Hall Creek Perseids 8/12 – 8/13/2016

No usable pics from last night – I took several pictures of a very cool lizard or salamander we saw on the trail but none of them turned out so I found a photo from last year (albeit looking northwest, we mostly looked northeast) taken from near where we were.

Derek, his brother Ryan and I hiked up to Hall’s Point last night/early this morning to watch the Perseid meteor shower.  One word review: wow!

We pulled into the remote parking lot about 11:30 pm and were astounded to see our headlights reflecting off an almost full set of tail lights.  Watching the Perseid in the dark was a popular plan.

However, none of the cars belonged to hikers.  There were a lot of people on blankets and sleeping bags hanging out in the picnic area of the South Fork of the Snohomish river where we parked.

We strapped on our headlamps and gear and headed up.

Those of you who have hiked Change Creek trail can vouch for the fact that it is narrow and rocky and steep.  Not an easy hike to do in the dark.  It was about 70 and felt muggy so we were sweating like whatever sweats a lot (do pigs actually sweat?) in short order.

We took a few breaks to rest our burning calves and gasp for breath along the way.

But in a bit more than an hour there we were, about 3,000 feet up on Hall’s Point with a terrific 360-degree view in the pitch dark.  Watching the meteor shower.

I estimate I saw about ten times more meteors last night in two hours (we were up there from 1am to just past 3am) than I had seen in my entire life before.  Every minute or so we were oohing and aahing at the streaks of fire in the sky.

There must be a word stronger than ‘fun’ that cuts the mustard here but I am not sure what it is.  I just have to thank Derek and Ryan for humoring an old man’s goofy idea to hike in the dark to see meteors, and Derek for picking out Hall’s Point, a perfect spot for viewing.

I am going back next year  to do it again.