The last time we did this hike we (in February) did about 1/3 of the total trip. It was a good day for a hike (considering), but still a little cool and muddy. This time around we did the whole thing. With baby in tow.
Two of our main goals as parents is to keep doing what we loved to do before having a baby (within reason - no ATVing is in our immediate future) and to share our love and appreciation for the outdoors with our children. Which means until Penny is old enough to get herself up that mountain, mama and daddy are going to schlep her up ourselves. Luckily she looooves to be worn and is not that heavy (at 14 months she weighs in just under 20 lbs...).
One of the ways we made it easier on ourselves was to give everyone a "job." Penny's job - if you can really call it that - was to be cute and happy in her Ergo. Nailed it.
Mama's job (to start with) was to be the water carrier. I pulled out my CamelBak that I've had since college, which alleviated carrying around a water bottle and opened up both of my hands to either tend to Squirty or Penny.
Daddy's job was to carry Penny. He had her on his back 90% of the way up to the top, but we ended up switching off because Penny got over being covered in Dad's sweat and needed some Mama time :) So Adam took over carrying the water.
Finally, Squirt's job. Our backs were full - which left no where to pack our lunch. And thus, the best invention known to hiking-kind. The dog pack!
Squirt is wearing a Ruffwear Approach pack. We're in the process of running this pack through it's paces (keep an eye out for a full review soon!) but so far we are really pleased with it. It has two large pockets plus two small ones, with several high quality bells and whistles to boot. We packed our snacks, lunch, Squirt's food and a few miscellaneous items for Penny and he carried it all comfortably without needing to readjust the pack during the 4 hour hike.
Yesterday's weather will probably be one of the top 5 most beautiful days in Washington this year. Even though this hike is an extremely popular one (the parking lot was full by 10a), the trail itself was not terribly crowded. The viewpoints and lunching area were clogged up, but we bypassed most of them and opted to view them on the way back.
There were so many great photo opportunities and it's a shame that the noon day sun was right above us (for the non-photographers out there that means pretty much everything gets washed out in all the brightness!). But you didn't just hear this Washington girl complain about there being too much sun. Nope, not me.
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