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alexdontplaynogamez · 4 years ago

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Washington Check

Hello friends.

Welcome back.

Turns out people actually read this? I thought it was just my mom. Well actually, I’m pretty sure she doesn’t know how Tumblr works.

“Alex but it’s just a website, what do you mean!? You click a link an you’re don”

I know, I know. I don’t have time to explain her relationship with the internet, that’s not what I’m here for. I’m here to say that I finally left New Mexico!

I told everyone I was going to Portland (AND I DID) but I only really spent like a day there?

I ACTUALLY ended up spending the whole time in Washington 😂

TBH I’ve never really spent a lot of time even thinking about Washington. I don’t know if I could have pointed it out on a map for you before this. Don’t blame me, blame the American education system. I knew Seattle existed but not that Washington was the state that contained it? DO YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN?! 😁

Okay I’m done trashing Washington because it’s ACTUALLY a REALLY GREAT PLACE. It is BEEEAAAUUUTIIFFUUULLLL. Ya’ll, Washington, she is gorgeous, she is a QUEEN. 👑

But lets begin.

Pre Trip

I ended up driving up to the DFW to visit my old homies. I drove by my old apartments, the place that I used to work. PTSD much. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

Shout out to my DFW peeps, you know who you are 💓🥰

This backpack would later break me emotionally

Day 1

Here’s a riddle. A flight leaves at 11:00 AM and arrives at 1:00 PM, the flight is 4 hours long. How is this possible?

Actually, not a riddle at all. Time zones.

Left DFW at 11 AM. Got to Portland at 1 PM. That’s it.

“Alex, oh my God, you’re so brave going to random places alone!”

Thank you!

Except that I wasn’t alone. I was with my fam. My brother and his wifey, now also my sissy. If you’re reading this. Hey queens 💓👑

Also, I promise I don’t call everyone “queens” It just stuck in the past month of my life 😂

BACK TO DAY 1

Get there, family reunion/meeting, got some food, first day of camping. Still in Portland.

P.S. I will only be able to shower 3 times in the next 7 days.

Queens in Oregon 👑

Campsite numero uno

Oregon hits different, let me tell y’all

Day 2

After a lot of driving around Oregon we realize. IT’S CLOSED.

“What’s closed?”

OREGON. Oregon is closed.

“It’s closed?”

Yes, Oregon is closed.

“What do you mean Or-”

It’s closed.ON TO SEATTLE!

We stop for some PHO. Then look for our next camping site.

We get to see some places before we leave.

Mt. Hood National Forest in Oregon. Look it up.

Con la sissy

Idk... they were weird

Most places we visited overlooked the Columbia River which separates Oregon and Washington.

Waterfall pics con el brother

“Yo perreo sola” - Bad Bunny

Day 3

STORY TIME.

About a year ago, I had a dream...

JK I’ll make it short 😂

I was supposed to go backpacking a year ago. I didn’t. The end.

Point of the story: IVE REALLY WANTED TO GO BACKPACKING FOR A LITTLE MORE THAN A YEAR NOW.

And here I was. Today is the day. We here.

It takes us about 2 hours to get a permit. We had to drive back down to a town where we could get some of that sweet 4G signal. Getting a permit is not hard but you have to know what you’re gonna do. Like the route you’re gonna take, which campgrounds you’ll be at, which days you’ll be at them. It’s not a crazy ask. But we did not know those things so it was just a little 🥱 YOU KNOW?

Whatever, we do all of that, then it’s time.

Uhm... I realize my pack is heavy. But it’s okay. The campsite we chose was only 4 miles away............

...

WE THOUGHT.

WE REALLY THOUGHT.

4 miles in. We get to a junction with a sign that says that our lake is 4 miles away.

I’m gonna simplify backpacking for a second. It’s walking with a heavy backpack through, at times, difficult terrain.

I think I broke at this point 😂

You see, I was tired at mile 2. I was ready for the great view at mile 4. Now I had to get over this mental hurdle that I had to walk 4 more miles

Ya’ll I’m an anxious person 😂 This did affect me.

AND IT GOT WORST. Turns out the next 4 (ACTUALLY 5) miles was a long winding, UPHILL path.

...

It took like 6 hours? 😭

How we started

How we ended

There was a point. At around 8pm. I was cold, EXHAUSTED, anxiety levels high, blood sugar low. We were stopping every 10 steps at this point. The only thing that gave me comfort was that my sissy is a nurse and my brother is in the army. They’d know how to revive me in the very probable case that I go into shock. Physical and mental shock 😂

Well... the lake was like 100 meters away. I didn’t know this when I was ready to die. Once I saw the lake. I was REVIVED! Only mentally, I was still ACTUALLY extremely physically exhausted. I couldn’t pitch my tent fast enough. Actually I could but I was SOOO tired. I did it as fast as I could with the little energy I had. Blowing up my sleeping pad took so much effort, made me a little dizzy. Quickly ate the delicious warm meal that was handed to me. Didn’t even give myself a camp shower, which I had down every day up to that point. Just put on my base layer, my pants, my jacket, my fluffy socks. DIDN’T EVEN HAVE TIME TO JOURNAL. Relax y’all it’s just a travel log. The traumatic events of the day were just too fresh and raw 😅 I needed some mental space 😂😂😂

But seriously 😥

Ahhh just joking 😂

Or am I? 🙄

You decide.

Flapjack Lakes @ Olympic National Park (AT NIGHT)

😋

Day 4

Slept 11 HOURS.

The days fly by after that traumatic day.

We hiked to a place called the Gladys Divide.

I had heard people say things like “It’s worth the hike” and thought that it was a strange thing to say. And it wasn’t until I saw the views that I really felt it. Ya’ll the views from this place are AMAZING. It’s not even that it’s such a great view. Everything is just SOOOO big. Kind of throws you into a mini existential crises.

Or maybe is was the shock of not having signal for more than 24 hours... Hmmm... Maybe that’s what that was.

I finally bathed... in a lake... does that count?

Did my laundry! Clothes did not dry...

“Gladys Divide 5000 ft”

Views

Selfies

Campground

Campground views (Flapjack Lakes in the DAYLIGHT)

Day 5

9 mile hike back. Tiring. Not as bad as the hike there.

Oh... I had realized on the way there that my shoes were too small. Every step of that 9 miles back was a reminder of that fact 😊

Did almost fall

Squad

Day 6

Another 8 mile hike!

We got to see Lake Serene and the Bridal Veil Falls!

What a difference it makes to not be hauling around a 30lb+ backpack 😁

Bridal Veil Falls

Lake Serene

Day 7

We spent most of this day in Seattle. No hiking this time. It’s kind of the wind down day. Our flights were the next day at 5am after all. Can’t get too wild. Best to be near the airport.

We tried to get matching tattoos!

Didn’t happen.

Decided to get different tattoos!

Didn’t happen either. Well except for David. He went through with it. Sry queen.

LOOK. Here’s what happened. The tattoo I chose turned out to be a well known prison gang tattoo?!?! I came up with an idea all on my own, I researched to see if it had any meaning... It was a PRISON TATTOO.

But I was gonna get it anyway 😂 HOWEVER, turns out tattoo places charge you a minimum of $80+ for anything you want to get. The place we went had a minimum of $100...

Uhhhh... Sir... All I wanted was 3 dots...

Needless to say... it didn’t happen.

We had a good last day. Good food. Good peeps. Good end to the trip :’)

RT if you cry.

THE END

That was it. I never knew how cool Washington was. Definitely deserves some hype. If y’all ever get the chance I would highly recommend! 10/10

Side Note:

Apparently you can pay people to carry your stuff on backpacking trips...

...

Yeah... consider that.

Alex out!

Fam 💖

#washington #olympic national park #olympic #backpacking #camping #gladysdivide

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alexdontplaynogamez · 5 years ago

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New Mexico Getaway 2020 (Corona Style)

WARNING: The following details a very unplanned trip.

Hello!

The major update this week is that...

🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁 (this is a drum roll XD)

I went camping! 😁

Jemez Falls, New Mexico

Part of the Santa Fe National Forest.

Saturday

Drove out there Saturday morning. Stopped for Chick-Fil-A and supplies in Albuquerque. Don’t ask me why but we spent almost two hours here.

Made some stops along the way. Mostly to Google where in the heck we are going to sleep that night. (Spoiler, we don’t figure it out there)

Made it to Jemez around 5pm(?) Ended up finding a place to camp around 7pm. What happened in those 2 hours? I suggested a spot and this suggestion was disregarded. 2 hours later, we come back to the spot I suggested 😡 I will not be naming names. You know who you are.

We really went without a plan. All the official campgrounds were closed. Luckily, the one we found was really close to the Jemez Falls trail entrance.

Sunday

Wake up. Pack up. We head on over to the falls around 11am. (Pro tip: WATER SHOES)

The hike was sooooooooooo nice. Here we have forest, tall trees, rivers, water falls. Only 20 miles out, there was desert and red rocks. New Mexico be weird like that.

My friends, I cannot stress this enough, WATER SHOES! My friend, which can be seen in one of the pictures above, was trying really hard to not get her shoes wet. I had to carry her MANY A TIME. This is where she gave up 😂

THE FALLS WERE GREAT

I did not make this jump. No thank you.

The water was FREE-E-ZING.

So a couple of things. Last time I showered was the day before. Next real shower, probably Monday. Camping, setting up, tearing down, hiking. All these activities had made me filthy.

So I made an executive decision and got in the water. 😅

Had a great time. Then, time to go back!

Felt cute might delete l8r

We found a photo shoot worthy meadow.

We really couldn’t stop taking pictures.

I mean, is this really necessary? 😂

I mean, I can’t even smile correctly.

Anyway, we head to our next destination! Which is another water fall about an hour north? Again, this was also decided on a whim.

Found a campsite close to the falls. We were starving and needed a food stop.

Sooooooooo, this campsite you see above was CLOSED. So, after consulting with a random guy in an RV (Dan?), we decide to break the law.

This is short lived. 😅 A gift from above in the form of a Park Ranger named Ben(?) tells us of a place 2 miles south we can stay at if we’re “looking for some place to not camp illegally.” Bless you, Ben, bless you :’)

The most beautiful campsite our eyes ever did see. It also had a great view. Forest all around, a quiet road in the distance, and the city of Los Alamos to the east.

The rest of the night was just blastin them bops, some journaling, some reading, but mostly listening to them bops and trying to sleep.

Bops can be reached through this link.

Song of the trip, don’t ask me why.

Monday

Picture taken at 5am because I’m a super early riser and not because I had been up since 3am trying to sleep 🙃

Long story short, we decided to not go to the falls and instead head straight back home. At that point, all I wanted was a real shower.

THE END

Miscellaneous trip occurrences:

Saw a dog in a face mask @ the spookiest Walmart I ever did see

All my clothes got wet so I had to wear the Nirvana shirt the whole trip (leaky cooler)

Teamed up with a guy in an RV to stay in a campsite illegally, we left a note when the ranger corrected us, he found us later and thanked us for the tip! (Happy to confirm the was NOT an axe murderer)

Both nights, I was so spooked that I went to sleep clutching a pocket knife (Surprisingly effective stress reliever)

Got a “surprise inspection” at Los Alamos on the way back. My friend was NOT a fan for reasons that will not be stated... 😂 If you know you know.

#newmexio #jemezfalls #camping

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