Glacier Peak Wilderness
If you want to celebrate a birthday to remember….try this! Jerrol corralled some friends together to celebrate her husband, Larry’s “49th” milestone birthday. Within a few hours from Seattle, we were on horseback heading into the depths of Glacier Peak Wilderness. Upon our arrival to Entiat, we were greeted by our guides, Tara, Bruce, Adam from Icicle Outfitters, www.iciclefitters.com and introduced to our horses. One final check in with the digital world and we made our final cell phone calls and checked emails since we knew we wouldn’t have any cell connections for a few days. We knew we would be in good hands since Jerrol planned the trip, and this area was recommended by Trip Advisor as well, “…located in the Mount Baker Snoqualmie National Forest, this wilderness area is comprised of 572,000 acres of heavily-forested streams, steep-sided valleys and dramatic glacier-crowned peaks.”
Icicle Outfitters took good care of us during our 3-day camping trip, and owner Bruce cooked up some scrumptious meals.
Each day, Tara led us as we ventured out on our horses, “Peaches”, “Buddy”, “Houdini” to name a few of them, and followed the trails up and down the valleys, and sometimes got off the horses to trek up to the 8,500 ft. peaks and glacier lakes. We inhaled fresh alpine air,  got warmed up by the summer sun, and then cooled down with dips, plunges into the glacial lakes and streams. At night, one of our guides, Adam played the guitar and swooned us with some country tunes, while we sang along and danced by the campfire. As the final embers died out, we gazed up to the constellations and galaxies in the midnight sky and felt we were in our own world, far away from our daily duties. Despite some of the warnings I heard before this trip about storing everything from toothpaste to trail mix in the “bear lock box” from my experienced hiking friends, the guides assured us we would be fine without one. I tried to be brave and act tough, but I have to admit being only a few yards away in the closest tent to the makeshift “kitchen” that was stocked with the honey, syrup, pineapple upside down cake, every little sound kept me wide awake the first night.
Here are some memorable photos from our rides and treks to Fern Lake and Sasqua Peak…..a birthday to remember!
