Sage is now curious about winter hiking, since her sister keeps raving about it. Therefore, I thought I'd take the girls to familiar territory and introduce Sage to snowshoes.
Sage didn't mind the shoes at all. In fact, she thought they were rather interesting. She walked slowly and distinctly, observing how the teeth gripped into the snow with each step.
Funny, I thought we'd have some trailbreaking to do today, but evidently, a few people had already hiked this route this morning. The trail was not only broken out, but packed. Quite a surprise, given that we received quite a few inches of fresh snow last night.
It's interesting how different siblings can be from each other. In regards to winter hiking, Alex must hold hand warmers while wearing insulated gloves, or her fingers become painfully cold within minutes. Sage, on the other hand, can wear paper-thin gloves in frigid temps and feel cozy.
We made it up to the intersection, the two girls moving steadily along.
The trail was broken and packed all the way up until the first ledge. Whoever had been here this morning decided not to go any farther than this ...but we persevered, getting up and over the first bit easily. We made our way to the bottom of the main ledge scramble...it didn't look too difficult. We ascended the bottom half with little trouble. That last stretch, however...the vertical bit of rock just before one walks to the summit...that proved a little too daunting for my comfort today. There was too much snow and it felt too slippery. Just not worth the risk.
I told the girls we would not attempt the rest of the climb, and Sage had the opportunity to learn first-hand the most important rule of hiking: it's no biggie if you don't reach the peak. She seemed disappointed at first, but her spirits quickly lifted when I told her she'd still get to eat our traditional summit chocolate.
The views were less than clear today. Somewhere out there were the ski slopes of Cannon.
We sat on a comfortable boulder and ate our snacks before heading back toward the car.
During the descent, Sage got to experience the joy of running and sliding on packed trail. She and Alex giggled their way back to the trailhead and waited for me with gigantic smiles on their faces.
Well done, Sage!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.