After many many weeks of trying to find a weekend when we could go hiking with our friends, the mountain gods shined down on us and we headed up to the Cascades to hike with Jeff, Kate, and Robin on Sunday! It was a nice hike, mostly through the woods, with a very pretty lake at the end. It wasn't a very challenging hike, which was fine since I think I was already starting to feel the effects of the cold that I am now home sick with. It was Kate's first real hike, and it seemed like a good one for her to get her feet wet on!
Heading up the many switchbacks!
Pretty Annette Lake. Kevin and I once again forgot our fly rods, and were really kicking ourselves because there were fish rising all over the lake. They looked pretty small, but we need to start remembering that we have the rods and bring them on these hikes!
Robin prepares to dig into lunch.
Jeff and Kate snuggle up for a snapshot
Kevin and I enjoy sitting lakeside
Jeff and Kate brought many delicious treats from Trader Joe's, including freeze dried blueberries and bananas, which were surprisingly good!
Kate really enjoyed the flattened bananas!
My cutie!
It was nice to get into the mountains for the day, and we hope to get a couple more hikes in before the weather turns! Robin, Kevin and I are thinking about doing
Ingalls Lake trail sometime later this month, which looks like a bit more of a challenge. Guess I'm turning into a better hiker, because I am actually looking forward to a tough one! Until then, I am resting up to get rid of this silly cold. Think I got it from Corbin, he has several direct shot sneezes on me this weekend!
We had great weather this year, not nearly as windy, though Saturday was a little windy. The sun was shining, and we were ready for the fish to start nibbling!
Can you see the deer? We also saw a coyote! The closest to the wildlife on the river that we got, ha ha ha!
Enjoying a bit of lunch!
Me and Pops!
Our picture perfect campsite, set up by the sweetest boys at Red's Fly Shop. They very nicely agreed to find us a spot after our drift route had to get changed around because of timing. Thanks guys!
Swoon! There is nothing cuter than a fly fishing husband!
Kevin was the only one who managed to actually hook anything, but he "long distance released" it. It popped out the water a couple times while he was playing the line, but got away about 10 feet out from the boat. I got several nibbles, but not takers. Dad got pretty much completely skunked. It seemed like everyone else on the river got a couple dinkers, but nothing big. But we couldn't have asked for a better time and company. As AK Fisher once said, "The fishing was good; it was the catching that was bad."
