As I packed our sleeping bags and hiking clothes, I couldn't help feel nostalgic. These are my adventure friends. How could I have neglected them for four months? Down Cave (my 15 degree Marmot down sleeping bag) wept tears of joy as I stuffed her into her compression sack. She thought I'd abandoned her to the closet forever.
Our last year in Alaska, we were able to throw all of our stuff together at a moment's notice and everything would be alright. We don't know enough about the local area here to do that, so I loaded the car with a general destination in mind and a hiking guidebook from the library. Matt read the book as we drove along. Humboldt Redwoods State Park is less than an hour from our home.
After we nearly fainted paying $35 for a campsite, we were ready for our first hike. We overheard the cashier at the visitor's center telling others that the Founders Grove Hike was not to be missed. It was just like all the other hikes along the Avenue, about 0.5 miles long through the groves. We were disappointed. There were lots of people and they all looked like they were out for a Saturday walk in the woods. We craved something beyond that. Our library guidebook told us that the Addie Johnson Memorial Trail had great views and was 2.2 miles. Well, at least it would take us a little longer than the silly 0.5 mile hikes. We vowed to make a plan for Sunday after dinner.
AJM Trail is a long ascent to a hilltop. Garmy had problems with distance again, so we finally gave up on her and stowed her into the pack. We brought all our usual survival gear for hiking : bear spray, water, food, emergency blanket. We always hike as if we're going to get stranded. We don't rely on being in cell phone range since our hikes in AK never were. So, naturally, we had over-packed for the hike. Nobody else was on the trail. Darkness was about an hour away. We'd have to climb our 1,000ft on the trail and head back before then. The trail wound through Redwood groves, growing shorter and shorter as we climbed. We hit a meadow and a memorial gravesite at the top just as the sun was dipping below the hilltop.
The late afternoon sun cast a golden glow onto all the nearby hills. At that moment, I couldn't have imagined a better Valentine's Day weekend trip with my honey.
That night as we prepared dinner, I realized that we had forgotten the frying pan. It's really hard to make hamburgers without it, so we piled bits of browned hamburger onto our buns. A little bit more difficult, but doable. Matt and I joked that we had packed for the Armageddon with our bear spray and water filter, but I'd forgotten the frying pan. (We usually have a frying pan in our camping food kit, so I didn't even think that we needed one.) That night we had s'mores over the campfire. It was heaven.
The next morning, we decided that we needed a trail run up Grasshopper Peak. The book described it as the "toughest hike in the park!", "start early because it will take all day", and "to be in good physical shape before attempting". Sounds like the perfect trail run to us!
The hike followed a gravel fire service road seven miles and 3,000 ft up to the top. It wasn't technical, but it was literally seven miles straight up. No breaks at all. We had to walk most of the way up. It took us 2h20 to get up to the top. At the top, we could see the ocean, King's Range of Mountains and the NWS radar upon a hill near Ferndale, some 40 miles away. A perfectly sunny day and we could see for miles and miles in every direction.
We even found the grassy meadow from our hike the previous day, seemingly miles below us. The hills were covered by giant Redwoods, but one wouldn't notice from way up here. They looked like hilltops covered in shrubbery. We hadn't planned for a long trail run, our lunch consisted of marshmallows and graham crackers, the only food we had brought along that didn't require cooking. Buzzing off of a sugar high, we started our descent as a run. Some parts were too steep to run. Matt and I were both took tentative steps to avoid tweaking already troublesome knees. The descent took us under an hour. Fourteen miles, 7,000 + ft. of elevation change, and three hours. Great run. Sore legs the next day, but great for now.
In my Valentine's Day card yesterday, Matt wrote, "It was awesome that you picked the toughest hike in the park! I love a challenge, even though I'm a bit sore today." A Challenge. That is a good word to describe our time together. We get along amazingly, but through our seven year history we've spent a lot of it apart, I've battled deadly illness, and we've moved three times. All of those things pose lots of challenges. Standing at the altar, 22 yrs old, on our wedding day, we had gone through a lot more than most others our age. But we like the challenges in life. We don't like to do make our choices based on what's easier. And I love that about us.
I couldn't have planned a more perfect weekend with my Honey, could you?
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