Round-Trip Distance: 6.6 miles.

This was our first mountain summit!

We climbed a Mountain this weekend. The kids did great on the hike. We had a rough start on both days, but as soon as we got moving the kids were in a much better mood. It’s interesting as the kids grow they are more aware of steep sections of trail, rather than the blissful ignorance they once had. It’s a blessing and curse at times. Overall the trail was never too steep and just one area we did a bit of bouldering.

My alltrails app wasn’t working right, so we didn’t get a trek with the actual mileage, but this is my best guesstimate. We also did a side trip to Sturgeon Rock. The huckleberries and salmonberries were almost ripe and we got a few yummy morsels. Noah liked them and Isabel spit them out almost every time, exclaiming they were sour.

I still haven’t found a guaranteed dinner that the kids like (except mac and cheese). We tried the Mountain High Fajitas and Will and I like them, and Isabel was ok with Instant Mashed Potatoes, but Noah went without dinner, he didn’t want anything.

Overall, we had a great time, hiking through fields and fields of mountain wildflowers. We followed the Backpacking Book, One Night Wilderness, again and took Ed’s Trail up and the old jeep road back. Getting to the trail head was a challenge in the new car and I wish we had the Land Rover still, but everything went great.

We were able see 5 mountains on Saturday: Mt. St. Helens, Rainier, Adams, Hood, and Jefferson. It was pretty darn amazing. This is a definite hike we have to do again next year.