At the start of the hike everyone was feeling happy and chipper. I carried Holly most of the way up. At one point I had to stop on the trail to nurse her. Damon continued on with the other kids, figuring I could make better time than them and catch up pretty easily. They made it quite far without me and I got pretty thirsty and tired charging after them. Damon had to take Holly for the final quarter of the uphill portion.
The trail was about a 1000-foot vertical climb, pretty steep considering it was just 2 miles one way. The kids did very well. As we neared the summit there were a few signs that we had to read to get clues for solving our geocache puzzle. Before finding the cache, we were rewarded with amazing views of the Columbia River and the Gorge. First, to the west:
To the east (back towards White Salmon):
And here Damon and Holly take in the view to the north. We stopped here on these rocky fields for our lunch. The rocks were some sort of spiritual Native American site (not burial), so we hope that we managed ourselves respectably.
The view behind the kids is kind of to the east-southeast; you can see the river. They were great hikers that day.
We found the geocache on our way back down the trail. It required reaching the summit first to get all the clues, but then it was hiding under a log near the trail on the north side of the mountain. It was fun to use our GPS--the first time that we had all done it together when there wasn't snow on the ground. We want to hike more and take advantage of the beautiful part of the world where we live. Each time we do it the kids gain a little victory and have more confidence that makes them much less likely to whine on the next one. We're encouraged and hope to do more and more to get out and be active and enjoy the Gorge.
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