Fat Girl Hikes #1

 This is the beginning of a blog within a blog. While Ash and I have been scrambling up and down the western landscape we have come to the conclusion that the difficulty ratings given by most hiker's guidebooks assume that you are already in top physical shape. We have the mental ambition to be fit but we were, shall we say, behind the curve when we arrived here so we have decided to start a more realistic rating system of our own. This one will give you the skinny on pacific northwest hikes if you aren't.. well... all that skinny. The rating system we have is 1 - 4 pies. Yes, Pies. A 1 pie rating would mean the trail is "easy as pie". You will
hardly break a sweat and only have minimal calorie burning. A 4 pie rating would mean you will be gasping for breath, wanting to die, and wishing you could just go home and stuff your face with pies to make up for all the calories you just lost. There may be a rare 5 pie rating if we come across a trail that us fat girls can't make it up, but luckily we haven't encountered one of those yet.

Our first Fat Girl Hikes blog will cover Wind Mountain trail in Washington.
This 2.7 mile hike is short and be thankful, because you will be climbing up nearly 2000 feet of elevation. Basically starting from the base of the mountain at sea level, trekking all the way up to the top. This trail was built by the Girl Scouts but is currently unmaintained and one of the most overlooked hikes in the Gorge. The trailhead is unmarked and you probably wouldn't know it was there if you hadn't heard about it. We look at this mountain every day from our house, and had been itching to climb it from day one. Here it is from the office window:

                                       *Things in photo are much larger than they appear*


 Upon researching this hike, we found descriptions ranging from easy and kid friendly, to moderate. We here at the Fat Girl Hikes headquarters say "yeah right!". We give it 3 pies. As we were dragging our sizable behinds up the steep switchbacks, over the treacherous talus rock slopes, and through the beautiful but mostly unchanging forest we were debating on giving it a 4 pie rating but we changed our minds when we finally reached the summit and were rewarded with one of the most spectacular views of the Gorge we have seen yet. The utterly breathtaking panoramic view went on for miles through the clear sunny skies. Caution was required while navigating the summit due to the jagged and loose talus rocks covering the ground but the handy walking sticks we'd picked up at the beginning of the trail helped. Once seated on some of the larger stones we were able to see Dog Mountain, Mitchell Point, Mount Defiance, Table Mountain, Greenleaf Peak, and most spectacularly, the snow covered Mount Saint Helens. And if that wasn't enough there is a big shiny red cherry topping this pie.... the fact that Wind Mountain is a site of significant historical importance. It has been and is still used as a Native American spirit quest location and has at its peak several delicate archaeological areas that are up to a thousand years old. Delicious! We urge the rest of you big girls and boys out there to give this hike a try, just take it slow, bring lots of water, and maybe a *healthy* snack or two ;)

CLICK HERE for pics!!!

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