Long hike up a mountain

Yesterday we set off from our house with lightly-packed backpacks and springs in our steps.  Our destination was a restaurant/hut up the mountain, where we were told, and repeated to each other often, "They even make their own cheese there!"  The trail map said this would be a 1.5 hour hike, so I assumed we would jauntily make our way up, have lunch at the top, and then saunter back down in time for nap time (and before the "PM thunder-storms" that were forecasted). 

Our starting point.  Our house is one of the ones in the background.

As is often the case, reality settled in quickly... right after the first bend in the trail, in fact.  The incline sucked the springs right out of our steps, but the views were invigorating at least.  

The cows along the way cheered us on

This guy amused the boys.  Miles giggled and giggled.

We headed what felt like straight UP for the next 2.5 hours.  Every once in awhile, someone would check the map, or check with one of the 4 other hikers we saw on the trail, and would announce something cheery like, "It's probably about another hour or so."  To those of us who had already been trudging upwards at the pace of 12 inches a minute for the last 17 hours, this was not what we wanted to hear.

 Still, we persevered.  (Or, to put it more accurately, I was out-voted in my pleas to turn around.)  We stopped after awhile for lunch, and then finally got word that the Shuhalm hut was actually NEAR.  We walked the last part above the pine trees, in a grassy area, with the sun beating down.  The distance looked short, but man, was that deceiving.

Eventually we finally arrived.  Never had a purported cheese-maker been such a welcome sight!

Ugh.  We finally made it.

Our house is one of those down there!  See, we're up high!

 We downed some soft drinks, never found the cheese, and then heard thunder.  Back onto our weary feet we went, and down the mountain we came.  Downhill being much more pleasant than uphill, we found this part of the hike to be not bad at all -- especially with the glowing feeling of achievement hovering over us.

  The kids all were amazing climbers -- I don't think any of them even complained (that was all my department).  Miles rode part of the way on someone's shoulders (not mine), but insisted on trying to do the hard parts "all by mysailf."

I asked him at one point if we should go for miles and miles.  He looked at me with a confused look on his face and said, "I'm not TWO Miles!"

Anyway, it was a good day.  Muscles were sore at the end, but that's the good kind of pain.  When we came back home we looked back up at where we had gone and were quite impressed with ourselves.... even if it took us much longer than we expected.

All of us at the top

Our route

(Thank you, Sue, for taking most of these pictures!)