HSS, Seattle

The day dawned bright and clear. It was the perfect day for a hike! Last Saturday, on August 25, Anilji, Paragji, and Devendraji took the Kishore gana of Bellevue shaaka for a hike to Rattlesnake Ledge, a 2-mile hike to the top. The group consisted of me (Adhithyaa Rajakumar), Aditya Joglekar (Version #2), Soham Pant, Arun Palaniappan, and Akshath and Abhinand Sivaprasad. We met at the Bellevue shaaka at around 7:00 A.M. in the morning. Traveling in two groups in Anilji and Devendraji’s cars, all of us had a fun 20-minute ride to the hike: chatting about boy stuff, joking around, and talking excitedly about the big hike ahead of us. Once we arrived at the site, the shikshaks, Anilji, Paragji, and Devendraji, quickly made sure we had everything ready, and set off almost immediately.

It took about twenty minutes to get to the first point. We took a short rest and a quick snack break, consisting of a few sandwiches and some drinks. At this point, we all had picked up sticks and were debating over the one that was best for hiking. The main part about that break, however, was the scenery. The scenery was amazing. Dense forests of trees for miles around, and a small clump of houses. We took a few pictures, and then we were off again. Sometime later, Paragji started asking a riddle to the group, and then started the riddle craze. We were all asking riddles and questions of various sorts: math, jokes, etc. At this point, we were all divided into three groups, Anilji and Arun in the front, me and Akshath a little back, and Devendraji, Paragji, Aditya #2, and Soham in the rear, about a minute behind.

Then started our complaints about our poor legs. I had twisted my ankle and was limping a little. Akshath was getting tired, too. Only the three shikshaks were still going strong. Thankfully, about an hour and a half later, we arrived at the top. It was about 10:00 A.M. by then. Anilji, Akshath, Arun, and I arrived first. We knew that the others were almost a minute behind. Plus, a man arriving after us told us that he had told them they still had one hour left to reach the top. We quickly hid, but they found us immediately when they arrived. We continued to the very top, to the big rock. True to its name, the rock was big!

Words could not have described the scenery at the top. It was breathtaking. Amazing. Awesome. Astounding. Fantastic. We gaped at the scenery for some time, and then took some pictures. After that, we started to eat. It was like a big group picnic. We shared everything: sandwiches, Rice Crispies, and rotis. Later, Akshath and I went exploring while the others were playing and chatting. We went inside a crevice in the big rock, gaped at the height from there until the bottom, and just chatted. We took a few more pictures, and started back.

The way back was much faster, going downhill. We sung geeths, chanted naras, and merrily joked around as we walked swiftly. The negative part about downhill, however, was that we were more prone to leg injuries. I almost tripped over once, and twisted my ankle two more times!

We finally reached the bottom. After congratulating each other, we decided to go to the lake nearby and while away the time. There, Paragji taught the beginners to skip stones, and Anilji and Devendraji took pictures of us standing around a huge fallen tree. Then, Abhi, Akshath, and I had some contests on who could throw the heaviest stone, throw the farthest stone, etc. Finally, we had a vote on what we should do. Some people voted on going to a restaurant. So the choices were Chipotle, Burger King, any pizza restaurant, or Subway. The final two choices were Subway or Chipotle. About half wanted Chipotle and half wanted Subway. Some, like Abhi, just wanted to go home straight. In the end, we chose to go to Subway. We ordered everything there, and while we were eating, we talked about the best and worst parts of the hike. Some of the best parts were eating at the top, skipping stones, going uphill, and going downhill. Some of the worst parts were eating at the top, going uphill, and going downhill. Then, we all made up jokes to see which one was the closest to being a ‘Paragji joke’. Good times…

Finally, we were all dropped off at our houses, after deciding that we should do another activity like paintball sometime soon. Overall, I’d rate the hike an 11/10. It was a great event to have social time with friends, have some exercise, and just have fun.