Your Most Memorable Hike

[weathercrazy]

Would like to revive past threads about the best hiking experiences (whether it being an experience meeting people, the weather, wildlife, etc).

This is my favorite because i had the trail virtually to myself and the fog was in and out creating an other-worldly experience. Being right above the cloud deck I experience a fog bow for the first time, along with a glory. The fog made the mountains and surrounding peaks like islands in the sky...

These are pics from my all-time favorite hike...Burroughs Mountain to Mount Fremont at Mount Rainier NP in September of 2005.

http://weathercrazy.smugmug.com/Landsca ... TwjVH-A-LB

[cubaricho]

In a picture like this: http://weathercrazy.smugmug.com/Landsca ... geLi-O.jpg

That's really something else dude. Being above the clouds - but that close - would be out of this world. I couldn't even fathom it. It looks like you could just walk off the edge on to those clouds.

[weathercrazy]

It was a very cool experience, especially watching the clouds slosh around like water and eventually spill over this ridge, right where the trail happened to be.

[weathercrazy]

Here is a short sequence showing the clouds mover over the ridge...

[roadtripmom]

Great topic !

I have had so many wonderful hiking experiences and met so many great folks on the trail, but last weekend was incredible. My 16 year old son went to Goat Rocks with me. I really wanted to experience this place before the weather turned and could have gone alone, but it is such an incredible place and a long drive from Vancouver, I wanted a partner. My son has hiked with me before, but its not his favorite activity. I was thrilled when he agreed to go. He spent most of the summer at his fathers house and he said he really wanted to spend some time with me ! If you have teenagers you how great that is !! Sharing the beauty of the outdoors with my children has always been important to me and this trip was amazing ! My dad took me hiking alot as a child and that is why I love it so much. When we got to Goat Lake he said " Mom, this is your mall". I gave him a quizzical look and he explained how his sister (19 and hates hiking) loves the mall so much. Ha, the kid gets it ! He realizes the power of natural places and he did not complain the whole 13 miles ! It was wonderful to share this magnificent place with him. Thank you buddy, you made my summer !!

[BigBear]

It's a great topic - most memorable hike. The difficulty for me is separating memorable times on memorable hikes becasue I've traveled to some great places multiple times.

You have picked some winners already. Snowgrass Flats is #9 on my all-time list and Burroughs & Mt. Fremont are #28 and #30 respectively. (yes, I'm one of those type-A list makers when bored by 3 weeks of rain each November, revise my top 100 list of destinations)

My top 10 locations are:
1) Sahale Arm, North Cascades
2) Grinnell Glacier, Glacier
3) Garden Wall, Glacier
4) Maple Pass, North Cascades
5) Amphitheater Lake, Grand Teton
6) Glacier Pass, Wallowas
7) Carper Pass, Wallowas
8) Lake Solitude, Grand Teton
9) Snowgrass Flats, Goat Rocks
10) Piegan Pass, Glacier

[weathercrazy]

I think all of us that live out west know why we stay here! This place is beautiful!

I passed up Grinnel Lake last time, but I'll have to head up there since it's # 2!

[Roy]

The fog made the mountains and surrounding peaks like islands in the sky..

Your pictures are very cool!

I had a similar experience on the top of St. Helen's in January. Only a few of the high spots of the crater rim were above the clouds. Only the volcanoes were showing and it looked like I could walk over to each one. I almost turned around before I broke out of it because I was afraid I would walk off the rim. It got so bright and visibility was zero when I broke through my head was above it and my boots were still in fog. When skiing out it cleared incredibly fast and I was treated to beautiful sunset. Like you I never saw a sole all day.

I didn't take my camera that day and I have since given up on trying to tell people what I saw I couldn't recreate it in others minds. Now I know of someone who has experienced something very similar. Visually this is my most memorable hike.

I think my most memorable was the South Sister trip with my fourteen year old in 2009. It was just the ease in witch he completed the hike and he was a great partner. My avatar is him on the way out.

Also Burroughs and Mt. Fremont was one of my early hikes with my dad good memories.


Tom

[pyles_94]

Most memorable experience was this year at jefferson park... The day started out looking really good. Partly cloudy with kinda thunder-head looking clouds... started at the whitewater trailhead in the afternoon and got the hike done in a few hours... There is a point where you can see the mountain 3/4 the way up, and we saw it but the peak was obscured with thick clouds and my doubts started growing. Got to the park with a few hours to spare before sunset, hung around, swatted mosquitoes, hiked around the lakes, and came back about 30 mins before the sunset to the spot I wanted to take pictures. The clouds were still thick but I figured that maybe they would still catch some color even if it didnt show the mountain. Found some compositions and waited for the color... Just at the point where I was going to give up I spotted a glint of bright light reflecting off the glacier and all of a sudden the clouds started lifting just in time for some great light. As soon as the color faded, Jefferson was gone as soon as she showed. Then we hiked out in the dark.. my first time doing that (nothing terribly interesting happened, it was just memorable).

[Water]

The appalachian trail, of course : )

nothing like going from the leaf-less trees of georgia, to the humid green tunnel of virginia, to the mosaic of brilliant fall color in the ancient craggyness of new hampshire and maine in late autumn.