Heather Lake Revisited

I got both my boys to "volunteer" to go with on this hike!  Actually they were both excited about it until this morning.  It was a bit early for a weekend morning, and a thick layer of clouds had settled on the Puget Sound area like a cold wet blanket.  I chose this hike since I had been on it before and figured it was long enough to be a good workout, but short enough not to be too much for non-hikers at 4.6 mi round trip. 

As it turned out, with their long easy strides, they were singing and chatting through the dark wet woods as if they were hanging out on the couch, and I was red-faced and puffing back behind them.  This trail was a lot steeper than I had remembered.  I thought it was a challenge because it had been my 1st longish hike in awhile, but comparing it to Lake 22, the elevation gain is much less forgiving on this trail and there are a lot of steps. 
This one still has the nice water crossings, but not as many. 

There are some very large trees on this trail, but another difference between this one and Lake 22 is that the huge old growth trees are mostly still standing on that trail, whereas this one has a number of gigantic stumps.
The fog never did lift, and we had the trail pretty much to ourselves.  I was happy to see that there was snow up at the lake level still, but not as much as Lake 22. 

The biggest challenge was finding a dry place to sit and eat for lunch.  We ended up going almost all the way around before we found a rock that didn't have 2 inches of snow on top and wasn't too tall and jagged for a bench.  They scrambled up some on the way though, and Cedar joined them.

It was a wonderful trip, and a lot chattier and funnier than I am used to.  There were races, challenges, slush balls, and some pushing into the mud. 

I hope they join me for more hikes in the future.  I know that when I can keep up with them, I'll be OK for climbing Mt Rainier for sure. 
It wasn't easy getting teenage boys to get up early and head out into the gloomy mist.  Mine were pretty good about it, but it did cost me a batch of chocolate chip cookies.