Spencie's Mountain

Ian and I decided to go for a hike on Saturday. Sarah was home with Noah and wasn't leaving for work until 2p, so we had a good chunk of time available. We got to the parking area of Spencer's Butte at about 11. I'd walked part of this earlier in the week with both kids, and we got half a mile before I decided to turn around. This was a good choice since Ian wanted me to carry him before we got back to the car. That wasn't going to happen since I already had Noah on my back, so I told him to suck it up.

This time since it was just the two of us I figured we'd try to make it all the way up. It's a mile and a half either way. I brought the pack figuring I could just carry Ian if the going got tough or he got too tired.

Ian turned out to be a real trooper. We passed the half mile point and he was still going strong. We made it right up to where the tree line before he got into the carrier. Even if he hadn't been tired I would have done it since the last chunk is a lot of rocks that I can walk over but would have been scrambling and climbing for him. It was quite a workout on my not-so-great-shape legs, but I toted him up there. We had some apples and cheese up on top, and we snapped a pic for a nice couple who did the same for us. (That's it up above.)

Once we'd finished our snack we headed back down. Ian was willing to get back out of the pack at about the same point he'd gotten in, and he walked all the way down from there. That was a good two miles he put in, which was evident in the four hour nap that he took when we got home. All told it was a good day.