Saturday, February 4, 2012

Day 35 Our hardest hike yet-hike number 3 Bull Run Mountain

Since the boys were on a campout with the scouts and we've been having such beautiful weather we decided to go on a hike on Bull Run Mountain. The temperature started at about 38'F and ended about 42'F but now its cold and raining.
This is our third family hike this year and Bill's 4th hike of the year. We didn't know much about Bull Run Mountain but we wanted to see Chapman's mill which we often see from the freeway.

When we arrived we saw this super bright red cardinal. He was so pretty and he just sat and posed for quite some time.

We knew we wanted to take the hardest part of the hike first while we were fresh so we did our best at each crossroads to look at our over-photocopied topo map to make our decision. Finally we decided to just take the Quary loop trail. It was the right pick. The trail led us over 900 feet in elevation over 2.8 miles to a wonderful overlook.
It was very hard, Bill felt like he was going to die but it was really worth it. He kept repeating all the way down how satisfying and motivating it was to have made it. It was a great family bonding time (even if much of the family couldn't be with us).
Lydia did just great. In all it was 5.9 miles including mud rocks and lots of climbing. She stayed strong and didn't even complain one time. She did ask "are we there yet" before we saw the overlook.

1 comment:

Carol said...

Yea! Great accomplishment for all of you! That's Awesome.