# 29 - East Zigzag Mountain and Burnt Lake

The hike book gives a completion time of 5 hours, and had we just brought a day pack, it might have taken about that long. But I had purposefully burdened myself with a pack full of miscellaneous objects specifically to train for the upcoming trip, so it took us about 8 hours.

The hike itself is a moderate climb (2000 ft. elevation gain) for almost 4 miles to the top of Zigzag Mountain.



There’s a meadow about half way up with the fragrant remnants of the season’s wildflowers and a ton of huckleberry bushes. At the top, there’s a third-of-a-mile mini-climb to the “top of the top” of Zigzag, where we ate some lunch, take off our boots and rest. I’d forgotten to clip my toenails, so my right middle toe (aka Eviltoe) was starting to look a little beat up. I first lost the toenail after my first Hood-to-Coast event, so I’ve had to baby it ever since or suffer the consequences. So I switched from my hiking boots (thanks mom and dad!) to my Tevas (thanks mum and dad!).



From the top, you travel about a mile, descending about 900 feet, to Burnt Lake. There are campsites all around this beautiful lake. It’s not a huge lake, but it was just big enough for me to not be able to discern the gender of the skinny dipper across the lake, but my Steve-Austin-sighted (the bionic one, not the wrestler) sweetie assured me it was a male.

The problem with descending that many feet in a short distance is, of course, that you have to hike back up. We took a well deserved break at the top and my sweetie wanted me to get a pic of him with the mountain, so I do. When I look at the camera, he’s got that same insanely happy smile that he has in all his pictures.



See? Doesn’t it just scream: “I love rocks! I love trees! I love dirt! I loooove strenuous physical activity!”

So I told him to show me how he really felt…



That’s better. This is more of the, “Seriously woman, are you trying to kill me by incessantly dragging me on these hikes through the wilderness just so you can touch the water and climb on some rocks?”

Just kidding. He loves to hike. Or at least he says he does. Anyway, he never says no when I want to go.



We got back to the car just after dark (we remembered the headlamps this time), but about a quarter mile from the parking lot we snapped this parting shot of the moonrise. Exhausting hike, but worth it.