Hotel Creek Trail -> Cedar Grove Overlook -> Lewis Creek Trail

After almost 2 months of hiking-free activities, I finally was on my way to Hotel Creek Trail. Together with two other people, we were to start at the Hotel Creek Trailhead, visit Cedar Grove Overlook and return via Lewis Creek Trail.

I arrived at the trailhead at 8.30 AM, and not knowing whether my hiking partners had already started the ascend or not, I decided to slowly go uphill. As I conquered several switchbacks, I heard a noise. Brrr... Brrr.. I was not sure what that was and continued. Brrr... Brrr... was coming from the same spot again. I thought that there was an animal, but could not figure out who would be making this noise. I decided to go down a bit to search for my hiking partners. It was a bit unnerving to continue the hike by myself, yet I was not ready to give up just yet. Indeed, "It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live" (Marcus Aurelius).

I saw two figures in the distance and took a deep breath, it was my hiking partners! I explained to them what happened, and they just laughed at me. "It's a bird flapping its wings, you silly!" they told me... Lo and behold, I heard the sound again and saw a larger bird flying from where the sound originated. I wondered how much more I could do if it were not for fear...

The hike finally continued. The climb was steep, but moderately difficult. The views opened up since the very beginning.

We reached the Cedar Grove overlook pretty quickly. Looking down, you could see the river, and on the other side - vast meadows.

The size of some of these trees is insane. The picture above just shows how little we are (or I am...) compared to one of them.

The weather was absolutely perfect until the end of the hike when it got hot and buggy. I luckily had my headnet!

Overall, we ended up hiking around 8.5 miles with 2,350 ft elevation gain.