Changes

I haven't written in a few weeks because I recently went through several big changes in my life.

Unfortunately, I'll be away from Seattle for a while. My boyfriend and I broke up and I'll be in Georgia, the state I grew up in, visiting my parents for a while before heading back to Seattle to find a new apartment. My boyfriend and I were together for 9 years so that's already going to be a big adjustment, and it's going to be another big adjustment to temporarily spend some time away from the city I love and built a life in.

I feel like the entire identity of my blog is going to change, because the Pacific Northwest is full of beautiful hikes and natural attractions. I started this blog when I drove out to Seattle 3 years ago, and it's been about my hiking and traveling in Washington and the surrounding states.

I'm going to do my best to continue my blog now that I'm in Georgia. I'm looking at it as more of a challenge - it's so easy to have a nature/hiking/travel blog in the Pacific Northwest because it's almost like you don't have to try since there is so much to work with, but since there are fewer hikes and nature attractions in Georgia, I'll have to try harder to find places to blog about.

North Georgia mountains

Trail Report: Humpback Mountain

Stats
Round trip distance: 4 miles
Highest point: 5,174 feet
Elevation gain: 2,500 feet
Pass: Northwest Forest Pass

WTA page: http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/humpback-mountain

Since I didn't write about all the hikes I did in summer 2015, I'm writing about them now. I did the Humpback Mountain hike in June 2015.

I prefer shorter hikes that go straight up the side of the mountain, rather than long hikes with a more gentle elevation gain. I was looking for something similar to and as challenging as Mailbox Peak and Snoqualmie Mountain. It took a bit of searching on the WTA site, but I found Humpback Mountain and it sounded promising.

The beginning of the trail was a bit difficult to find. After walking up an old logging road, there was a small pile of rocks on the right marking the trail. It looks like an eroded hillside that goes straight into the trees. We actually missed the place on the right that led to the start of the trail and ended up pushing through some underbrush to get to the trail. On the way back down, we found the area to the right that we missed.

Go up this hill and veer right

Start of the trail

Once we were on the trail, it was very pretty. There was a lot of moss on either side of the trail.

Soon we came to the difficult part - lots of switchbacks and going straight up the side of the mountain. I would rank Humpback Mountain below Mailbox Peak in terms of difficulty, but above Snoqualmie Mountain.

As we neared the top, we had to scramble over boulders, and the entire summit was made of boulders. We had an awesome view of the surrounding Cascades. Mt. Rainier was also present.

Mt. Rainier

I'm sure I'll be doing this hike again the next time I want a good workout and a straight shot to the top.