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.