"Issaquah Alps" aka Cougar Mountain Regional Wildland Park

Today we changed it up a bit and ventured south for our hiking adventures. We also, joy of joys, used my husband's phone to track our gps position. In this manner we were able to calculate total elevation gain, max elevation, average speed, and total moving time. It's neat information to have! We'll also be uploading it to the computer for some more data that will be neat to share with you all.


In the meantime, since I'm backlogged on photo posting, I'll give you some of the raw data to tide you over.

Total Distance hiked: 7.03 miles
Cumulative Elevation Gain: 2560 ft
Maximum Elevation Attained: 1261 ft
Total Moving Time: 1hr 45 min
Total time out in the park: 3 hr 45 min
Given my weight and total elevation gain, I burned: 1469 calories.


Hell yeah!


The trailhead was PACKED! It was a bitter cold day when we started and everything felt frozen. But it was a clear day. That seems to draw out the hikers more than temperature. Understandable really when you hike to get a good view.


Plus, I think because of the park's proximity to Redmond and Bellevue, it's easier to access and doesn't require as long of a drive. And you get a map!


We started out on...


See? Cold.


Frozen dog print.


I love sunlight on greenery.


Can you tell we're nerdy geeks? I'm taking pictures of ice and mud because it's cool. Even cooler was how we figured the holes in the mud were created that had stones at the bottom. In short, when water freezes, it expands into a crystal structure of ice. So when the mud froze, the colloidal mixture of soil and water also expanded but couldn't lift up the weight of the rocks, creating mini pot holes in the frozen ground!


A gorgeous day. I know I know, random forest picture. But they're all so -pretty-!


The first path we took promised a good outlook spot and potential views of Rainier.


Hi Volcano!





And then looking a different direction...

The Olympics!



There was a mini waterfall along the next route we chose that had partially frozen over. It was really neat!


I love the ice formations here.



Old logging equipment.






By this point in the hike I was starting to hurt and we still had a few miles to go. But I trucked through it. The snow and ferns were pretty though...!


One of our final scenic spot stops was another waterfall. Bigger than the one we had seen previously. It was nice.



And then we took a more main route back to the trailhead, along which we were able to see cave in holes. The area had been used for mining and in some places the miners mined too shallow (unlike the dwarves in Moria) so the roof collapsed, leaving this holes.