We drove out to Twin Falls State Park, which is close to North Bend and Snoqualmie. Twin Peaks country.
It's an absolutely stunning area, especially to us East Anglians. We're just not used to hills, never mind mountains. Bear in mind that I'm still impressed every time we go to Manchester via the Woodhead Pass. Our part of the country is as flat as a flat thing that's feeling a bit let down. So - I digress.....
The Twin Falls hike is a beautiful lush green forest walk that takes you along the side of the river for the first 1/2 mile or so. The river itself reminded me a little of parts of Wales. Crystal clear water bubbling over boulders and stones.
It looked so inviting, we were all tempted to dip our toes in, but we moved on. The air is so clean there. The trees are dripping with mosses and ferns. I've never seen so many different types of slugs either!
Thinking the path was a circular route, and we'd end up back where we started, we kept on. Onwards and UPWARDS. It got steeper and steeper, the path cutting switch-backs into the mountain side. It was a real struggle. We kept going and going. I ran out of water and started to wish I'd brought more than a small 1/2 litre bottle with me. We came to a particularly steep bit after about another 1/2 mile and I just stopped dead. I couldn't go any further. I was so thirsty and my legs were like jelly.
We saw some people coming back down the path, who had passed us earlier. They told us it wasn't a circular path. When you get to the top, which was another 1/2 mile UP, you had to go back the way you came. Disappointingly, they also said there's no pay-off when you reach the top. No spectacular view, no hidden gem - it just fizzles out and there's a railway track. Apparently the walk up as far as the falls is the intended as the main pretty hike. The rest is for serious exercise and veteran hikers. Ha! Neither of those apply to me....
Andy and Gabi were determined to not be beaten by the hill. They wanted to get to the top. So they convinced me to go on. It felt like a LONG way, and I tried my best. I got to probably within 1/4 mile of the end, but I just couldn't physically go ANY FURTHER. I thought I was going to puke or cry or collapse. I was right on the edge of what I could take - physically. So I let them go on ahead and rested while we waited for them to come back down. I would have liked to get to the top, but I just couldn't do it. The views from as far as we got were still pretty amazing, to these eyes.
We still had the long walk back down to contend with. Down hill hurts in a whole new set of places!
Of course, while I was huffing and puffing and complaining about how much it hurt and where, Andy and Gabi's 5 year old son, Alex just ran up the mountain and back down again, like it was nothing. And he STILL had energy to spare. Oh for just a percentage of his energy.....
Funnily enough, I don't really remember much more about Wednesday. I remember stopping at a 'gas station' to buy junk food and huge drinks, which we all got down our necks as fast as possible. After that I think we just collapsed in a heap and a deep sleep. The sleep of the over-exercised.
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Oh Suz, that was truly a difficult walk for me as well. I really had to push myself to make it to the top and I felt sick, my body ached and I was so thirsty. Going back down was miserable and painful for my bad knee, the bones kept making crunching noises the entire way and the pain was awful. When we stopped at the big benches I thought I was going to vomit. I have to tell you, now that we have a few different "hikes" under our belts I would NOT have chosen Twin Falls for our outing but Franklin Falls instead as Twin Falls has proven to be the most difficult of them all. For your next visit we will choose more relaxing things to do. XXXX-Gabi
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