{"id":9977,"date":"2022-07-17T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-17T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/?p=9977"},"modified":"2022-07-16T21:56:33","modified_gmt":"2022-07-17T04:56:33","slug":"hiking-a-nw-summer-essential","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/washington-state\/hiking-a-nw-summer-essential\/","title":{"rendered":"Hiking, a NW Summer Essential"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Hiking in the forest, hiking along a creek or river, hiking to a waterfall. No Northwest summer is complete without a good hike in the forest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also like the beach of course. But beaches here are mainly good for walks and ferry rides. With an average water temperature in Puget Sound of 63 degrees in July and most lakes only a couple degrees warmer, swimming is not a NW summer essential. (Although I considered it at the top of the list when I was a kid.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My granddaughter grew up in Indiana, but she and her (now) husband began the festivities for the day before their July 3rd wedding in true NW fashion with a hike with those friends and family who were game for it up Little Si elevation gain, 1200 ft. (I stayed home for that one.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The day after the wedding, some of us headed up into the mountains. First stop: a short hike at Deception Falls, one of many possible stops and trailheads along Hwy. 2 on the way to Steven\u2019s Pass. Unlike most waterfall hikes that take you miles through the forest before you reach the big payoff: a beautiful waterfall, Deception Falls is a series of falls all along the short trail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It was lovely. And yet, for a moment as I walked through the beautiful, fresh green forest, I remembered reading a particularly depressing post from a Facebook friend the previous week. Over the past few years, the friend wrote, we\u2019ve had to endure Trump, a pandemic, countless school shootings, and recent Supreme Court decisions. You may not have the same politics he has, but you have to admit that the last few years have<\/em> been a difficult time. In fact, you might be able to add a few more complaints to my friend\u2019s list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But being surrounded by a perfect forest, washed away all the complaints, his and mine. It smelled so good, every inch of it alive and healthy, the trees and plants and soil working together, carrying on year after year. Some of the trees beside me may have started growing 500 years ago, and when they fell, they’d continue nourishing the forest for another 500 years. Maybe you\u2019ve heard of fallen \u201cnurse logs\u201d and the many plants and trees that grow on top of them. I didn\u2019t photograph a nurse log, but here\u2019s what you might call a \u201cnurse stump.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After our hike, we drove farther east and checked in at Sleeping Lady Lodge. After some sightseeing in Leavenworth, we took two more hikes the following afternoon. One was the Old Pipeline Bed Trailhead along the Wenatchee River and another was out behind the Leavenworth National Fish Hatchery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Once back home, even though I continued watching the news and checking Facebook, even though the California forest fires were threatening the Mariposa Grove of sequoias at Yosemite, still I was fortified by those days in the forest<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            by its fresh green beauty<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            by the ability of nature to renew itself<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            by the dedication of so many people who care about our environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I continued to choose gratitude and hope for our future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What is your summer essential?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Novels by Nicki Chen:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Buy on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or your favorite bookstore<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Buy on Amazon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hiking in the forest, hiking along a creek or river, hiking to a waterfall. No Northwest summer is complete without a good hike in the forest. I also like the beach of course. But beaches here are mainly good for walks and ferry rides. With an average water temperature in Puget Sound of 63 degrees […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2294,1050],"tags":[2292,2287,2291,2290,2289,2053,2293,2295],"class_list":["post-9977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hiking","category-washington-state","tag-average-water-temperature-in-puget-sound-in-july","tag-deception-falls","tag-hiking-in-the-forest","tag-leavenworth","tag-sleeping-lady-lodge","tag-washington-state","tag-waterfalls","tag-wenatchee-river"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3Kn1e-2AV","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10899,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/vanuatu\/loving-the-beach-despite-sharks-jellyfish-sunburns\/","url_meta":{"origin":9977,"position":0},"title":"Loving the Beach \u2026 despite Sharks, Jellyfish, & Sunburns","author":"Nicki Chen","date":"July 14, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"All my life I\u2019ve lived close to saltwater beaches. In Western Washington, we have lovely beaches. They\u2019re great for picnics, beach walks, beach combing, sandcastles building, and testing your balance with driftwood walking. 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At some point, a buzzer goes off, a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "holidays"","block_context":{"text":"holidays","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/category\/holidays\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/IMG_2523-e1499217835133.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6881,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/travel\/the-wet-and-the-dry-of-it\/","url_meta":{"origin":9977,"position":2},"title":"The Wet and the Dry of It","author":"Nicki Chen","date":"April 8, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I grew up on the west side of Washington State, so I think of our state as being green and wet, ringed with mountains, snug up against the Pacific Ocean. But once you cross the mountains, things are different. The mountains on the east side aren\u2019t as steep, and the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "photography"","block_context":{"text":"photography","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/category\/photography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/IMG_0540-e1522699983997.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10112,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/washington-state\/moss-moss-and-more-moss-in-the-quinault-rainforest\/","url_meta":{"origin":9977,"position":3},"title":"Moss, Moss, and More Moss in the Quinault Rainforest","author":"Nicki Chen","date":"February 12, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"It\u2019s not surprising that the Quinault Rainforest would have lots of moss. After all, it gets 140 inches of rain every year. When we visited last November, though, we were lucky. It didn\u2019t rain at all. We took advantage of the good weather to explore. Walking through the forest, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "fall"","block_context":{"text":"fall","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/category\/fall\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/IMG_3649-e1675545481393.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7368,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/seasons\/fall-making-us-forget-about-summer\/","url_meta":{"origin":9977,"position":4},"title":"Fall … Making Us Forget about Summer","author":"Nicki Chen","date":"October 28, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Here on the west side of Washington State we love summer. Entering into the warm and sunny season, we have the crazy expectation that this year we're going to include everything we've loved about summers past ... all at once. We'll have endless blue skies and picnics in the park.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Edmonds"","block_context":{"text":"Edmonds","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/category\/edmonds\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/IMG_2827-e1509597840425.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6480,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/chinese-food\/family-visits-eat-talk-and-walk\/","url_meta":{"origin":9977,"position":5},"title":"Family Visits–Eat, Talk, and Walk","author":"Nicki Chen","date":"October 1, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 My three daughters live in places with nice weather in the spring and fall (Indiana, Maryland, and Eastern Washington). So that\u2019s when I visit them. But nothing beats our summers here in the Pacific Northwest. This year all three of them plus one son-in-law, and one grandchild showed up\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Chinese food"","block_context":{"text":"Chinese food","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/category\/chinese-food\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/IMG_2689-e1505417623359.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9977"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9985,"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9977\/revisions\/9985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}