Monday, we took our first 10 mile hike with 800 feet of elevation gain. It was our tour of W.P. hike. We started at our house and made a loop of all of post. We had decided that it would be wise to not leave post for our first hike. We weren't sure how long it would take us (it took us 5 hours including our lunch stop) and that way, if we had problems, we could just take short cuts and get back home...but we made it. Well, almost... the girls and R cut out the last mile.
Here's what we looked like after 6 miles and a lunch stop.
Here are the girls at Trophy Point. One of the many places we took a rest.
And here are the kids in a fun tree we found, just a little ways from the end of our hike.
While the kids climbed the tree, R found a shady seat on a rock wall.
We really didn't expect to see too much unusual nature, since we weren't leaving post, but we were wrong. We saw a turtle and a heron (as well as the typical squirrels, chipmunks, and ground hogs). But the big sighting of the day happened in the first five minutes of our hike when we saw a bear cub up a tree.
The MPs had been chasing two bears around post all morning, trying to chase them out of the populated areas and into the woods. The cub ended up climbing a tree right by one of the main roads and just minutes from our house. By the time we got back to that area of post later in the afternoon, the cub was gone. We heard from others that live in the area, that they eventually shut the road down and after a few hours, the cub came down and was chased down through one of the housing areas and into the trees.
If we are lucky, that will be the only bear we see on all of our hikes this summer.
3 comments:
Sounds like a fun family adventure for this summer. My first question when I saw the bear was, where's Mama? Glad they were able to get them chased off. Perhaps you should consider investing in some bear spray for the remainder of your hikes. :)
I don't know, this plan sounds a lot like "Well, Brenda wants to learn how to play the piano, so I think all of the kids will learn how to play piano ..." We all know how that went.
In all seriousness, I think that's great. That will be pretty cool for the kids to be able to say they've hiked 20 miles. I know I've never even come close to doing that.
Hey now. This was a family decision although I did suggest it. Only B and I will be doing the 20 miles because at the rate we go with the girls, it would take us over 10 hours and we really don't think they can make it the whole 20. But, they are going to do all of the 10 mile hikes.
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