This past Saturday we hiked to Annette Lake just off of I-90 near Snoqualmie Pass. It was our first hike in over six weeks. We started the day with bagels at Noah's on Mercer Island and then drove about 45 minutes to the trailhead. Near the start of the hike is Humpback Creek, which drains from the lake. The water was rushing pretty fast and was cool to watch. Here's a video of it:

Creek near Annette Lake on Vimeo.

It was a pretty long hike actually and I didn't realize it would be so long before we started out. We hiked for about two hours up through mostly old growth forest for three miles with a 1,500 feet elevation gain until we finally got to the top. It was a little chilly outside (probably in the upper 40s) too and my ears started to hurt because they were cold after about 30 minutes, so I'm glad Troy let me steal his beanie.

At one point it was really rocky and I lost my balance on one of the rocks and accidentally threw my cell phone down the hill about 8 feet. I had my hands in my pockets trying to keep them warm and my cell phone was in my pocket as well. So when I started to lose my balance, I clinched my cell phone out of reflex and yanked my hand out of my pocket to try to keep my balance and accidentally threw my cell phone down the hill. Troy was able to navigate the bushes and leaves down to get it. Thankfully I could see it from where I was and was able to direct him to it. It was kind of funny after the fact.

We finally made it to the top and sat at Annette Lake for a little while. There was a waterfall on one side emptying into the lake that starts from high up in the mountain peak, even farther up from where we stopped. It was a little cold and windy, but it was nice when the sun was out. The sun was at a bad angle for pictures though, so we'll have to go back again sometime next year to take better pictures. We started walking back down and I wished we had brought the hiking poles, because my knees and ankles started to get tired. We finally got back to the car after about an hour and a half and drove back. On the way back we saw a full rainbow, end to end, which was pretty cool. We were both a little sore on Sunday, but feel back to normal now. It was nice to hike again, after going several weeks without hiking.