We ventured down to Roosevelt National Park to go on a hike this week. We tried to do a hike from the same trailhead last summer, but we went on a Friday and it was so busy that the parking area was overfilled and we had to take a shuttle, which we couldn't do because Torben was overly excited by the other dogs getting on the shuttle and was acting a little aggressive. We ended up doing a nearby hike that time that was very beautiful, but we were glad to get to do this one this summer. There are quite a few different paths leading off from the Hessie trailhead and limited parking, which was pretty full when we got there, but we still found a spot. Its a short hike from the parking area to the trailhead, but it goes past a nice little beaver pond and was a nice way to start the hike.
The boys had Torben for most of the hike so they were up ahead of the girls and I most of the way. They stopped to wait for us every now and then. Natalie has done all the hikes this year on her own without any piggy-back rides (a problem we were having last year). She is getting to be a good little trooper to keep up with everyone else, but still isn't as fast as everyone else. She complained a few times on the hike that her legs hurt, but was very interested and motivated to keep going when I told her that it meant that her legs were getting stronger. When I told her that her heart was getting stronger too, she kept putting her hand over her heart to feel it.
We stopped for the kids to eat an early lunch near a waterfall. The older kids liked the mist that was coming off of it and cooling them down, but Natalie said it was making her cold and tried to stay out of the mist as much as possible.
Not long after leaving the waterfall, we came to a sign with distances to several lakes. Lost Lake was the closest, and the kids were starting to get a little worn out, so although I would have preferred to keep going, we decided to go there. As we started up the trail a ranger told us that a moose had been seen that morning so we should keep a lookout. We never saw it (although several of the kids were sure they had seen "something" moving off in the trees ;) but we did see moose tracks and moose droppings right around the lake.
The kids had fun wading in the water and throwing sticks for Torben to go fetch.
The hike back down was pretty uneventful except that Heidi fell pretty hard and needed a lollypop to help her forget about it. She actually slipped multiple times on the way up and a few times on the way down and complained about her ankles, so I'm thinking we might need to get her some trekking poles to help stabilize her.
It was a perfectly cool day for a beautiful hike and we are so glad we got to do it all together!
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