Unlike myself. I decided to hike up to Surprise Lake to kick off summer vacation and as per usual, it did not disappoint. I have hiked this trail a dozen times and it still makes my heart happy. Even with a ton of downed trees to navigate. Trip reports had warned me that there…
If there is one thing I learned in 2025, it is that I can not read and write at the same time. I set a goal at the beginning of the year to read at least 12 books (one a month) and actually managed to read 36 books! There were many things that I could…
It has been 10 years since I visited the Enchantments in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness area outside Leavenworth, Washington, and unlike many people, I think once is going to be enough for me. In those 10 years, there has been no shortage of stories about the crowds on the trails, parking nightmares with…
There are a lot of great Pacific Northwest hiking guidebooks out there, no shortage for sure. But if you have been around MustHikeMustEat.com for a while now, you will have heard me talk about one of my very first hike guide books, Hiking Snohomish County by Ken Wilcox. Yes, I live in Snohomish County and…
I had set aside last weekend to get out on a backpacking trip and as is the new norm, wildfire smoke covered pretty much all of Washington State except for the coast. I had planned for something closer to home so I went anyway, telling myself I would just come home if it was too…
Last August I wrote about visiting Olympic National Park and the Seven Lakes Basin in 2023 after years of having it on my bucket list. I shared about how the weather was less than ideal and so I had minimal views for the three days I hiked the loop. In my 2024 outdoor…