Hiking Tiger Mountain

Today we finally had a chance to hike Tiger Mountain. As the name suggests, it's a mountain, which means it's up-hill. Then there's more up-hill and have I mentioned steep up-hill?

The 'trail' is a series of old logging roads which, as we soon found out, are unmarked which meant there were a few critical decision making intersections. Our 4.5 mile (one-way) hike turned into a 6.5 mile (one-way) trek as we took the wrong path not once, not twice, but almost 3 times! This added a lot of extra mileage, but it was a beautiful day and the exercise was good.

Along the way there were a ton of butterflies and I was able to get the shot of the one pictured. Ru often liked the sporadic behavior of them and often ran to try to catch either them or their shadow - it was very cute to watch.

Once we hit the top, we were greeted to some great views, including the one of Mt. Rainier pictured here. We sat and let the dogs cool off in the shade and that's where I took the picture of Ru inspecting the Daisey's and of Burton falling asleep on Dan's backpack.

Now that we're home, I think Burton had the right idea and I'm ready for an early bedtime myself!

In total, we did at least 12 miles and had a ton of fun. Our friends Lisa and her husband and their dog Annie joined us, making for a ton of laughs and support like "We're almost there!" just as us some of us were starting to fade.

We're already planning our next hiking trip!

Zulu, Spot & Pinky stayed home. Zulu's too young for such an extreme 'walk', Pinky's in retirement and Spot's on the injured list (not sure what he did, but crate rest is doing him wonders).

Summers here in Washington are gorgeous and it's wonderful to get out and enjoy the trails and nature.

Oh, did I mention we saw a few piles of Bear scat & Cougar poo? Luckily these guys made their natural deposits and were out of site by the time we came across their remains. An NO, I didn't take a picture of it, although I'll admit I thought of it...

Any way, happy hiking everyone!