High Adventure 2025 - Ziplining and Hiking

YW High Adventure is in the books!  We went zip lining on Camino island, we hike dot bRidal Veil Falls and Lake Serene (my muscles are still screaming at me), we laughed, danced, shared stories and deep thoughts, sat still and pondered, and I kept everyone fed over the 2.5 days we were together.  This was my 6th HA and I hope there are still many more to come.  Time in nature with some of my besties and these amazing young ladies is so good for the soul!

Group picture before we broke into our groups for zip lining.  We had 3 different groups 

They snuck all these clothes pins on me without me knowing!

We slept at Cascade, one of the churches campgrounds, in Granite Falls

We got up bright and early and headed to the trailhead to hike Bridal Veil and Lake Serene.  I made breakfast burritos for a sack breakfast and we packed those and our lunches and hit the road.  

We did a good job of staying pretty close together this time, which was nice b/c girls could rotate from the front to the back or the back to the front when they wanted.  

bridal Veil falls:

This picture pretty much sums up most of the hike...so many stairs, some man made, some just the mountain, but it was a stair-stepper hike!  I was at the back of the pack and it was slow going at times, but everyone made it (including one girl in a knee brace!!)

we hiked into the clouds :(

At one point I hear "Do we have a first aid kit?" and I yelled back, what do you need and she repeated "a first aid kit" and I'm like what happened.  She said "I don't know her name but she fell and smashed her face on a rock" I start trucking it up the hill and ask if its an adult or a youth and she said adult and I knew it was SueZan.  She was pretty banged up, but it also wasn't as bad as it could have been and she was feeling very lucky.  Her teeth were fine, her nose was fine, her glasses were fine, her head wasn't split open, and her jaw wasn't broken.  In the end I'm pretty sure she had a concussion but she still somehow finished the hike, gave a very memorable devotional, and hiked off the mountain.  When needed, tampons are great for stopping bleeding!

The hope was to swim in the beautiful lake, but the cold drizzly clouds said no thanks.  After SueZan's fall and the chill in the air we were just ready to get back to flat ground! 

We love our new sweatshirts!

Saturday was Michelle's birthday :)

Quiet time with our patriarchal blessings 

the adults :)

 

Leavenworth

 Konrad and I took a trip to Leavenworth and had so much fun!

We drove up north to get there (rather than going 90 over snoqualmie pass) which means we drove through Monroe so we stopped at a little river view point at Eagle Falls that we had visited back in 2020 with the Riding crew.  Cool graffiti :)

The water was so clear!

We stayed at the Blue Elk Inn and really enjoyed our time there. 

We got there in time to spend some time by the pool

view from our window

Then we went and rode the alpine coaster

I haven't screamed/laughed like that in a very long time.  It was so scary fun!  We went full speed down the whole track

Then we went to dinner with a view:

and had delicious food!

The next day we went on a hike on the Icicle Gorge Trail. It was a 4 mile trail that was nice and easy and so so pretty!

after more time at the pool we headed to get some Mexican food  and then grabbed some dessert at Safeway (we love getting their individual slices of cake/dessert when we travel)

We walked through town and looked in a shops

and then played a new to us version of Catan in the Inn's shared space 

I loved that they painted a blue elk into most of the paintings in the Inn

We did a lot of traveling over the year but it was nice to get away just the two of us for a couple of nights!