Norse Peak (pics)

I knew this was going to be a great hike, I had seen beautiful photos, heard that the wildflowers are starting to peak, and knew that there would be burn meadows. Somehow it was so much better than I hoped for.

I did a socially distanced hike with two close friends. In the old days we'd carpool and catch up on the way, this time we marched up the trail together and talked through masks when we stopped. But it was delightful to be with friends.

We made good time to the summit, enjoyed lunch, and then I got out voted about our route back down. We'd been planning to do a loop, but one friend didn't want to do any more uphill, and the other had a bad feeling. This means I have to go back someday and complete the loop.

On the way back down, we heard the world's most unhappy donkey below us. WTF? Seriously, wtf is going on? Then a horse, which at least made a little more sense, and people (children?) screaming. And then a nervous looking dog with no human. We get back into the woods, and there's a lady trying to control four horses, actually doing a pretty good job of it. They're obviously spooked. We look at the idea of cutting a switchback but it’s a long way and thick brush. So we climb up above each horse in the loose sand and slide toward these large frightened beasts. More adventure than we had set out for. There’s a donkey tied to a tree, and two more people leading horses up the trail behind it. A hiker told us three horses and one rider fell down the hillside. Then we ran into hikers looking for their dog, who saw the commotion and ran for his life. (We traded phone numbers, they eventually found him.)

This was 10 miles with 3,000 of vertical. About 450 photos. Millions? of lupines.



Rumor has it there's a 14,000 foot volcano in this picture. Seriously a lot of people around here believe in Bigfoot and Mount Rainier.



My friend admiring the summit view.



Summit bivvy. (We didn't spend the night, but that's what those rocks are stacked for.)



Meadowbaggers. Coming down from the peak.



I wanted to take the trail through this pic to get back to the cars. How can you argue with that? Apparently by saying "you're out of water, and we don't know if it's longer or harder that way."



Burn.



Corn lily.



Wonderful burn meadow.