Hikes

Hiking is one of my most favorite activities ever.  I love being in the mountains!  For some reason (could be my ridiculously high expectations when it comes to having an adventure), but we're batting about .500 on successful hiking experiences.  Our first hike sans kids was to Silver Lake.  We were on a semi-tight schedule with a nursing babe at home, and we knew the hike was about 2.5 hours roundtrip.  So when we had some difficulty finding the trailhead, my blood pressure started to rise.  Nevertheless, we did find it and the hike was perfect with a gorgeous lake at the end!

Hike with kids (minus Corbin): Stewart Falls.  We've done this hike several times throughout our marriage.  Even so, it took us 45 minutes to find the trailhead because it was a "sneaky" way and we had forgotten how to get there.  We bagged that idea and decided to trust where everyone else and their dog started the hike.  We finally found it and I was feeling pretty good.  Kids were still happy, it seemed like this new way was possibly shorter, cool weather.  We were halfway to the waterfall (which is the only incentive for a kid to go on a hike) when the people coming toward us said that we should probably turn around because there was a bear on the trail up ahead.  Say what?  The smite angels did it again.  Seriously, what are the chances?!  After a brief discussion, we decided it best to turn around and call it a day (though I was tempted to take our chances and get to the dang waterfall.  What is wrong with me?).  On the way back, we had to go down a snowy hill.  Of course we slipped, and I just pulled Reed down the snow slide behind me.  We both got muddy and wet and he scraped his hand pretty good.  Of course we didn't have a bandaid, hence the socks on his hands.  The hike ended in tears-mostly Reed's-and some laughs (Kevin and mine) in spite of it all.

Stewart Falls 2.0

We made it to the waterfall!  It ended up being a tougher hike for Reed than we thought, 4 miles roundtrip.  He walked the entire thing (he had to), but he certainly did his fair share of complaining.  It got pretty comical and other hikers were trying to encourage him and cheer him on.