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Happy diwali, everyone! Thanks, Shreyas for lighting up the candles. :)
Heather lake on a clear day. Did I lose the other images? Oof.
I remember this area, and just feeling happy.
4.6 miles, roundtrip 1050 ft elevation gain Landscape
I had visited Summit Lake a few months ago, but decided to be back on a clear day. Well, I’m glad I did! Hiked this with my sister - the wild flowers, blueberries, the lake, with Rainier watching over all of this at a distance, made the hike worthwhile the second time! :)
6 miles, roundtrip 1300 ft elevation gain Lake
Rainer
I decided to hike up Mt Ellinor over the weekend. The views from the top was surreal - seeing the mist and cloud below us! I also witnessed some mountain goats, which are not typical in this region. Passing the goats on the trail was interesting. They are pretty strong, and you don’t want to accidentally aggravate a mountain goat next to their young ones!
I talked to a few folks on the trail who looked like they were working about the mountain goats.
Exactly one week earlier, I hiked up Crystal Lake and it looked like summer is here. And PNW was like, NO! Summit lake hike was misty AF - with visibility of less than a 100 ft or so. Regardless, it was a surreal experience, and I will be back when the weather is better!
Another strange thing happened on this hike. The road to get there was in a terrible shape.
Crystal lake summit is a pleasant hike. Since it wasn’t too sunny thanks to the trees, I decided to run up the trail!
9 miles, roundtrip 2300 ft elevation gain Chinook pass
Flower
Stream
Trail
A pleasant day to hike up Dirty Harry’s balcony in the cascades with Shreyas.
This was around the time I really started taking online privacy seriously when someone started live streaming themselves on Facebook live on top of the hike. I asked them how they felt giving out personal data to another company, and they said that they didn’t care much. Sigh.
Regardless, the cascades on a sunny day - there’s nothing like it!
3.2 miles, roundtrip 250 ft elevation gain With: Shreyas. Ebey’s landing is located along the Puget sound near Seattle, WA. It was a lazy Saturday afternoon, so Shreyas and I decided to build a rock tower by the beach.
The hike The hike itself was fairly flat, with a mild elevation gain at the start of the hike. The trail took us by the cliffs, overlooking the Puget sound. On the other side of the hike, we decided to build a rock tower before heading back along the beach to wrap up the first of many hikes in 2019!
With: Nitin Patil Poo poo point is a gorgeous trail which is apparently accessible via horse and drone-friendly. xD
From the top, you can paraglide all the way back down - I’d love to try that one day!
Akshaya
Clouds
Greens
8.8 miles, roundtrip 2900 ft elevation gain The Hike My failed attempt at Lake Ingalls was bothering me. I took it upon myself to reach the top no matter what. With forest fires on the rise, the weather was smoggy. To make matters worse, it was cloudy. The hike was very scenic nonetheless - highly recommended.
Flora
Hike
Lake ingalls
9 miles, roundtrip 2700 ft elevation gain With: Shreyas, Willy, Karen and Ellie. There’s nothing like a Sunny day at Snow Lake. Gem lake turned out to be a hidden surprise.
Getting to the trail Shreyas and I were on our way soon after renting the car! A coffee break and a few bumpy roads later, we got to the trail head. We grouped with Willy, Karen, Ellie and their pet, Frank and hit the trail around 12pm.
5 miles, roundtrip 2125 ft elevation gain With: Kartheek Murthy and Snigdha Goel. The Hike Mt Pilchuk is a relatively steep hike, mostly shaded. The trail ends with an old lookout that oversees multiple hills and mountains. The 360° views from the top are spectacular!
Akshaya climb
Akshaya sits
Panorama
8.5 miles, roundtrip 4000 ft elevation gain The Hike Oh boy, Mailbox peak is one of the hardest hikes I’ve done while writing this post. Most of the path is shaded. The end of the hike have boulders, and the famous mailbox at the top! I was pleasantly surprised to see a used router and a toy space needle on top of the mailbox and some beer bottles inside.
University of Washington during peak bloom of cherry blossoms is breath taking. People singing, dancing, students testing out drones, people posing (for Tinder?) and families having picnics at the quad was refreshing to see.
Lorde performed in an Amazon post-holiday party and it was lit. She performed a lot of songs from her album, “Melodrama”.
Here are some of my favorite bits -
Melodrama The Louvre
7.7 miles, roundtrip 2300 ft elevation gain Beautiful hike to Colchuck lake with Heather Lemaster. Also, saw a mountain goat saying “come at me, brah!”.
Heather
Lake
Mountain goat
Pacific North West is great during the summers. Shreyas, his friend and I hit the road for a camping trip that included a waterfall hike at Sol Duc, camp at PNW, hike at Neah Bay, hike at Ruby beach and hike at MaryMere falls.
Sol Duc Waterfall Akshaya
Waterfall
Waterfall front view
Ruby Beach Moon
Prabhjot travels to Seattle! What better way to spend time than on a hike! This time, we were joined by Nitin, Karthik and Sniggy! :) Seattle area experienced some wild fires around that time, so the pics look foggy.
The trail ends with a look out, with views of the lake with Rainer in the background.
Lookout
The gang
Wild flowers
11 miles, roundtrip 3900 ft elevation gain With: Karthik and Sniggy. Lake Blanca is a strenuous but beautiful hike. The altitude is pretty high, that there was still snow on the top in peak summer! This was the first time I hiked more than 3500 ft in elevation gain. Fun fact: after the hike, my legs were sore. I bought a foot massage machine off of Amazon without thinking twice.
Being a tourist in Seattle With: Surbhi Kamboj Being a new transplant in Seattle, Surbhi and I decided to be a tourist!
We took the Seattle city pass and went to -
Seattle Cruise Seattle Aquarium Space Needle Chihuli Glass Museum Museum of Pop Culture (MoPop) Aquarium
Aquarium colors
Aquarium jelly fish
Chihuli 1
8.8 miles, roundtrip 2900 ft elevation gain With: Shreyas, Utkarsh, Ankit The Hike Lake Ingalls looked amazing during my research. However, the hike was still covered with snow - to a point that we couldn’t make it all the way to the lake. We had to turn around mid way due to the lack of snow hiking equipment.
Oh, well! :(
Oh deer
Stream
My first real hike in the PNW (Pacific North West - yep, I didn’t know it either) was a blissful hike in Rattlesnake ridge, which overlooks a lake. The trail is very crowded and is a fairly medium hike.
Akshay and nitin
Landscape
Squirrel
With: Shreyas and Sibi Leavenworth is such a chill town. This German town is the perfect place to be during summer. We went to Nutcracker museum and hiked Icicle Ridge trail.
We also stopped at Olympia to visit the state capitol and ended with a quick stop at the lighthouse at Point Wilson.
Akshay
Ancient nutcrackers
Hike
With: Surbhi Kamboj Every year, during spring, few parts in the pacific northwest tulips bloom at the same time. Surbhi and I decided to check out RoozenGaarde. Roses roses everywhere. :)
Surbhi and I also decided to do a quick hike on Snoqualmie falls on the same weekend.
Fun fact: people used to say that Snoqualmie is a great place to Ski. I always thought it was SNOW-CALL-ME. lol.
3.7 miles, roundtrip 1150 ft elevation gain With: Ray I hadn’t met Ray in ages! We decided to catch up after my move to Seattle by going on a hike!
Little Si is a shaded hike next to Mount Si - it also popular among rock climbers.
Akshay and ray
Landscape
Trees
I moved to Seattle in March 2017 to continue my career as a Software Engineer in Amazon. I work at the headquarters for Alexa Smart Home with a team of highly talented individuals. I feel excited to start this new journey!
Check out the views of the space needle from my desk!