We had our first hike of the summer today. It went remarkably well. Three miles, 500 feet elevation gain—we all made it without a meltdown or a fall down. (Well, Ariana slipped once, and David raced ahead at the end into the parking lot, but nothing major.)

The trail is lovely--wide and extremely well groomed. You follow a river for awhile and then climb gentle switchbacks to several waterfall overlooks. It smelled good, like old growth forest and wildflowers. There were lots of huge boulders and nurse logs to admire.

There were a lot of other families on the trail with their young children. I bumped into three people I knew. I'm going to make a few changes for next time: I had three times as much clothing, water, and food than I needed. It's nice to be prepared, but my backpack was too heavy and then David needed me to carry his. It took me 1.5 hours to pack which made me half an hour late to leave the house. I don't know how to cut back on my prep time, so I've got to do most of it the night before. More toys for the car ride. I borrowed these great stories on c.d. from a friend, but David objected. Aside from pulling out the dvd player, any suggestions for car ride entertainment?

I came home and took an hour long hot bath thanks to John being able to take over immediately. He also unpacked and put away my gear. Yeah John! I'm still pretty wiped. It wasn't at the bitter edge of my ability level, but I worked hard.

Hikers: Debby, Rose, David, Dan, Miriam, Ariana, Ruth, Mike.