Two of my amazing friends, Renee and Shelby, and the forever energetic and fierce dog, Charlie and I all decided to hike Mt. Si after work. And I'm not joking when I say, I was truly LOVING MY LIFE!
We made it up to the top in an hour and a half - which for those who don't know, is a pretty darn good time - and was the perfect pace for my Mount St. Helens training. Once at the top, the view was simply breath taking. It was that perfect time of the evening when everything seems dream-like. The sun wasn't quite setting, but projected a sort of peaceful knowing that it's role for the day was soon coming to a close. Simply dream-like. Rainier was beautifully magnificent as always.
After a few pictures to document the surreal feeling at the summit, we decided that it was time to make the descent back to our cars. The sun would soon be setting and we wanted to give ourselves as much daylight as possible to hike down. Knowing that we'd be hiking in the dark for the last 2 miles or so, we were prepared with headlamps... and of course Charlie the super dog to protect us :) We began hiking at 6:45pm and returned to our cars about 3 hours later. It was the perfect mid-week trek.
In fact, I think that was one of the many reasons why last night was SO amazing... we decided to go on a week night. Instead of staying home, doing the normal and expected thing, we changed our routine and did something abnormal. We broke the chains of routine and challenged ourselves physically when our bodies and minds really only wanted to relax. Maybe that's why I felt like I truly accomplished something last night - because I've done Mt. Si before and its never felt this purposeful or good before.
I'm learning that breaking free of routine is important for my well-being. Otherwise I end up feeling contained and limited...
And maybe that's why last night was so exhilarating and perfect... because it had a sense of freedom to it...
I believe more mid-week night hikes are soon to come.
