A hike with some good friends.
What's the perfect way to start that beautiful day off?
Hitting a deer on the interstate.
...maybe not. But that's what happened. Five minutes into our trip a deer went charging across the four lanes of north-bound traffic on I-5, gracefully jumped over the median, entered the left lane of the south-bound (which happened to be my lane) and locked onto the front of my car. It bounced off the mazda and was hit by a girl who was driving by to the right. She was going MUCH faster than I was.
We were blessed to come out of it in such great shape. No one was hurt, and the damage to my Mazda was just a cracked grill and a slightly dented hood. Thankfully I was able to slow down from 70 mph to about 30 mph before hitting it. I see the experience as a gracious reminder to stay focused while driving -- and definitely to make the resolution to no longer write text messages while I'm driving.
We were blessed to come out of it in such great shape. No one was hurt, and the damage to my Mazda was just a cracked grill and a slightly dented hood. Thankfully I was able to slow down from 70 mph to about 30 mph before hitting it. I see the experience as a gracious reminder to stay focused while driving -- and definitely to make the resolution to no longer write text messages while I'm driving.
A collision with a deer wasn't enough to stop us from doing a sweet hike, and after an hour of straightening things out with the state patrol and the other girl, we were back on the road. We headed to Goat Mountain -- which is a great ridge-trail directly between the three big mountains: Rainier, Adams, and St. Helens. We had amazing views of all of them. We were out here with a crew last October and I wanted to get back here ever since. Here are the stats: Elevation gain: 2000 ft. / Distance: somewhere between 6 and 8 miles. Here's some of what we saw:
After the main elevation gain, Matt and Nick stopped for a conversation:
The trail followed this ridge... non-stop, 360 degree, great views!
This is me standing on the rocks that you can see right in the very middle of the previous picture:
Peanut Butter and Jelly tastes so much better with a sweet view...
The gaping, snow-filled crater of St. Helens:
My favorite shot of the day: (Rainier)
On the way home we got a nice sunset look at Mt. Rainier:
We stopped at a little burger joint called Huff 'n Puff for some well-deserved burgers and shakes on the way home. It was a solid two hour drive back. Saturday night was Nick's birthday party. We had a sweet time and also got to carve pumpkins... Here are some of the best:
Mine was an angry deer. After hitting the deer Friday, I was able to use this pumpkin-carving as a "coping mechanism" for dealing with the emotional debris-field that remained after the accident.
6 comments:
wow! i impressed with your artistic talent and pumpkin carving!
dude that is freaking freaky deer. good chatting with you tonight. you're nice
The views of the mountains are beautiful! What a great experience, Tom!
Great pictures. I wish that I was by some mountains right now instead of MI.
Isn't hiking the best?! Have you seen some my New Zealand hiking pictures?
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