Hiking Noble Knob

I know I've mentioned many times how much I LOVE summer here, but I gotta say it again! Summer here is the best... makes you forget all the gloomy rainy/cold days and just LOVE living in such a beautiful place! I had the luxury of an entire weekend off, so as usual we tried to pack it full of fun! We haven't hiked much this summer at all, and were thinking Rainier was our goal, but there are no dogs allowed in Rainier, so we found a great hike with good views of Mt Rainier off a forest service road. The road looked fine, and we only had to go 6 miles up it, so it didn't seem like far, but WOW. There were some massive potholes and ruts that nearly swallowed our little Civic. Brought back memories for both of us of an attempted night hike with the Poteets from the magical summer when George's Monte Carlo lost its directionals on a tough forest service road! Luckily the turn signals still work, but here's a shot of Cheree, Buddha, and Bob by our fearless car at the start of our hike... or actually where we wrongly presumed the trail started! Turns out it was a little further up the road, but we had a nice stroll through a beautiful meadow with tons of wild strawberries (tiny) which we sampled before we headed up to the real trail. :)

Here's a nice view from the actual hike--Rainier in all its glory! Such a nice clear day!

The trail ahead

More Mt Rainier

Sadly, the snowcap of Rainier blends into the sky on this one... it was pretty in real life

Cheree and I with the dogs--they had a great time!

Bob, Lilo, and I

The view the other direction--I love that it looks like the wilderness goes on forever--makes you feel like civilization is much further away

Lilo was a tough pup and hiked all the way up with us (~4 miles?), but during our snack stop she crawled inside Cheree's backpack, so I traded her packs and carried Lilo down since she didn't want out--she LOVED it and just peeked out the backpack like this the whole way down. Everyone we passed smiled a bit at her silly position...

It was a great hike! We love the Northwest and it was great to have some time off to get out and enjoy it! It was good for Lilo to hang out with Buddha too and realize that not all big dogs are going to eat her. :) He looks a little like her friend Cynder from Vegas too, which helps. We had fun hanging out with Cheree too--not often we're both off of work at the same time! Hope you're all enjoying your weekends!