Hiking With My Sister

 

"I'm really the last person to ask about training. I usually just suffer." This is how I answered my sister's question on advice for how to prepare for a hike. You see, we had just decided to go on a grand adventure together, and our excited texts were flying back and forth.

This was our dad's old hiking stick

I'm going to keep the grand adventure a secret for now...it feels too infantile and delicate to speak about...like I might jinx it and crush the little baby seedling plan before it fully takes root. But I am STOKED - mostly because it was my sister's idea to do it with me.  

Vic is looking pro!

Vicki and I were not that close growing up, and then we were super close, and then we weren't again. So I guess we've been your typical siblings. The good news is we are now circling around to being close once more. One of my favorite quotes is "never place a period where God has placed a comma."  If you are in a "not so close" phase with someone you love, I hope that it helps you believe connection can come back around again with time and grace. 

So anyway, even though I do not train, I was wanting to help Vicki train, because she is not really a hiker. I've touted the virtues of the WTA website on here many times before and I'm doing it again because it is just so helpful. After going to the Hike Finder Map and putting in the filters of 6 to 8 miles and 1 to 2 thousand feet of gain, I found a perfect hike just about a half hour from her house in Seattle called Margaret's Way and Debbie's View. 

Spoiler alert, this is Debbie's View. It's Mount Rainier, in case you can't tell.

Soon after we began going up the trail we started noticing all these electrical boxes. It became clear this trail at some point was meant to be a campground road, and I couldn't help theorizing that the local government had tried to make a state park, but failed and gave up. "Our tax dollars at work," I scoffed.

When we finished our 6.8 miles and 1,640 of elevation gain (Vicki's longest! For now anyway :)) I noticed some information on the back of the trail head sign on both Margaret Macleod and Debbie Anschell (for whom the trail was named for) so I took pictures and told myself I'd read it later. I also knew I'd try to look up information on the mysterious abandoned RV park. 

They all looked like they were great sites 

Turns out that tax dollars were at work, but not in the way I had imagined. The RV park was owned by a group called the "Highlands Recreational Club" but was sold to a logging company in 2012. King County Parks ended up purchasing it from the logging company through the help of the Trust for Public Land.

Sammy did think they spent too much on signage ;) Ha ha there are a LOT of signs, so I promise you won't get lost

Margaret had a lot to do with the campaigning it took to make that happen. And Debbie had a lot to do with the actual development and maintenance of the trails. (MANY are interconnecting in that area.) It was humbling to read about those two amazing ladies. It takes zero effort to scoff and complain, but it's so much more fun than working hard to make things better. Ugh, it was a lesson for me for sure. (Article here if you are interested.)

Pictures and info on the ladies are behind this sign

I'm not putting a period on the type of person I am...there is time and hope for me to improve. And that's true for everyone. For my sister and I it means more training hikes to discover and a trip in September for us to grow even closer while tackling.  I'll keep you posted, but until then I wish you happy "better with the people you love" trails.