Hiked May 23, 2009 by Debi, Will, Tim and Valerie via Old Bridle Path and Greenleaf trails
This is William's first 4000-footer, so we tried to make it a good one!
We arrived at the trailhead about 9AM. The weather was less than perfect - but we got our starting pictures taken and headed up the trail.
On the way up, we chatted about all sorts of things... Will told Valerie all about the Wii Fit that they had at home and all the interesting sports that it had. We talked about school and baseball practice and all such things. We ran into (or, more precisely, were overtaken by) John and June. They had a much bigger hike planned for the day - a traverse over Lafayette, Lincoln, Liberty and Flume, then out via the Osseo trail. We found out later that they were as successful as we were! At the ledges over Walker Ravine (2-mile mark), we stopped for a snack. Tim took pictures of birds and people and even some people out on Mount Liberty! Will was very excited about his trail mix with chocolate bits in it. Finally, it was time to continue. Will looks a little dejected as we head towards the "agonies"!
The "agonies" weren't as agonizing as he expected. He really enjoyed the climbing on the steep parts, but he was still happy to see the roof of the hut appear in the distance as we approached. At the hut, we all ate some homemade oatmeal raisin cookies that the croo made. They pumped us up for the trip to the summit. We donned our cold-weather clothes and headed out. There was still some snow around the edges of the pond near the hut. We had a "snowball fight" on the trail and discussed whether or not we could claim a "foot of snow" on the trail if it was a 12-inch patch of snow about 1 inch deep. :-)
After some country songs and counting cairns, we were at the SUMMIT!! Congratulations WILL on your first 4000-footer!! He got some celebratory gummy bears from Aunt Val and found a corner with no wind. From Debi's perspective, there was a lot more to see than she had seen last year on this summit (clouds, everywhere, nothing else last year).
Back at the hut, more cookies ensued. Even with an 8-mile hike, we probably ate more calories than we expended.
Will was tired (as we all were) on the trip down, right up until we reached the car. At which point, he started running circles around the car. I guess his knees don't hurt as much as the rest of ours do.
