Anthony's Nose

Last Saturday the weather was cooperative and the family schedule was free so we set off on another 10 mile hike. We were especially excited because Grandma E and Grandpa B are here visiting and they came along.

Our destination this time was Anthony's nose. If we would have taken the short cut (parked in the closest parking area and just went up and back, we would have only needed to hike 4.4 miles. But, since we needed to go 10 miles, we parked a little further away. Once we got to the top (about 800 feet of elevation gain) we had great views. The kids were especially excited to see that we could actually see where we had parked our van.
They were wishing that they had brought binoculars so that they could really see it good. I'm sure we'll repeat this hike again (the shorter version) and next time we'll bring our binoculars.

From the top, we could also see the majority of where we had hiked and where we were still going to hike. (Our route is marked in red.)

We started our hike at an Historic site where we parked our van in the parking lot and hiked down to a foot bridge that crosses a tributary. We stopped on the foot bridge to take a quick picture.

From there we hiked up to a State Park where we stopped at the look out area on the left side of the Bear Mountain Bridge to get a good view of where we were going. (Not sure what Grandma was pointing at...something interesting down the river.)

Then we walked across the bridge.

On the other side of the bridge is where the real climbing happened. The kids even did some extra climbing by finding huge rocks to climb up on just about every time we stopped to take a break.

Once we made it to the top, we enjoyed the beautiful view and ate our lunch.
Then, it was back down the mountain and across the bridge to a park where everyone else rested while Grandpa, B, and I made a loop through the state park and out around the lake and back so that we could get in the 10 miles.

This is a view of the lake from the top of Anthony's nose. (Notice how brown the river is. It has looked like this ever since the hurricane, due to all of the dirt that was and still is being washed into it. It looks like chocolate milk. It actually used to be darker and more red but it has lightened up some.)

Here is a picture of Anthony's nose from the far side of the lake.

Here is the lake. There were tons of people out walking, fishing, etc, and attending the October fest celebrations that were happening at the park.
If there was a hiking award for this hike, it would definitely go to P. She was amazing. She did all seven miles that the whole family hiked, all by herself...no piggy backs. That was a huge accomplishment, and not just because of the distance she traveled. When we were climbing up to Anthony's nose, some of the steps to get up and over and around the rocks (it is a very rocky trail) were as high as her waist, or higher, and she scrambled right up them. B was an awesome big brother, and in the steepest areas he would take her hand and help pull her up. They were a great team. Every time I asked P if she wanted a piggy back ride, she said, "No. I'm going to do it all by myself." And she did! (Here she is at the top.)