When I first learned of the 52 Hike Challenge, I told myself how easy something like that could be to achieve. I've been working on this little project of mine for several years now. Most years I'd come within a hike or two of achieving my goal.
This year, I managed to come within three hikes of the goal when November rolled around. It put me in a great position where I could plan out some hikes without the added pressure of the new year sneaking up on my like many years in the past. And of course, when I realized that today was the last renaming day of 2024, and I was still three hikes shy of a 52 hike challenge, I started to panic. Where could I go to bag three trails in a matter of hours without having to drive all over Washington State?
These last three hikes weren't meaningful in any way, shape or form. They were simply trails to hike to scratch them off my list and to conquer my quest to complete this monster challenge.
When I arrived at the trailhead, the parking was very limited. Further on down the road, there's a secondary parking due to this trail system being a loop. I did some trial running, snapped some photos and took in the clean mountainous air. The trail was clear except some mud here and there, and the big trees that were down across the trail had since been removed.
This year I hiked around 160 miles. I attempted some pretty memorable climbs like Adams, and Sahale Peak, (in which I will return to accomplish those climbs in the next year or two). Next year, I hope to break 1,500 life time miles hiked- and I'm pretty close. I'm sitting at around 1,350 miles.
Here's to 2025.
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