Snow Hiking

Friday was bad as you know, but Saturday went much better. We weighed Saturday morning, kind of as a check point and I had lost another 2 lbs. Yipee! Now, I have to keep it off until Wednesday!

We spent most of Saturday running errands. My daughter had a b-day party so we couldn't go hiking. That was a little discouraging. Instead, we cleaned out my car....it was much needed!

We did get a chance to go hiking on Sunday though. Saturday night we picked out where we wanted to go. We were planning a 6.6 mile hike with pretty big elevation gains in spurts. We decided we needed to leave the house at 9 on Sunday morning. So, I made cookies Saturday night (yummy oatmeal and peanut butter) so that we could have a energy boosting, yummy, snack on our hike. We also got fishing poles and our backpacks mostly ready that night.

The next morning we left town only 30 minutes behind schedule. It was about a 2 hour drive to the trail head. We filled out all the required permits and tags and deposited $5 into the fee box at the trail head. Then we handed the kids their whistles and headed up the trail. About 100 feet up the trail there was snow. It covered the trail, but it didn't go far so we decided to go ahead and keep moving...besides, we had just put our $5 in the box!

The trail was bare (just muddy) for most of the next quarter mile. Then, there was snow again, and a lot of it! We couldn't really tell where the trail led, but decided to keep going until we found the first 3 lakes which were only about a 1/2 mile from the trail head. We looked for signs of the original trail and tried to stay on path. I felt relieved when we found our first trail marker. Actually, there were two signs.

Then we traveled on in that direction and eventually found the first lake. Shortly after that there was another lake and then another. We decided to keep going until we got to one more lake, which in the summer has 6 camp sites around it. We made it to that lake with just a little more climbing, sliding, and falling. It had only taken us about an hour to travel one mile. By then, the kids were freezing (we weren't dressed for snow).

I had grabbed two pairs of gloves that I kept in my car before we left the trail head. I covered the babies (okay, he's 4, but he's my baby) little fingers and we continued on for a little while until we had no idea where the trail was. Then, we ate our cookies and started heading back. We all fell through the snow at one point or another, some more than others. I think I fell through more than anyone else, but based on my size, that's to be expected. I came out of it with only a couple bruises. No one else is complaining today. So, I guess they are good.

It took us 2 1/2 hours to walk 2 miles, with a few stops to look at sights, get unstuck, take pictures, cover up fingers, and eat cookies. Not exactly a record breaking time....maybe on the slowness factor. I am disappointed that we didn't reach our goal destination, but that wasn't because we physically gave up, we just lost the trail! We tried!

We took the kids to the damn to see the fish after that and went fishing after that. It was a wonderful SUNDAY! :)