Marmot Pass

Ugh.  My muscles are sore today.  Will, one of the other Family Practice residents emailed out a couple weeks ago to join him and his family on an 11-mile hike to Marmot Pass.  I thought, no problem! I can walk on even ground with a few slopes here or there for 5+miles each way.  He labeled the hike as moderately strenuous.

He would be correct.  It was actually up-hill the entire 5 miles.  12 of us initially started out on the Quilcene trail.  Nearly 600 ft. from Marmot Pass, Jon, another resident joined us (late b/c though he had to round at the hospital, he was adamant about going on the hike too!) after running up most of the way catch up.  It took us nearly 3 hours and he made it in 1 1/2. 

My hips hurt so bad once we got to the top that I just wanted to run back down the 5 miles to the car and go home.  A couple hours later we made it back to the car.  It took around 6 hours altogether including a few stops and snack breaks.  What a great day though!

The boy in the picture is Truman, Will's son, an almost-8 year old that hiked up and down the entire way on his own two feet.  What a trooper!  He also has a little brother, 4 yr. old Henry, that spent some time being carried by his parents. I had a hard time lugging my own self up the slopes.  To see his mom and dad add 40 lbs to their back and still keep up with us was amazing!

We ended the day by pigging out at Famous Dave's BBQ.  Not much could make me ignore the constant burning of my muscles, but the BBQ chicken sandwich sure tried. 

By the way, we did see a couple marmots.  It's not just the name of an outdoor apparel and equipment company. They are much larger than I expected.  The one I saw was probably 50 lbs. or more.  My camera ran out of batteries before I could capture one sitting on a rock...but Google can show you what they look like sitting on a rock:

Photo from en.academic.ru