Portage Pass Trail

 I was quite sick of working in my yard and I jumped at Mark's suggestion to drive down to Whittier. It's a beautiful drive down along the inlet, to Portage, then the trip through the tunnel to Whittier. We decided to check out the Portage Pass Trail just to see if the parking mess had improved. I was delighted to see that they now have a huge parking lot. Mark has never hiked any of this trail. I have done it to the overlook several times but have never done the whole 2 miles down to Portage Lake. I knew we wouldn't even have time for that but did hope we could hike up to the overlook. Mark needed to rest a bit but we both made it to the high point where we could see the glacier and down to the lake in the distance. That is about the halfway point of the trail. Bella had to stay on her leash because there were a lot of people also on the trail. It was 75 degrees and mostly calm, which is very unusual for Whittier. Last week it was snowing there. It is usually foggy and raining or snowing. So, we picked the most perfect day ever to give it a try. Mark loved it and was so happy we had decided to hike up there. We had time to grab a nice salmon burger for lunch and catch the 6pm tunnel opening to drive back to Portage. What a spectacular place that is. Maybe next time I can get there early enough to hike all the way to the lake. But I was really happy to make it to the overlook. It's amazing up there. 

Gold Star and POW/MIA Peaks

 Today was a spectacular climb up Gold Star then on to POW/MIA. The weather was perfect; the trail was perfect. It was the best time I've ever hiked up there. Pam went with us and was worried she would not be able to keep up with the group. She really didn't have any trouble at all and really enjoyed the beautiful hike. It seems like a very long hike because it's quite steep. But in reality, it's only about 4 miles round trip. But the trail has very few switchbacks and basically follows the fall line all the way to the top. We were very fortunate to have the entire trail all to ourselves too. There is only room for about 5 cars at the little turnout where we have to park. But the 5 of us drove up in 3 cars and had it all to ourselves. We did run into a couple of other hikers on our way down, but no one else was on the upper mountain with us. It was 70 degrees out with nonly a light breeze. Typically, it is a howling wind on top but today the light breeze was a welcome addition. We took a nice long lunch break under the POW and US Flags. I hiked down the ridge until I reached the steep drop off so I could get the closest photos of Twin Peaks. Bella went with me of course. Instead of following the ridgeline back to Gold Star, we hiked over to the far ridge where we could look out over the valley below. I love that part of the hike because the ridge is full of interesting rock formations. Bella took off on her own at one point, and I had to yell "Treats" loudly to finally get her to catch up with me. She likes to explore up there just as much as we do. The trip down through the rocks and scree was a bit slow going, but we were soon back down to the saddle where we took another break. The lower trail was nice and dry. We took another nice long break in a soft meadow on the lower trail in the sunshine. We all wanted to just stay there and sunbathe for the rest of the day. But of course, we did need to go home. It was an awesome hike as always. Plus, it's a great way to pay tribute to our fallen heroes who made it possible to have the freedom we have to do such a hike.