Sunday, August 10, 2008

Hiking with a large family group

As part of the reunion jollifications, I went on a Hike.
With a large group.
Eighteen of us.
And Uncle Laddie was in charge.
Uncle Laddie (oldest gentleman present, in the hat) goes at a slow pace, and had said that the hike would be about 3 miles.
Well, it was 3 miles one way. (hm)
And though Uncle Laddie did not go at a terribly fast clip, I forgot one of his peculiarities:
He Does Not Stop.
Ok, I exaggerate. We stopped maybe 6 times.
I usually stop about 60 times because hiking uphill makes me lose my breath and then I get dizzy and then I get migraines.
We did stop for this picture in a nice meadow with beaver ponds.
Here we all are, all 18 of us (except me, I am behind the camera, and Cousin Craig who Moved His Head and is in shadow and is virtually invisible.)

We also had some fun conversations and games along the way, like our hunt for the oldest date graffito on an aspen tree.


Then, after going uphill for about 3 miles, we arrived at Yellow Lake.
'Lake' is too grandiose a name, really, but the kids had fun skipping rocks across it.
Uncle Laddie allowed a few minutes' stop and handed out lifesavers.
I was a bit tired but feeling pleased with myself:
I had made it fine, no headache yet, and since we were at the halfway point, surely it was all downhill from here.
Right?


Wrong!
The second half of the trail loop went up on to the ridge.
And up.
And up.
It was at this point that I got seriously behind.
Behind enough to take this photo:

And I stayed behind for the rest of the trip.
In fact I would have been on my own, except that my nice, patient, kind older brother came back to hike with me.
We eventually caught up to the other slows, my cousin Michael and his wife and their 2 little kids.
It was more restful hiking in a small group.
I think I prefer that.

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