Surprising Sunrise

Sunrise or sunset? Both have their advantages and disadvantages.

9 times out of 10 I lean towards sunset because I’m a natural night owl and honestly, it’s just easier to catch a sunset because it’s happening at a normal waking hour!

However, maybe that’s what makes sunrise so special… I rarely catch them, let alone wake up at 5 AM to go hike up a mountaintop to witness it.

Well, a few weeks ago my friend and co-worker, Layne, and I made plans to hike. The weather was looking to be blue sky and sunny, but I ended up double-booking myself that day and needed to get in an early hike if we were going to stick to our plans! (which I definitely wanted to do). Luckily, Layne was game and up for an early morning wake up call! I picked her up from her Capitol Hill apartment at 6:30 AM, getting us to the nearly full Little Si trailhead around 7 AM. (lots of early risers in North Bend I guess…)

Sunrise was at 7:24 AM that morning, so we were running a little behind (my bad!), but it all worked out.

Beyond the really great conversation, we kept good pace and arrived at the summit just in time to witness the sun peaking over the mountain, with fog literally filling up the valley between the evergreens. It was like something out of a painting.

As we stopped and stared in awe of the scenery, our bodies quickly cooled down (it was early February after all), so we set up my JetBoil and made some coffee and oatmeal. That’s one little treat I love bringing with me on morning day hikes!

The hike was short and sweet and it was so much fun finding a new hiking partner! Hopefully many more hiking trips to come! Check out the photos below.

(Disclaimer: My new Sigma lens is having some auto focus issues, or maybe it’s user error, but a few images were def not in focus ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ - I’ll figure it out eventually!)

---