The Hike

So, we spent the weekend at the cabin and of course wanted to do some hiking at RMNP.  The trails were packed which meant that parking was a nightmare as well, so rather than try to lug the kids on a shuttle, we decided to get creative and hike from a small trailhead starting at one of the lower parking areas.  I have no recollection as to whether we looked at a map or made any kind of reasonable decision regarding how long this hike would take and whether the kids could handle it.  I'm pretty sure we did but managed to mess it up somehow.  So we hiked.  And hiked.  And hiked.  And hiked and hiked and hiked.  We ran into some folks along the way who, I think, probably made us feel like, "Oh!  Just a little bit to go before..." and "Just around the corner" (without specifying which corner, or what qualified as a corner).  I do remember that at some point we made the determination that we were as far in and close to reaching the shuttle bus stop at the top by Bierstadt Lake as we were to our car at the bottom if we turned around, so we kept going.  The whole while, these kids were amazing.  William is very clearly a mountain baby.  He loves the fresh mountain air and riding along, taking in all of the sights.  Despite the look on Cole's face above, he was a mountain goat, full of energy, and did little complaining along the way (it started to increase near the end, of course, and then hit a high when he took a tumble chin-first onto a thankfully flat rock), but really he was a complete champ, even over the more troublesome terrain.  And while they continued to amaze us with their tolerance for the challenge, we of course were fully prepared for a meltdown, or blowout, or wave of uncontrollable hunger, or all of the above all at once.  But none of this happened.  And when our little family made it to the top of our long uphill hike, we felt proud and refreshed.  I think Will even felt it.  And then, we went home to the cabin and napped.  8/8/2015.