Hiking Cougar Mountain in Issaquah

In an effort to try and fall in like with Seattle, last weekend we stepped outside of our city slicker box and went hiking at Cougar Mountain! Located in Issaquah, WA (about 30 mins outside of Seattle), Cougar Mountain provides scenic views and a variety of trails for all levels. Even though we are beginners, we decided to attack the mountain at its highest point - - Anti-Aircraft Trailhead Peak.

It took us about 2 hours to navigate our way around the El Shangri-La trail, and I wore my heart rate monitor to see how many calories I could burn. It was a breeze starting out our hike going downhill, but I was in for quite a surprise once we rounded that corner and started going back up! Wowzers...  In total I burned about 556 and my bf was able to burn about 700 calories!  Not too shabby for a Saturday morning workout.

Aside from the obvious perks of burning calories, I must admit that getting out of the house and experiencing some of what Seattle has to offer did in fact help me start to break out of my funk. I haven't blogged about it much, but my overall transition into Seattle life hasn't been the easiest. I've been told it seems like I'm in a perpetual state of sulking lol... so yeah, the hike was nice. Seattle is a very outdoorsy place, so I'm quickly realizing that I'll need to find my inner granola in order to fully appreciate it.

One of my favorite images from hiking.

It's kind of funny because I joked with friends earlier this year that I wanted to "transform" myself this spring/summer into some boho city girl. Well, little did I know that would be so quickly put to the test. I was envisioning drinking chai lattes while incorporating a flowy skirt or two into my wardrobe lol. Ha! Fast forward to today and Seattle is providing a strong sense of boho... and I guess it's time for me to offer up my part of the deal. We shall see how this goes.

Oh yeah, this is my first official post for #31WriteNow lol.