how i almost died while hiking

Seattle. What is Seattle known for? Most people immediately think of constant rain and tech bros. While those assumptions are kind of true, Seattle is also part of the Pacific Northwest, a great location for nature activities (see here for my reviews on some PNW hikes).

During my first summer in Seattle, I went on my first hike and almost died becuase I was a noob and knew nothing. Let’s recall the tale…

I had three other close friends in Seattle and it was our second and third weeks here, meaning that we were due to go on a hike. One friend typically planned our hangouts because they were the “planner friend”, so they chose a hike to go on. We also had a strange idea of eating a coconut at the peak of the hike while chugging Truly Hard Seltzers because one of us had never tried coconut before. For the record, we were all underage at the time 🙂‍↕️ (shhh)

There’s an affordable bus system called the Trailhead Direct which has shuttles that drop riders off to some trailheads. We planned to meet at the stop outside Seattle Public Library – Central Library at 9:30 AM. I woke up a bit late so I didn’t eat breakfast and while rushing out of the door, I hastily grabbed my water bottle and a Rice Krispy treat. I don’t know why I didn’t think to eat before hiking or at least bringing snacks… NOOB

By the time all of us arrived at the stop, it was starting to drizzle but we didn’t think too much of it since the weather forecast said that it’d stop soon. However, the shuttle that was supposed to come didn’t show up. We were puzzled and confused if we somehow were at the wrong spot. There were a few other hikers at the stop so we were certain that we went to the correct location, but the shuttle still wasn’t there and it comes every hour. The other hikers were still waiting so we decided to wait as well, hoping that the shuttle would come soon.

However, it started raining harder and the shuttle was late again. We considered walking to a different shuttle stop in case the stop we were at was no longer active, but after about three hours from our original meeting time, the shuttle FINALLY arrived past noon. We boarded the shuttle (which was extremely packed) and were on our one hour journey to the trailhead.

Once we arrived at the trailhead, we started ascending. My friend had mentioned which trail we were going on but to be honest, I didn’t really pay attention since I was sleepy and just followed them while they were navigating. As a result, I didn’t know how long the route was.

Turns out, we were hiking Teneriffe Falls Trail which is ranked Hard on AllTrails and is 5.7 miles with 1,620 feet elevation gain. Additionally, the trail was very muddy because of the rain, and since this was my first time hiking, I was only wearing an old pair of tennis shoes which had zero grip. The overall scenery kind of looked like something out of The Twilight Saga.

At that time, I was probably also at one of my most unfit stages of my life so I was huffing and puffing, alongside asthma. We took breaks while hiking where I conservatively drank my water. Nearing the top of the mountain, it started becoming EXTREMELY rocky (see the reviews on AllTrails). It was a little scary bouldering across the wet rocks with slippery shoes but eventually, we made it past that obstacle. Going up those rocks was so much easier than going down.

At some point, my friend suddenly said that we finished. I looked around and we weren’t even at a peak with a view, which is what I was expecting. All I saw in front of me was a waterfall with a small flow rate. It was at that moment where I realized seeing the waterfall was the “peak” of the summit. Bruh.

I was kind of peeved because we had just gone on that strenuous hike FOR THAT? There wasn’t even a safe platform/edge to be near the waterfall since the edge we were on was pretty small with trees in front of us. To get more space, we (stupidly) decided to cross the river which was a good distance below our current location. At that point, I was pretty tired and one fun fact about me is that I outbreak in hives at random occurrences. This ended up being one of those times 🤡 and I could feel the hives spreading throughout my body.

After crossing the river and to celebrate us reaching the “top” of the hike, we decided to crack open our coconut and drinks. We quite literally went “caveman-style” and smashed the coconut on rocks to open it. Fun fact: It’s hard to open coconuts without a knife. Three of us attempted splitting the coconut evenly but it was pretty unsuccessful so we gave up and started nibbling it. The coconut ended up being the second worst coconut I’ve ever eaten — the coconut was unripe causing it to not be sweet and the flesh was extremely hard to separate from the coconut shell.

We lugged up all of our alcoholic beverages to the top so obviously, we needed to start drinking them. If you don’t know me, I’m a lightweight and get “asian flush” literally after a sip of alcohol. Since my stomach was completely empty, I needed to fill it up with some substance so I ate my Rice Krispy treat and chugged my Truly. Immediately after, I started turning red and could feel myself getting a really bad headache but I had no medicine, food, and very little water left. The idea itself arguably isn’t that dumb but I should have known to not drink since I’m a lightweight and had no food. However, I didn’t want to be a party pooper which is why I ended up doing it.

After we finished our break at the top and took pictures, we started descending the mountain. My headache had marinated and was in full blossom, continuously pounding like a metronome set at 120 BPM. We barely started moving but I was out of water. It was SO SCARY descending the rocky area because I was lightheaded and dizzy, but after taking it really slow, I was able to make it through.

I didn’t tell my friends how unwell I was feeling because I didn’t want to seem “weak” in front of them (which in hindsight is also so dumb). There were some instances where two of them were racing each other on flatter paths and because I was taking things slow, I made our descent down slightly longer than the time it took for us to ascend the mountain. Once we finally reached the bottom, I wanted to throw up so badly even though I ate very little. After using the disgusting Porta Potty and resting for 20 minutes, I felt a lot better and more calm. The alcohol wore off and my heart rate was a lot slower, but my headache was still terrible. We rode another shuttle back for an hour where I passed out and afterwards ate a nice big bowl of ramen.

After 15+ hikes in Seattle, I look back at this time as one of those core memories you do when you’re just a goofy young adult with your friends having fun. I literally don’t know if my brain was even present that day because every single action was TERRIBLE but at least, I have a funny story to tell 💀