Cascade Path

It was Labor Day and the day after our Flume Fun adventure. The weather was perfect and the mountains were calling. We packed up the gang, found a trail in our book and set out for a hike. Mike was in charge of carrying the lightest child and I was in charge of carrying Dylan. I carried that boy all the way up the uphill section and all the way down the downhill section. However, he did walk a good portion of the "level" section all by his big boy self. According to my GPS watch, Dylan hiked about 1.33 miles over lots of rocks and tree roots. I was pretty impressed!

The big hiking find of the day was mushrooms. From the backpack and from the ground, Dylan helped us look for them. We saw all kinds of different shapes and colors. Of course, until writing this just now, I completely forgot that I was going to reference our handy dandy New England plant\animal guide to try and identify them. Maybe I'll remember to do that next time we go up. (Yeah right!) Dylan also helped us find the yellow markers on the trees to make sure we were staying on the trail. What a helpful little guy.

Dylan Pointing to Some Mushrooms

Mushroom CloseUp

Mike and Cade

Dylan Dubbed This Bridge "The Death Star"

Dylan borrowed one of my hiking poles and almost tripped over it about a dozen times. He wouldn't let us take it for a minute to try and shorten it until we stopped at our destination and had a snack. And our destination, as the title might have tipped you off, was a lovely cascade.

We went up to the top, plopped down on a rock and had a snack. Well, the kids and Mike had a snack. Somehow they all had food packed for them and I failed to pack something for myself. Oops! Oh well. Obviously I survived the trip so no long term harm done.

Our Snack Spot

Looking Down the Waterfall

See Mom, we had a safe distance away from the cliff.

Dylan had fun throwing rocks again.

Cade had fun hanging with me.

And trying to attack his brother.

I think these are the first post pregnancy pictures of myself where I didn't sneer in disgust.
Still a ways to go but I'm happy with the major progress I've made.

Dylan's Fishing Pole (aka hiking pole)

Dylan asked me to fish with him so I did.

Cool Orange Mushrooms

Gnarled Fallen Tree Roots

Pink Mushroom

Can you see Dylan?
This was his 20 minute pit stop. He wanted some privacy.

Cade was fine with the wait since he
was snoozing and didn't care.
Mike on the other hand doesn't seem so thrilled.

Back on the Trail
Dylan was very cute hiking with his shortened hiking pole.

Trees Growing Over Rocks
Always Cool

This Tree Lost It's Clothes!

The first\last part of the trail was along this mountain road.
Nice view of the mountains from here. 

After our 2 plus hour hike, the kids were all happy but Mike was cranky. It was longer than he had expected. I pointed out that it was only longer because Dylan wanted to walk and was having a great time which is a good reason for it to be too long.

We went back to the condo, packed up and set out to head home. It was such a beautiful day that I had Mike pull over before getting back on the highway so I could take a picture of one of my favorite views. This is what we see every time we come and go from our condo - Welch\Dickey peaks. Simply stunning.

I hope we're able to get back to NH for the fall since it's my favorite time of year there. However, we have an upcoming trip to Texas so I don't know if we'll make peak foliage time. Maybe we'll be able to squeeze it in somehow. I can't imagine missing a season of my mountains with the stunning autumn hues.