THE Loop! We hiked ourselves out of the ballpark and into the next county with this hike! We've done some amazing hiking through the years. Sliding Sands Trail on Haleakalā in Maui was beautiful. Valley of Fire State Park Nevada, rugged and dramatic. Wildflower hiking in Colorado is wonderful, full of mouthwatering meadows of flowers. Lake Serene in Washington state - 2000' elevation gain in 4 miles - rewarding. Many hikes on both Mt. Rainier and Mt. St Helens are excellent.

Is it even possible to pick an all time favorite hike? Heather-Maple Pass Loop could just be IT.

The hike, with spur trail to Lake Ann and wandering the passes, tallied in at 10.1 miles and 2955’ elevation gain. This was our most strenuous hike of the 2021 season, and we sailed it. We stepped onto the trail at 11 am and back off at 6:30 pm. The views and colors were so mesmerizing that we little noticed the work. Mark, who had a couple of less than pleasant responses to heat and elevation gain earlier in the year, was not set back in the slightest with the exertion. The timing was just about ideal. It was a blissfully perfect fall day, with pats on the back for us. We chose the day for this hike based on weather forecasts that became even better as the day wore on. Temps were cooler, in the low to mid 60's. The light rain that was expected was replaced by glorious rays of sunshine lighting up the fall colors for an in-your-face pop. Having heard that fall colors for 2021 would be muted, this was a super bonus!

With simple good luck on our side, we chose to do the loop from Heather Pass first, then on to Maple Pass and Rainy Lake. Turned out the elevation gain was more gradual this direction. The trail also emerged from straight forest hiking sooner, with killer views early on. After so much breathtaking scenery and vivid fall colors drenching the slopes, we found the decent back into the forest to finish the hike somewhat tedious. It was gratifying that we never needed to break out the trekking poles, but we were ready to be done a good 3 miles before we were back to the trailhead. It was pretty great to get back to where we started. :) That said, this was a glorious hike on a glorious day!!

#neverstophiking