Here is a description of the trail I copied from seattlepi.com: "After a mellow start, the trail becomes a just-wide-enough path that switchbacks steeply through basalt cliffs held together with scraps of vegetation and mountain hemlocks. When snow-free, the trail is not dangerous for adults but is not recommended for small children. If you are prone to vertigo, you might consider another hike. It is not a place to stumble, though there
are wide places to step aside so others can pass. It is a steep 1/4 mile or so to the first high point"Not for small children??? I'm glad I didn't read that before I went and dragged my small children up scary switchbacks. And yes, they were the youngest people on the mountain that day.
S said, "Why is there no video games up on this stupid mountain? I want to go home!"
S and IJ with Mount Baker in the background while on the trail up Table Mountain.
IJ says, "Do I look like a caveman making tools, only without the Sponge Bob shirt?" He had a blast. After going to work with his Dad on Friday and then a major hike on Sunday and Cub Scouts today, this kids has his happy pitcher filled!The weather was magnificent with a blue blue sky, warm sun, and a light breeze.
We had a quick picnic on the peak (actually F had a picnic, the rest of us just drank water), watch the kids build cairns, and then headed back down the mountain. And everyone knows that going down the mountain is more dangerous than going up.
On the way down, M carried F in our backpack and held
tightly to IJ and S. My hiking buddy was E. Going down scared me more than going up, probably because I was looking at how far we could fall instead of how much higher until we were there. Watching F bounce around in the backpack as M took big steps down... ack! I had nightmares all night that one of my kids fell off the mountain. But if there is anyone I trust with my babies on a mountain, it is their father. He has climbed every mountain in this state, some more than once.Here is brave Daddy, with our mountain we climbed in the background and F on his back.
E did the whole hike without being carried. Not that anyone would have carried her. The kids had more fun in the parking lot than they did on the trail. This is E climbing up the mini mountain next to the snow field they played in when we got back to the van.All the pictures so far make it look like we were alone in the wilderness, just as we like it. But this is what it actually looked like:
When M worked up at Paradise on Mount Rainer, he and his co-workers coined the term Tourons. A touron is a tourist moron. And we saw plenty of those!
