hikers: Ruth, Rose, Debby, David, Cecile, Tia, Liana, Theaux

weather: lovely. A bit cool to start our but bright and sunny by the time we got to the cold water part.

notes to self: beware of flies, take the first gravel road after the campground. Really, that's the right road.

This is a lovely hike. Just hard enough (3 miles, 500 feet elevation gain) to feel like you did some work, but not so long that you have to tell long involved stories to motivate the kids around the next bend. And the payoff's fabulous, not just a waterfall but a water play area. There are these big flat rocks that the water flows over. The kids can hop all over and in them. We had brought swim suits and our kids played for an hour.

David got really grumpy at the beginning of the hike. I wasn't monitoring carefully, and I think he didn't interact well with the gaggle of older girls. But when he started melting down, I decided to lead the hike, and he decided to hold my hand. That helped. Cecile told me she also talked to the girls about inclusiveness, and he totally bonded with them from the river on.

Rose realized this was the hike where she had fallen in two years ago. That was an exciting adventure. This time she got wet on purpose. We sang camp songs all the way back down the hill.