Oyster Dome

Oyster Dome was an awesome burly hike, too bad it's so far from Seattle. It almost rivals Mt. Si for burliness...but not quite. Really, as much as I love Si, I still cry like a man that got kicked in the crotch every time I see stairs the day after hiking it. My right knee is tweaking out like crazy during steep descends these days. Could be because I'm getting old and feeble, but I blame Mt. Pilchuck...I think I threw out my knee there from hiking in the snow, and when your foot randomly sinks hip deep in, it causes all sorts of knee and hip unhappiness. I took a good month and a half off from hiking after that in hopes of recovery (this excludes the biking, boarding and climbing of course...because um...who needs knees for those sports). Still, the hikes are too nice to be missed these days.
On our way back down, about ¾ mile from the top, we saw two individuals that simultaneously, impressed and scared the bejeezus out of me. We saw this lady hiking alone with two dogs. The lady was at least 5 months pregnant. She was soooo pregnant you wouldn’t even think she could just be fat and needed the exercise. You just look at her and think, “Holy hell, her water could break any minute now and we're 3+ miles from the bottom.” Keep in mind, the trail was extremely slick and wet in some areas, and it was raining.
The second person was this white dude, whom I dubbed, Justin--as in Justin from the American Idol show. The guy had the world's largest and most well manicured blonde fro, and he was wearing a flowery button-up shirt. As if that’s not enough to create a scary picture, I noticed as I let him hike pass me, the dude was wearing cowboy boots. Fucking pointy toed, with dainty heels black cowboy boots.
The one really cool thing about Oyster Dome is all the random little side trails. On our way back down we hiked this random trail that leads to bat caves (no bats unfortunately)...but the view from it is nice. You can look up to the ledge we just came from.
Happiness is hiking a really burly trail and being exhausted to the point where you can't move.