I am a little bit of an REI gear junkie, lol. I just got an email from them last week saying that I’ve officially been a member of the co-op for 10 years. 10 years!? I got the membership as an adult and after shopping there pretty regularly for a while. Strange how time passes without you realizing. And for me, as someone who has never had a birthday celebration, it is the little things like that that hit me and make me go… 🤔 Wait, how old am I again? Young enough to hike and enjoy it. That is more of the measure of age that I am interested in than the calendar measure. Especially since 2020 didn’t count, AmIRight? 🤣
Anyway… I got a new hiking water filter from REI. I’ m so scared of brain eating amoebas though. Or parasites. Or poo 💩 germs in the water. So long story slightly shorter, I intended to test out this fancy-dan water filter with fresh, crisp waterfall water. What could be better than that? Well, this time there was so little flow that I literally couldn’t fill my water bottle to test a new filter. I stood with my arm extended, trying to capture some of the freezing cold droplets for as long as I could. I’m quite sure that I got more on myself than collected into the water bottle. I could have filled it in the stream, but what fun is that?
Here is a video of my trip to one of my favorite short hiking spots, Anglin Falls.
The hike begins with a cute bridge where you can look down and see some little fishes and frogs. Something about the plants and light about half way up the trail reminds me of Yellowstone- the forest, not the geysers 😂 it smells great like clean forest. Then as you get to the top, there is a bit of scrambling over slick rocks. The humidity near the falls with the ferns and moss gives it a Pacific Northwest feel. A great, short hike, well marked, and easy to moderate, that you can get in and out of in a morning and still have time for brunch. Or hang out there for a while.
It is so peaceful and chill at the top with the ferns and large boulders and sound of water falling. If you have not been forest bathing, you might want to give it a try. I’m absolutely horrible at sitting in a quiet room to meditate. This is one of the reasons that I love yoga and rock climbing. I find them to be moving meditations. But I can sit quietly in a forest and just breathe and be. More on this in my next post!
Do you have a favorite hike near your house or even abroad? I’d love to know what it is!
My AloBoutSummerStrength Instagram challenge has officially wrapped, winner announced. Looking forward to the next one!
MoveMint Yoga 