Tonight I asked my youngest daughter to go for a hike and look for salamanders and she said "yes" woohoo! We got some old sneakers on so we could get muddy and play in the running water - all my sneakers are mud ready so I didn't have to look to far. One thing I said to her if we go I am going to do what I have been doing for the last couple of years - carry her to the top and she said yes. I only do it about once a year - not every time we go for a hike. I was excited because I don't know how many more years I can do this. She is 55lbs plus my back pack, camera, phone, water and some candy I think it was closer to 60lbs. We drove up to the parking lot. She wore the pack on her back, started the watch, hopped on my back, locked my arms around her legs and we were off. My breathing was fine the whole time to the top which is about 1.45 miles from the gate to the last pole at the top. We stayed on the road that I use for hill repeats. She did ask to walk a couple times but she said it was ok to keep going. Once at the top we stopped the watch and gave a high five to each other. Just this little hike we really worked as a team and it was a lot of fun and her feet never touched the ground - yes I am very proud of this hike. From there we went over to check the view out at Pulpit Rock. I thought she would of wanted to go back down the road but she wanted to go on the AT which is a little longer. On our way down we saw a salamander and in another 100 yards we saw a porcupine. It was right in the middle of the trail. We had to detour around and make our own trial because it was not moving. After we made it around I said lets run for a little. Once we crossed the bridge we kick out 3 deer and they took off running to the other side of the road. One more salamander sighting on the way back to the car and we were done for the night. It was a great night on the trail with my little one. 15 days and 5 hours to go.
4-28-2011 - 1.45 miles - 26:13 - hike with extra weight
