Sunny day hike with a spirited five year old

 Mom: I was so excited to see the first sunny spring day. Analise had asked to go with me but wanted a short hike. I chose Weldon Wagon Road on the Washington side of the gorge because I like that there is lots of sun exposure and it is a kid-friendly hike. Analise packed a backpack with water and sunglasses and was determined to hike. Analise is my spirited five year old with an autism diagnosis. She is very expressive and creative and also struggles with rigidity. Hiking is hard because it requires flexibility and tolerating discomfort. Anytime she has motivation to hike I get very excited.

 Analise: I loved walking up the trail. It was so fun! 🙏🙆😺😦💘😝💭💭💟💥😈😺😹😸😷💜💖💀💝💓🙌

 Mom: A friend joined us on this hike and I gave her a walki talki so that she could hike ahead if she wanted and one to Analise. This gave Analise something good to focus on. I promised to stop for lunch pretty early into the hike as well. We left the dog at home since she hikes at a much faster pace.

 Analise: I loved the little flowers! They were so pretty!🍛🍵🐁🐀🐈🐇🍼🎂🐱🐲🐵🐾🐠🐂🍏🍎🍐🍑🍒🍓🍔🍕🍕🍕🍕

 Mom: I loved seeing the long needled pines and coming out of the trees to views of the valley below.

 Mom: We had almost gotten to the lunch spot and Analise was doing great using the walki talki to distract from the challenge of walking uphill.

 Analise: I did not like mom taking pictures of me. 🎆🎅🎄🎃♡♥♦💒🏉🎴🎠🎦🃕🃍🂶🂴🃉🃏🃇🂹🀇🀈🀉🀄🀡⚾⚽🀪🂸🂵🃍🂸🂩🂳🂶🂩

 Mom: These old trees made me smile.

 Mom: Taking time to soak in the sun and enjoy the view of the scrub oaks and valley.

 Analise: Mom tried to take a selfie of me and her but it came out to be a big fail! ☎👑💉💮🕓🕘🕜🔧📵📬📘📙📗📍🔍📌📋📊📉📈📇📆📅📄📃💹

 Mom: We didn't make it quite far enough to see Mt. Hood but our friend did. Still a really nice view.

 Analise: I used the walki talki to sing loudly "Shot to the heart and you're to blame. You give love a bad name!" and also to check on our friend. 🌝🌞🌟🌠🔥🌜🌛🌚🌐🌑🌈🌂✨🌀🌏🌄🌕  analise

 Mom: More signs of spring!

 Analise: i won the race.💟👶👷💓😇😏😍🙀😿😾😾😽😼😻😺😹😸🙉🙊💧💢💤💃👹👸👭👬👰👯👮👐👏👪👫👍👌👋👊👉👈👇👆👅

 Mom: I took a short rest on the hillside in the sunshine since Analise claimed to be too tired to hike any further up the hill. She enjoyed playing with rocks and our friend hiked ahead to the viewpoint.

 Analise: I WAS 😎😍😌💭💬😧😡😱😰😤RUNNING😉😀👩👪👄👅👏👧👨💙💟💭👻😁💃👺😈😈😕😔😌

 Analise: Mom was trying to take a picture of me but I put my hand up and it made a big fail. 🚼🚻🛅🛄🚺🚰🚞🚋🚚🗼🏩🚢🚗🏮🚓🚘🚱🏯🚐🚋💈⛼⛻⛺⛹⛱⛶⛷analise

 Analise: I was climbing the hill in the sunshine to play. My hiking energy had run out. ⛰🚷🚓🚍🚕🚮🚹🛃🛂🛁🚽🛅🛄🚛🚑💈🚋🚹🚮🛂🏩🏨🏡🗽

 Mom: Sitting on the hillside while Analise played was lovely.

 Analise: I was running down the hill toward the car. 🚪🚽🚧⛱

 Mom: Heading back down toward the car, continuing to enjoy the sunshine and trees.

Mom: These needles are so long! I am grateful to have a patient friend to hike with and to have this time with Analise. She gave the hike a 10 out of 5 and said she really liked the pretty view. She gave herself an A+ and me a B-. It was a nice time together.

Snow Bowl birthday hut adventure!

 This is the second year of what I hope to make an annual adventure. The weather stunk and two out of the four of us needed to stay home due to illness, but Corrine and I braved the rain and drove up to the south sno park with Mt. Tahoma Trails.

 The plus of a rainy day is that we got to park a mile closer and skip a mile of climbing uphill! After about a mile of hiking we hit snow at 3600 feet. I left my snowshoes in the car because it was easier to just hike today.

 We continued through the rain in the woods but the climbing kept us warm.

 Reaching the high point and enjoying the prayer flags!

 We took a short break but cooled down quickly.

 This looked totally different with so little snow but we knew we were on the home stretch.

 My faithful friend braving the rainy day with me.

 We started downhill to the hut.

 There was a light dusting of snow but it got a little deeper when we got up out of the trees.

 Behind the hut, this little gazebo was made by a special volunteer Judy as a meditation space.

 I took some time to enjoy the gazebo.

 Inside the gazebo there were colorful prayer flags.

 The windows at all sides gave a great view on a sunnier day.

 The gazebo has all sorts of special touches.

 Outside the gazebo

 On the edge of the special place- people stacked rocks and left special touches.

 Here is a pole with the distance to the mountains.

 We had the big beautiful hut all to ourselves- played a board game- Harry Potter Chamber of Secrets trivia with a Quiddich game, relaxed by the fire, took naps, and read good books.

 What an amazing cozy space!

 MTTA huts feel like coming home! I love how many special touches the huts have.

 Melting snow on the stove for water.

 We cooked some delicious food.

 The extensive kitchen has everything you might need- even a collection of muffin tins. Propane and solar power.

 I slept upstairs and had a wonderful time. It was cozy and special to have the hut to ourselves.

 We braved the wind and rainy morning and hiked back down to the car. We met up with two friends, Keri and Joseph who brought us to Longmire where I enjoyed this yummy blackberry cobler.

We had a great visit and a short hike by the river. I can't wait until the next hut or yurt adventure! What a gem. Such a special place. I feel connected to myself, Mt. Rainier, and my friends and open to what these experiences have to teach me!

Sleeping Beauty Mt. Adams Fall Sunshine

On a beautiful sunny fall day I went for a long drive with Oreo dog and my friend Corrine to a great hike with views of Mt. Adams, Sleeping Beauty.

Oreo dog was ready to pull me up a mountain as always. We hiked through the woods- 1.6 miles of steep to some great rockery at the top.

We spent some time exploring the high rocks and basking in the sunshine and mountain views.

Mt. Adams was right in front of us.

It was a great view.

In the distance was Mt. St. Helens.

Here I am in my mountain revelry and delight!

Oreo was keeping track of Corrine behind me and other hikers at the top.

Mt. Rainier in the distance.

More Mt. St. Helens.

Mt. Adams up close.

On top of the world!

Enjoying the sunshine.

Oreo always wants to keep going. She was happy to join us.

Mt. Adams beauty.

Hey, why aren't we going somewhere?

We went over to the site of the fire lookout on the other side of the rocks, still enjoying the mountains and the sunshine.

I can't get enough of this view!

Looking across the rocky spine.

Oreo is queen of the mountain.

I could stay up here a lot longer but it was time to head back toward the trailhead and back to town.

I enjoyed the rocks on the way back down. My heart feels happy and full from this adventure. Loving the fall sunshine!