As the sun has come out in Whatcom County, I am so lucky to have found the perfect hiking buddy … or rather, buddies! My sister in law, Cheriss and her fabulous dog, Samantha. They are always game for a hike, no matter how tired they are or how long the day has been. We’ve been hiking everywhere. The upside to all the rain in Washington is that we have lots of lush greens, old growth trees and every hiking trail seems more beautiful than the last. It’s easy to get addicted and Cheriss and I are fully on our way to obsession. Cheriss even got a pair of … trail shoes.We totally bit off more than we can chew on our latest hike though. Cheriss bought a book of the best hiking in Whatcom Countyand we’ve been methodically going throgh it. It was working swimmingly until the Pine & Cedar Lake trail. Ironcially, I had been warned about this trail by my mother-in-law but had completely forgotten about her dire predictions when we bounded out of the car to feed our addiction.From Kulshan.com explaining Pine & Cedar Trail: Unless you begin training a couple weeks before you go, don’t attempt a hike to Pine and Cedar Lakes with a case of canned beverages in your backpack. Why? Because apparently this Whatcom County Parks trail was created before the advent of switchbacks –- it’s straight uphill, no mercy.

They were not joking in any way, shape or form. Pine & Cedar made our legs burn, our lungs ache and humbled my sister in law and I. Apparently we had not been training enough to take on this trail. However, we are nothing if not competitive to a fault so we made it up the lake and back down, vowing to never do it again. Or at least, not until we train some more.