Friday, July 24, 2009

Family Hike

Last weekend we took a trip to a state park for some hiking! With Michael leaving in August we've been squeezing in as many family outings as we can in our free time. What was supposed to be just a half-day hike, so we could still do Genevieve's birthday party, turned out to be a very strenuous full day hike! ugh...ordinarily I would have embraced such a challenge, but having not hiked in awhile (or worked out) *blushing* My thighs, legs, toes, head, were screaming for mercy by the time we got around the South Trail around this HUGE gorge! The kids did very well considering several steep ascents that met us on the North side of the gorge. We intended on only doing the north trail which was 5 miles. However, we soon found that the only way back to the comfort of our car and the beach was to go completely around the WHOLE gorge, thus completing the North and South side of the gorge. We were all groaning, hopes dashed that we had reached the finish line...all except this crazy soldier hiking with us that kept saying to take short choppy steps up the incline and how he felt pretty good, and we should all appreciate this time as a family and enjoy nature and blah, blah, blah. :)


I'm smiling before I realized we had yet to do the south trail!


The timid little mud creek that stormed down into a ferocious waterfall!




This was taken from the south side that was a good distance away, but you could hear it pretty good and I couldn't get the whole waterfall in the frame.




"Mike" found a tree stump with his name on it!







Looking across the Gorge from the North side...below were the rapids...it was pretty neat to hear the water rushing the whole time we hiked around it.












We saw this sign several times on the trail...:/







2 comments:

Lisa's Blessed A Latte said...

Sweet Blog...looks like we have many things in common...I am an Independant Baptist mom of five who homeschools....I live in the Northwest not far from Ft. lewis...Small world.... I have a sister who lives in Rome, NY. I've enjoyed reding your blog tonight....I will be back!!!

HOPE said...

Oh my...that last sign is NOT something a mom or Nana want to see! You do have a million guardian angels..your siblings testify to that!!!

About the MIKE stump...maybe Mike was lost and wanted to be found somewhere nearby! Instead of another Mike coming along and taking his pic by it! It's probably a HELP ME sign!! LOL

Looks like another great FAMILY adventure!