Wallace Lake Hiking + Life Lately {July 23}

Happy Thursday, everyone! Thank you for playing along in yesterday’s survey post!

Life Lately

Okay, so a lot of this post is going to be about Charlie, but he has just been such a good boy lately, and Ryan and I are so proud of him! For a few weeks the move was stressful for Charlie, and he started barking again if both Ryan and I were out of the apartment. He’s a rescue, and we have no idea what his life was like until someone cruelly abandoned him at a gas station in Ohio (when he was only three months old!), so we are always patient when things are stressful or scary for him and worked on getting him to stay calm and quiet while left alone. 

He finally broke the barking habit and has been extra good the past couple weeks, so we rewarded him with a new toy! Charlie’s favorite toys are always his bones. He was so happy when we gave him a new bone and spent the rest of the night carrying it around with him! His gratitude and sweetness always warms my heart so much. If you are considering getting a dog, please look into rescuing.Those dogs have unjustly hard lives and will give you so much love in return for you giving them a good home. 

Charlie is and will always be our baby. P.S. Don’t tell him he’s not a person. 

Our hike this weekend took us to Wallace Lake. Wallace Lake is located just beyond Wallace Falls, a popular outdoor destination in the Cascades near Gold Bar, WA (near Lake Serene and Bridal Veil Falls). While the trail to Wallace Falls was super crowded (we even saw a wedding party there having their photos taken), the trail up to Wallace Lake was quiet and calm. Crowded trails made me anxious, so I really enjoyed it being just us on the trail. We saw only about three other small groups of people the whole time, until we linked backed up with the trail to the falls.

I didn’t take a ton of photos, because, honestly, this hike was hard for me. Not that it was an objectively hard trail, but just that the high heat and my 14 mile long run (on top of my highest mileage week ever at 53 miles) took it out of me. I spent most of the way up just focusing on getting there. Once we arrived at the top and had a snack, I got a second wind and enjoyed the hike down!

While we both enjoyed the hike, Wallace Lake hiking wasn’t our favorite. We couldn’t find anywhere to actually access the lake, thanks to felled trees due to logging in the area. We could have hiked to Jay Lake, which was another mile from Wallace Lake, but I was feeling tired, so we simply stuck to the trails leading to and from Wallace Lake for a total of 10 miles of hiking. 

After a super hot hike, ice cream sounded so good. We got some Maple Nut ice cream from one of our favorite food stands in Gold Bar. We also got brats because this place makes amazing brats and I knew I needed the calories after covering 24 miles between hiking and running.

You can barely see them in the photos, but I have a renewed love for my Sperrys. Ryan got them for me as a birthday gift three years ago when we went to Cincinnati for my 23rd birthday. They are seriously the best shoes to change into after a long hike and barely show any wear (except when little baby Charlie chewed the laces off, but those were easily replaced). 

If anything, all of this hiking is going to make me very mentally strong for the race and used to being on my feet for several hours at a time. Our hike this week was about four hours (not counting time spent sitting and snacking at the lake), which is hopefully less time than I’ll be running for the Portland Marathon. 

This week Charlie recovered more quickly from the hike, so I took him out for a run on Tuesday morning. I slightly adjusted my marathon plan to make one run a week shorter (five miles) so that Charlie and I can go running without pushing him too far. I simply moved a mile from my Tuesday run to another run in the week, usually on as a warm-up/cool down mile on Mondays or Wednesdays. Running makes Charlie so happy. (Read my tips here if you want to start running with your dog!)

I’ve been working away at the eCookbook in hopes for a September release (which, by the way, is my birthday month, Ryan’s birthday month, and our wedding anniversary month, so it’s pretty much the best month). Here’s a sneak peak at what I’ve been working on. Double leavening makes the best muffins. 

I’ll be linking up with Running with Spoons today for Thinking Out Loud Thursday. 

[Tweet “Hiking at Wallace Falls and all about Charlie the #puggle from @thisrunrecipes #TOL #fitfluential”]

Questions of the Day:
What shoes do you like the wear after a long run or hike?
What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream?
Dog owners: what is your pet’s favorite toy? —> Charlie loves bones and stuffed animals. And by stuffed I mean empty because he removes all fluff and squeakers and then just plays with their outsides.