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Kellbell
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Kellbell
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PostMon Sep 13, 2021 5:52 pm 
I have had such an epic hiking year that I felt the need to really think about what my very favorite hikes have been. When I settled on my top 10, I found half of them were from this year! Link below if you’re curious, but I’m curious to know what your top 10 would be. https://www.slowesthiker.com/blog/my-top-ten/

JimK, jaysway, GaliWalker
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GaliWalker
Have camera will use



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GaliWalker
Have camera will use
PostTue Sep 14, 2021 5:57 am 
I posted this list a while ago. Here's my latest top-10, a slightly tweaked version: 1: K2 basecamp and Gondogoro La (Karakorams)
Trip report. My third trip in the most spectacular mountain range of the World. 2: Snow Lake (Karakorams)
Trip report. A hike to a bowl of snow-covered ice, 1mi deep. 3: Nanga Parbat basecamp, Fairy Meadows (Himalayas)
Trip report. This was my first time visiting the basecamp of an 8000m peak. 4: Enchantments (Washington)
Related trip report. I've made numerous trips into this wonderland of lakes and larches. All were spectacular. 5: Grand Canyon (Arizona)
Trip report. Down the South Kaibab Trail and up the Bright Angel Trail. 6: Pea Soup Lake (Washington)
Trip report. It took me a while to do this one, using one of the lesser traveled approaches, but all the toil was worth it. 7: Half Dome (California)
Trip report. The infamous cables... 8: Presidential Traverse (New Hampshire)
Trip report. The toughest hike that I’ve done on the east-coast. 9: Chesler Park and Druid Arch (Utah)
Trip report. Loop hike in Canyonlands National Park. 10: Lake Ida – Lake Edna loop (Washington)
Trip report. A long loop, stringing together a bunch of beautiful lakes.

'Gali'Walker => 'Mountain-pass' walker bobbi: "...don't you ever forget your camera!" Photography: flickr.com/photos/shahiddurrani

JimK, jaysway, awilsondc, Kellbell
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Kellbell
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Kellbell
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PostTue Sep 14, 2021 6:06 am 
Wow, I love it!! And I love I haven’t heard of your Washington hikes (except the Enchantments of course) Thank you

GaliWalker
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jaysway
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jaysway
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PostTue Sep 14, 2021 7:50 am 
GaliWalker, I like that both the Karakoram and the White Mountains are featured on the same list smile.gif I have not lived here very long so while I have been quite active, I have not explored as many spots as many of you. And the spots I have explored are mostly popular, well-known places. But here it goes (limiting to just the PNW): 1. Sahale Glacier Arm 2. Enchantments 3. Lyman Lakes 4. Jade Lake and Dip Top Gap 5. No Name Lake (Broken Top) 6. Knife's Edge 7. Hidden Lake Lookout 8. Jefferson Park bawl.gif 9. Marmot Pass and Buckhorn Mountain 10. Earl Peak This is just for fun, obviously favorite hikes are totally subjective and for me constantly change tongue.gif Kellbell, I agree with you that the experience is a major factor here too. Also conditions. I visited the Enchantments twice last season, the first time I was impressed but a little underwhelmed, the second time was during the beginning of the larch season and holy cow did my impression of the place change!

GaliWalker, JimK, Kellbell
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Cyclopath
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Cyclopath
Faster than light
PostTue Sep 14, 2021 8:42 am 
For me in 2021, any hike that isn't on fire. frown.gif

Kellbell, dixon, RumiDude
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zimmertr
TJ Zimmerman



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zimmertr
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PostTue Sep 14, 2021 1:34 pm 
Here are ten of my favorites from this year. It's hard to actually rank them so consider this a rough order. A lot of those photos are really misty. It's funny in retrospect to consider that about half my hikes this year felt like they were inside of clouds.
  1. Ida Lake - Took Chatter Creek until the climber's trail up towards Icicle Ridge. Summited Frigid Mountain and flipped over the other side and traversed cross-country to Ida. Then went cross-country again until I connected with the Icicle Ridge trail which I used to loop back out. This day turned out to be one of the hardest I've ever had in the mountains. My original itinerary planned to hit some other nearby destinations but the off trail sections went slow and I ended up running 3 miles in the dark while it was raining. If you consider this, make sure you're good with route finding. Lots of the nearby mapped trails don't really exist. Some hard earned, type 3 fun.
  2. Chikamin Lake - A long day in and out from Mineral Creek. Amazing views after Park Lake. Endless tarns and lakes. The natural monolith and the nearby blue plunge pool were incredible. I wanted to climb Chikamin Peak but it didn't feel safe after I made my way up there. I'd made an attempt at this area before and bonked at Park Lake so it felt like an achievement to finally make it. I guess I'll have to go back a third time next year to see what it's like when you're not trapped in a cloud.
  3. St. Andrews & Klapatche Parks - First hard day on Wonderland but the huge views made it worth it. Swam in St. Andrews Lake, scrambled up to some ridge to get views at the massive gold-colored Tahoma glacier moraine, and sherpad my friends pack up Emerald Ridge.
  4. Lake Ingalls - An overnight in the Teanaway. Lots of goats, deer, and granite. The climb up South Ingalls was a TON of fun. Woke up the next morning with a herd (10+) of goats in our campsite.
  5. Panhandle Gap/Summerland - Sunshine, alpine meadows, marmots. A high point on the trail and a high point for us.
  6. Horseshoe Lake - Incredible early-season views with lots of snow travel. I never get tired of the Stuart range. Seeing all the glaciers on Mount Stuart was very cool.
  7. Navaho Peak - Summited in a freakin' blizzard. Enough said.
  8. Third Burroughs Mountain - I'd been here before but this was on like day 8 of Wonderland after walking in the rain for two days. We went cross-country from Skyscraper and the views of Rainier were glorious. My friend fried spam at the top. The crevasses in the Winthrop Glacier looked insane.
  9. Gem Lake - Another early-season snow adventure. Everyone's been to Snow Lake and half of those have been to Gem but I had the place entirely to myself and laid fresh footprints in the snow. The fog rolled in on the way back and the mood was awesome. Probably should have had an ice axe for the catwalk around the edge of Snow Lake. Mighta almost slid in.....
  10. Red Mountain - Another misty adventure

Flickr | Strava

JimK, jaysway, Kellbell, GaliWalker, Cyclopath
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Foist
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PostTue Sep 14, 2021 8:54 pm 
Not sure whether we are talking all time or this year. All time is too hard, so I'll go with this year (hard to even recall 10 hikes, alas, it's been a thin hiking summer for me). Nice geographic spread around Washington though. The top 2 probably also crack my top 10 all time (Surprise Mtn being partly for sentimental reasons). 1. Lost Creek Ridge - Lake Byrne (2 nights) 2. Surprise Mountain dayhike with wife (revisiting where I proposed 13 years ago) 3. Overnight to Excelsior Pass and High Divide with wife and 6-year-old. (but OMG, the bugs...) 4. one-way overnight with my kids from Longmire via Wonderland trail to Indian Henry's then down Kautz Creek. 5. Rialto Beach - hole in the wall with the family. 6. Pete Lake - Polallie Ridge LO - Tired Creek loop solo dayhike. 7. Grand Pass trail to point 6536 with the family 8. Johnson Ridge - Scorpion Mountain dayhike with the family. 9. Emmons Glacier overlook trail with the family (short but great) 10. beach hike from Elwha River west along Freshwater Bay.

Kim Brown, JimK, Kellbell, zimmertr
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Kellbell
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Kellbell
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PostWed Sep 15, 2021 7:35 am 
Wow Foist, and I thought I was doing a lot of hiking this summer! So cool you’re taking your 6 year old on a few— those are impressive hikes for that age!

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Foist
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PostWed Sep 15, 2021 8:29 am 
You think that's a lot? I'm pretty sure those are ALL my hikes from this summer. Yes, we have always hiked with the kids so they are well trained. They get whiney at times but at the end of the day they love it.

Kellbell
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Malachai Constant
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PostWed Sep 15, 2021 8:50 am 
Not necessarily “best” hikes but life changing ones in no particular order. 1. Mount Saint Helens pre eruption. 2. Cradle Mountain Trek, Tasmania. 3. Mount Whitney in one day. 4. Hannigan Peak overnight, first “date hike” with Lynda. 5. Everest Base Camp, Island Peak, Gokyo loop, Nepal 6. Picket Traverse 7. John Muir Trail thru hike. 8. Inca trail Manchu Picchu. 9. Trinity Loop July 4 in deep snow. 10. The Future?

"You do not laugh when you look at the mountains, or when you look at the sea." Lafcadio Hearn

Kellbell, jaysway, GaliWalker
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jaysway
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PostWed Sep 15, 2021 12:18 pm 
Malachai Constant wrote:
1. Mount Saint Helens pre eruption.
I wish I was born early enough to see MSH pre-eruption waah.gif although I do appreciate how beautiful the mountain and surrounding area is post-eruption.

Kellbell
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