Revitalizing

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Lake 22 Trail

Some of you may recall that I have been struggling with a hurt knee throughout the spring and summer. Today I got back in that saddle and went for my first actual hike since doing the damage, and the knee came through fine! I’m still doing physical therapy, and I’m not all the way healed yet — I have to be careful when I walk, think about foot placement, and be conscious of how the muscles in my leg are pulling in different directions — but this is a huge step forward for me.

Today’s trail is a very popular one in the Pacific Northwest, and had long been on my radar, but for whatever reason I had never actually hiked it before. Lake 22 supposedly gets its name from 19th-century railroad maps, which listed each creek numerically. While the others went on to receive proper names, the numbers for “Creek 22” and its source lake simply stuck. The trail isn’t very long, at 5-1/2 miles round-trip, but that was perfect for me as a knee tester. It climbs fairly steadily through a beautiful forest, with simply dozens of waterfalls along the way, some of which are quite large. Some sections of the trail are extremely well-maintained, as you can see in the photo above, while others were fairly rough, with fallen boulders to scramble over, and some water on the trail.

Regardless, the view at the top makes everything worthwhile.

Lake 22Thanks for following along on this admittedly off-topic post, but hey, it’s my blog, and I’ll post what I want to, right? 🙂

 

33 thoughts on “Revitalizing”

    • I haven’t done very much on the Mountain Loop Highway — most of my explorations have been Hwy 2 or I-90 corridor, or into the national parks. I need to get out there more! The North Cascades is one of my favorite areas, though, with its stark, rugged beauty.

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      • Being a So. Puget Sounder, I burn countless thousands of calories spinning the crank on the Key and Kitsap peninsulas with spectacular waterfront roads and more climbing than I would see riding to Paradise (Mt. Rainier)!

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        • Very impressive! I used to be an avid long-distance touring cyclist — I rode the Pacific Coast, along the Bikecentennial route (mostly), um, about, ahem, er, 20ish years ago — but nowadays I feel good if I manage to bike commute once to work in any given year. Yeah, it’s that bad.

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        • At my age (a moment or two shy of mid – century), I had to get back into cycling. I don’t do anything easy. I ride distance like younger cyclists ride sprints. StP in 10 hours, for example? It isn’t for boasting but more for people (like I had been) who spend their lives burning time at a desk during the working day and then burn the remainder on the couch. I love my wife, kids, and life too much to kill myself with sedentary existing (ebbing away) and poor eating. My sex life is amazing and I feel better now than I did at 20! My wife has more pleasure than she can handle and I have more to give to her! 😉

          Get back on that bicycle, Lace! There is nothing better than a the dawning of a new day, the sun peaking over the Cascades and the sound of the pedals turning and the faint click of the freewheel as you glide along the shoreline of the Puget Sound!

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  5. How great for you Lace to get yourself back out hiking. It takes courage and, good for you! I’ve had several similar injuries over the years that kept me away from backcountry hiking and mtn. climbing and it was always those first times back that I kept worrying that I wasn’t completely healed or that I’d injure something again. Clearly from looking at your stunning photos, Nature was happy to have you back. ~ Rick

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    • Thank you so much, Rick! And thank you also for your nice comments about the photos; coming from you, that is really quite the compliment! I have no pretensions toward being a photographer — I don’t even have what one might term a “serious” camera — but once in a while I get lucky. I haven’t been climbing now in, oh, about nine years, and likely I’ll never be as serious about it as I was back then; I just can’t commit the time required anymore. Hiking, though, is one of my first true loves, and I would be sad indeed if that were to be taken away from me. I admit to some stiffness and soreness now, the day after — more stretching, more ice, I guess.

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      • It was a super hard adjustment for me not to be able to run because of damaging my knee from a running accident. As you well know, although the physical part is fine, its the mental and emotional beauty / joy that we experience from it that makes running so special. For the physical part I now have to rely on a treadmill (definitely NOT like being outdoors) and for the mental/emotional I do hiking and my landscape photography backcountry trips. As for your photo abilities, they really are quite good. You don’t give yourself enough credit Lace. It’s never about what kind of camera a person used that makes a photo good, it’s their eye for capturing the beauty of what they saw and felt and you, my friend, have the eye! Hope you have a great week. ~ Rick

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        • Thank you so much, Rick! You’re very encouraging. I’ll try to continue taking the odd photo or two, here and there. Of course, they don’t have much to do with the topic of this blog, but that’s all right. As long as people enjoy them, I’ll post them. 🙂

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      • I have your story opened on my browser for almost a week. I’m waiting to finish some stuff I have to do and read it. I can’t believe I didn’t manage to do it yet!! I’m really looking forward to it 🙂

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        • A week! How awful! 😉 Just kidding. I get so bogged down in “real life” stuff that I have become the slowest of slow readers these days. I’m constantly feeling guilty because I’m not reading everyone’s stuff in any kind of a consistent or timely manner, because I simply can’t get to it. Yet I really want to! I’m just tickled that someone looks forward to reading something I wrote! 🙂

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