I had the busiest day of the year so far. My wife was working on her school project all day, and I had to take care of the kids and house. After lunch I gave the kids several options for the rest of the day, and they all wanted to climb a mountain, so I got everyone ready and we headed out to climb View Benchmark. We also decided to take the dog.
The hike was a lot of fun. My son, Alec (5 year old) held my hand most of the time, and I was holding the dog on her leash with the other hand. At times it was diffucult because my dog wanted to pull and bound away, and I had to balance Alec as well. He was so funny and asked me questions the entire time. About every minute he wanted to know how long until we were at the top. There were a few sections that were really muddy, and one near the top that was rather steep, so that provided some challenge with the dog and Alec both latched onto me. It was fun though.
Once the summit was in view the 3 girls got a burst of energy and all took off running to the top. The best part of the day was hearing them all scream WOOHOO, from up there. Alec and I were about 5 minutes behind them and he was also excited to reach the summit, and once up there he wanted me to show him where our house was and also grandmas and several others.
The hike down was a lot faster, and when we were almost back to the car we ran into two other hikers with dogs. My dog was overly excited and I think she scared the other dog owners a bit. She is strong, and looks a little like a pit bull and I think she makes people nervous. She is just playing and excited, but it can appear that she is looking for a fight. I assured them that she was just excited.
We got back to the car with only a few scratches and a lot of mud on the shoes, but otherwise everyone was feeling good. It took us a little over two hours round trip.
The kids were all tired, so we went home and grilled up some steaks and cleaned the house. It was a busy day/weekend, but we had a great time. | 