I was lucky enough this fall to go on a few hikes with friends around Seattle. I don't particularly see anyone anymore, at least in person, so I figured a few hikes outside, with masks, etc., would be sufficiently virtuous for me to avoid any guilt. (I think I regard the coronavirus as rather like lightning --- you can do a few things to reduce your terrible, terrible risk, but in the end it's up to luck. Is that accurate? I don't know, because I stopped listening to the CDC last April and am, at this point, just waiting until someone gives me a vaccine.) One was up Mt. Si, remembered from past races, with a friend who I met freshman year in my philosophy class. Another was up with an old friend from high school to an alpine lake by Stevens Pass. I have forgotten its name, but the hike will forever live on in my memory for two reasons: 1) I went swimming in the exceedingly cold lake, and 2) two frat boys from either WSU or UW --- they mentioned both schools --- had hauled up a twelve pack of Coors and were playing loud pop music along the lake while shotgunning beers. I had always assumed frat boys were restricted to Greek Row and campus, like how ghosts are unable to leave the site of their death. I am amazed, too, at their determination and fortitude, to haul a twelve pack up 3000' and several miles to a placid autumnal lake, and then simply shotgun them as if lazing around their backyard. I wonder if they drove home. And for that matter, why were there so many odd people out in the mountains that summer of 2020?
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I think I just created extra work for myself by making this page, but c'est la vie. The link below should take you to the main page for hiking, if you're interested in seeing the rest of them.
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