Rattlesnake Mountain

Rattlesnake Mountain is a very good day hike if you don’t have a lot of time to drive far from Seattle and you don’t want to hike with ALL of Seattle over at Mount Si. The hike is actually pretty damned easy, this book I got labeled it as harder than Mount Si, but I think it’s about the same or easier. The hardest thing about this hike is trying to fend off the mosquitoes, god damned there was a fuck ton of mosquitoes. The even worse part about the bugs was the fact that they start getting really bad only after reaching Rattlesnake Ledge at 2.0 miles…which is where everyone stops because they’re lame ass hippies…so I was their sole source of food.
I need to start carrying some DEET. The only good thing about those blood sucking bastards is the fact that they made me RUN through the hike. Yeah, my little legs have never carried me faster through a hike before. Thanks for the good work-out, mosquitoes, but I hope you all burn in hell, especially the huge fat fucker that bit me on my thumb knuckle. That one in particular was so freaking huge, I screamed like a little girl when I saw it chowing on me. Not sure how it got there without my noticing, they must have ninja training or something.
Minus the nasty little bloodsuckers, the second half of the hike was absolutely lovely. There was NO ONE on the trail (I saw maybe four people on the way back down), and the trail changed to this beautiful densely packed forest. It was probably one of my favorite forest-type to hike in. You feel like you’re actually in the woods and nicely shielded from the sun.
The viewpoint at the 4 miles mark was absolutely disappointing; I think the one back at 2 miles was much better. There were too much shrubs and such up top to get a decent unobstructed view. There was also a huge antenna doohickey up there…and I seem to have forgotten my lead helmet at home, so the tumor in my head probably just doubled in size from all the happy radiation.
Bugs, cancer, and shitty view aside, I really enjoyed this hike.

Having not drank in so long, I’m surprised I’m not hungover from being out last night. I had around 5 beers, 4 shots of somethin’ or another, and 2 jello shots…I guess it’s not that much, but again, I haven’t been boozing it up. Sung and Brian are both recent singles, so I guess that translates to I will end up drinking a lot more when my project finishes…if it ever finishes.
I haven’t really hung out with Sung’s friends much before, so I’m very happy to say, they’re all a great bunch. Just goofy, easy going, fun loving types. At some point during the night, the guys were playing grab-ass…I don’t know why, but this game seems to always come up with straight men (I’ve hung out with very gay groups, it seems their favorite drunk game tends to be titty-pinch). I opted out of the grab-ass game much to the dismay of the men, because the target’s girlfriend was standing right there…and while they say it’s okay…in my experience, the potential for it not being okay, far outweighs the okay. I guess I’m a prude about these, things…I tend to err on the side of showing a little more respect for the gal. All in all, the night was awesome, it’s a much needed break, because god knows, I will probably be working no less than 12 hours today.