1. Lake Serene

Last weekend was very sunny, and we picked Lake Serene http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/lake-serene - primarily because it was the closest to home. But maybe we should have considered the difficulty level as well, and read some reviews :O It was SO strenuous! and for a novice hiker(s), it was too much! It would have been good for a 57th Hike, not the first! definitely not the first! Thankfully we had done some little hiking here and there, and were in decent physical shape, so we managed to complete it with frequent breaks...

We started quite late in the day actually - around 10 ish... and Nikhil, the ever enthu nature enthusiast joined us for the trip. Some 1 1/2 hrs later, we reached the forgotten and neglected Mt.Index road. It seemed like no one had been on that road for years, and I was surprised to find a road like this in the U S of A. And for a second I wondered if it was a good idea to take our car on this road. What if the tyres got gussed? But before I could think through this, we reached the parking lot :P and Oh Lord, we couldnt find a parking spot :O So many folks had already arrived there so early :) hmmm... :)

Finally parked the car, checked out the map (oops! It says last 1.9 miles are strenuous and very steep with lots of stairs and switchbacks!), registered where it says we had to register, and started walking (me hoping the board was wrong!). First half was so easy :D much easier than rattlesnake ridge hike... and we went through it pretty fast... and the path was not "pukka" or
"tarred" so all of us were happy :D

We skipped the bridal veil falls fork about midway, and went on ahead... awesome hike so far!

Then the torture started :P Steps, steps and more steps! I was very scared if this will hurt my already-hurt knee :( And somehow we underestimated how much water we would need, and we were running out of water at this point :(. We also had to save some for our lunch, and way back down. Gulp! :D But somehow, with frequent breaks, more frequent "How far to the lake?" questions to folks coming down, making friends with one thatha-patti, we managed to reach the lake in 2 1/2 hrs. And it was TOTALLY worth it! Lovely blue green water... best color I have seen so far. And the water was not so cold. Dogs were going crazy and people were loving the weather + water combination...! Our very own Nikhil and Nisarg went for a swim in the lake while I sat on a log with my feet in the water and clicked pictures :). Some below, but I really like one taken by Kavya:

And then lunch - rye bread (:D), cant believe its not butter butter, peanut butter, chole, granola bars, carrot. We drank the rest of the water and still thirsty, considered BBSing some :D Deciding against it, we relaxed on "lunch rock" for a while, and some more pictures later, we were ready to head back... I wanted to take it slow on the way back, because of the knee. Nikhil was too enthued and wanted to go to bridal veil falls as well. So we sent him ahead and he literally RAN down the trail!
Nisarg and I went back slowly, taking (funny :D) pictures along the way, and when we reached the mini waterfall, we were SO thirsty that we drank off water from that waterfall... Nothing has happened to us till now, so I am guessing the water was not bad after all! And of course, on the way back, we stopped at "Family Grocer" and had awesome ice cream candies, Strawberry Guava Fuze and chilled water!

Overall an AWESOME trek, and I would love to go back again sometime - and this time I ll take my bathing suit, and also lots more water!

Let's go Hiking! :)

10th Aug 2010. Surprise birthday party. Cakes. Candles. Gifts. Music. Singing. Dancing. Food. And amongst other things, a birthday gift which reads "100 Classic Hikes in Washington".

I was totally surprised!!! I never expected a hiking book for a birthday gift, and I totally LOVED it! My immediate thought was "Man, I wish I could do all the hikes that this book talks about". And after the festivities were done, N and I were talking, and we were both really really really enthued about trying out the different hikes. I flipped through the pages of the book. Some of them hikes look really scary in terms of difficulty :O But the pictures only make me want to get to those places more. I am not sure if we can do all that the book says, and we probably won't conquer all the peaks, but we are going to try our best! Starting this weekend! :) What inspiration :)

Thank you Arun, Naresh, Prasad and Raghu! :)