation. The side quest to Lila Lake added about 3 miles to the total for the day, but it was more than worth it. I think of all the lakes for the day Lila was my favorite. I could have sat there all day snacking. After a full day we finally made our way back down.

My desire to do “just one more thing” is not restricted to hiking. When I am traveling I try to do as much as I can in one visit as well. I figure if I am visiting somewhere far from home I won’t likely return for a while (if ever), therefor I might as well maximize my time and see ALL THE THINGS.

Another perfect summer hike (we did this one mid September, I am way behind on my hike posts.) Thankful for all the beautiful places to explore just a few hours away from home.

Q: Are you like me when it comes to maximizing as many things possible in one trip?

1. As per usual I fell off the face of the blog for a month. Not because I didn’t have things I wanted to share, but I just couldn’t muster the motivation. I have two more summer hikes I want to share (because this is my online diary and I like to refer back to my posts after time has passed), but I cannot be bothered with those right now.

Instead all the things in between.

2. I’ll start with my most funny tidbit…for Halloween this year I decided I would go to my coworkers party. And by “I decided” I mean Duncan wanted to go. This is out of character for us both, but I happily agreed to go. I knew I wanted to do a couples costume, but after I couldn’t figure anything out Duncan suggested something I couldn’t say no to.

The party was meh, I wouldn’t do it again, and I likely won’t dress up again for a while, but this costume will go down in history as my favorite.

I also dressed up at work this year because I was able to recycle the costume I bought last year for a Halloween themed 10K run. Can you find me?

3. I am stoked to report I have a new vet for Little. If you’ve been here for a while you will know my most recent vet left the clinic we went to, and I was planning to ride the wave for a while without a vet. Duncan ended up helping my coworker/friend with some plumbing a few months ago, and my friends wife happens to be a vet.

We were able to hang out for a full afternoon and she later offered to do a home visit for him in order to legally prescribe him drugs. Little is an absolute tyrant at the vet, so this was such a blessing. She did want us to come in for some blood work (we did that this past Wednesday and she was so good with him), but she is willing to do simple stuff in the comfort of his own home.

This is a huge weight off my shoulders as I was worried what would happen next after he ran out of his meds.

4. Speaking of the black fur ball, I bought a window bird feeder over the summer specifically for him to watch the birds. He barely noticed it until just recently, and watching him watch the birds brings me so much joy. My friend Caitlin is a big bird fan, so I have been able to ask her to identify birds for me along the way, and I can now identify a handful on my own. This is adulting.

5. I recently discovered the “the five year stranger theory” which says something along the lines of: “in five years, most of the people you see every day will be strangers again.” I can’t stop thinking about this, and I often find myself thinking about people who have come and gone in my life. While this is a normal part of existence, sometimes I find it sad.

I’ve also been thinking a lot about friends I had when I was young, and how I no longer talk to any of them (I often miss my high school best friend, but I wonder if we would have anything in common these days.) I can’t remember the last time I talked to some of them, and of course in the moment we never realize it will be the last time. I look at some of my coworkers right now who I greatly enjoy being around, and I know in five years the reality of us still speaking is low.

Unless of course I am still working where I am working…

6. Which leads to me to this…I have been working at REI for five years. What in the world happened. When I moved back to America from Germany in 2020 I wanted a job that I would work for maybe 6 months while I figured my shit out. Five years later I am still there, and still figuring it out. LOL. In all reality I don’t want to move my cat, my job is flexible, and I get the workdays/hours I want. So it just works.

It was a bit of a running joke with two other girls who were hired with me that we were all going to hang on until we got our five year pin. We got our pins…and we are all very much still staying for a bit. LOL

7. Over the summer Duncan and I went to see my favorite artist Gregory Alan Isakov play beautiful music. During this concert we discovered a new to us artist named Dean Johnson, who happened to be Gregory’s opener for the night. We enjoyed him, he is local to Seattle, and my friend Caitlin adores him. Dean was playing a concert in Seattle recently so Duncan, Caitlin, and I went because tickets were cheap.

The concert was great, but he had way too many openers (three of them.) This caused the concert to run into the late hours of night, and we didn’t get home until after 1 a.m. I think it took me a full 24 hours to recover from being awake that long. This is also adulting.

8. I don’t frequent Goodwill, but after a recent visit I found two items I could not pass up. It was as if they were placed there just for me to find. Ironically I had to debate if I really needed them, because I don’t like having too much stuff, but in the end I am so glad I bought these.

9. If you are a Trader Joe’s fan I suggest you run, not walk, to buy yourself a bag of their Maple Brown Sugar flavored almonds. These are some of the most delicious almonds I have ever had. The experience of eating them reminds me of the scene from Willy Wonka where Violet chews a piece of gum that tastes like a full course meal.

The almonds taste like I’m eating a waffle. At first chew I taste the butter, and then the flavor morphs into pure maple syrup. Thankfully I don’t turn into a stick of butter like Violet turning into a blueberry…

10. Duncan and I ran a Turkey Trot this year. Last year I ran it solo, but this year I wranged him into doing it with me. He’s not a runner, but he did great! He insisted we take our photo after we ran, and the rain mixed with sweat had us looking like swamp creatures.

After we ran we of course ate a feast for dinner courtesy of Duncan’s mom. This was the first year in as long as I can remember where I didn’t cook 50% of the meal myself. It was a treat having someone else cook, and Duncan’s mom could give Gordon Ramsay a run for his money. All right, ta ta for now.

Q: What’s your confession? I think I need to start asking: “what’s your tidbit?” Doesn’t need to be a confession, most of my “confessions” are just random blobs of thought.