I get a little obsessive sometimes when it comes to the mountains. This has become plainly evident with my desire to climb to the tops of mountains with my 8 month old daughter Piper. It is challenging being a daddy when mom works 4 nights a week and during the day on Saturdays. I love my daughter but I like to be outside and I like to do things. So the day we got a baby backpack was a very happy day for me. We could start going on hikes to Carkeek park during the week and begin doing longer hikes on Saturdays. I had been dreaming of this for a while, in fact I had begun a ticklist for her even before she was born. Some parents would be happy to go for some nice hikes to a lake or maby a waterfall, but not me.
Having successfully summited West Tiger mountain we began to set our sights further East and higher up. We needed something bigger that still had a nice trail. The obvious choice would have been Mt Si. However the Mt. Si trail dosen't actually go to the top of the mountain. I may be obsessive, but I am not going to risk my daughters saftey and do an exposed rock scramble with her on my back. So the next obvious response is, well just hike to where the trail stops and call it good. Why do that when there are perfectly good trails that go all the way to the tops of mountains!
So with the goal of climbing to the top of a mountain and a perfect weather forecast I decided on Granite Mountain 5629 near Snoqualmie Pass. This mountain was chosen for several reasons. It has a nice trail that goes all the way to the summit and it is not too far of a drive from Seattle. Another bonus is that you can see it clearly from I-90 and point out that your daughter has climbed that mountain.
The logistics of hiking with a baby are critical. You really need to be sure that you bring along everything that she will need for the day. Extra clothes, sunscreen, diapers, wipes, formula, snacks the usual needs. The difference is the added pressure that if you get 2 hours from the car and an hour after that to get back home and forget something it could be bad. Oh ya, you will probably need some stuff too! Also you need to have a happy baby. This means a well thought out strategy for feeding, and napping on the car ride. Getting to the trail head prepared really is half of the battle.
So on July, 18th 2009 I arrived at the Pratt lake trail head at about 9:30 am. The first order of business was to try to get my boots on and get my pack together before she wakes up..... too late, she is up. So I feed her a bottle and do a quick diaper change then it is time to sunscreen up and in the pack you go. So after all of this preparation I discover that I have forgotten the insoles to my boots. I had taken them out to dry after my last trip and they never made it back in. This is unfortunate, but I am determined to give this a go and decide to go on without them.
Piper thinks that whenever we go anywhere all of the people we see have come there to see her. Hiking up Granite mountain this day was no exception. She smiled and talked(ba ba ba ba) at everyone we passed. She was the only baby on this trail this day and the higher up we got the more surprised peoples expressions were when they saw a baby who was having a gay old time. Well as long as she was having a good time I was determined to keep going.
This is a fairly long and steep hike with over 3000 ft of elevation gain. I talked briefly with several people on the trail who asked me if we were planning on going all of the way to the top. I said we were going to go for a while and see how it goes. They said "good luck" as if they didn't believe we had a shot in hell of making it all of the way. Well thank you very much for the added motivation!
Well after more than a few stops for bottles, snacks, diaper changes, and clothing adjustments we finally made it to the top. There was a little snow on the trail but it wasn't steep or slick and didn't present any difficulties. It had taken us a lot longer than I had anticipated but we had made it all the way up.My feet were just starting to hurt, I hadn't packed enough food for myself and I knew mommy was going to be a little worried about us coming home after she was already off work. But Piper was happy and I knew everything was going to work out ok. Such a proud moment:)
No comments:
Post a Comment