Not Enjoying Fall Quite So Much

Did I say we'd been enjoying fall?  Because we definitely have been.  Though yesterday I was cursing fall weather (specifically the cold rainy kind) and my ridiculous desire to see fall foliage.

Last year I was super pregnant with MiniM.E. when we decided to go foliage hunting.  Remember this post?  This year I was determined to see some foliage.  After checking the weather (partly to mostly cloudly, high 58) we decided to drive up to Hadley Mountain for a hike.  We'd heard from a friend that the hike was fairly easy and the view was supposed to be fantastic- miles and miles, all the way to Vermont.  I figured from up there, we'd be able to see all sorts of beautiful trees.  And we'd been wanted to take MiniM.E. for a hike in the frame pack since we bought it at the Katrina Trask Consignment Sale in the spring.

When we left it was raining.  Probably the first sign that we should have just driven the car back in the garage and sat in the living room playing Toddler Tunes all day.

When we got to the trailhead parking lot, it was still raining.  Probably the second sign that we should have just called it a nice Saturday drive and turned around.

BUT the parking lot was full.  We even had to park on the street dirt road.  Might as well give it a go, we thought.

So we packed up MiniM.E. with her nylon jacket in the frame pack

and started out.

The hike did not go as expected for a few reasons...

-We have not been hiking in years.  Especially with a 20lb. kid strapped to either of us.
-We did not wear hiking boots.  I actually have some, but have never worn them hiking and was afraid of blisters.  Looking back, the blisters might have been better than rolling my ankles 17 times.
-It was not an easy hike.  Especially the parts where we had to scale 45 degree rock inclines made slippery by the never-ending drizzle.
-MiniM.E. didn't seem to enjoy it.  Was it being in the frame pack and jostled around? The cold? The damp? The constant drips from the trees?  ... Probably all of the above.

Let me say, a year ago if you had told me I would be singing "Wheels on the Bus" for an hour while hiking up a mountain in the rain with a baby strapped to my husband's back I would have laughed hysterically at the mental image that conjured.  Laugh no more... that's totally what happened.

When we arrived at the top, we were greeted with views reminiscent of our trip up Mt. Pilatus in Luzern, Switzerland.  The views were amazing non-existent.  We could see for hundreds of miles tens of feet.

We did get to see one of the few fire towers left in the Adirondacks.

That's as far as I let them climb.  Can't trust a fire tower...

By the time we reached the top (almost two hours later) MiniM.E. was not a happy camper.

Why would you keep going? You ask?  Well... I blame the 4 or 5 "Almost there!"s we received when we were still only half-way.

At least we can say MiniM.E. made it to the top of her first mountain?

We had hoped for a large flat area where she could walk around a little (holding our hands, of course- can't have a baby careening off the top of a mountain...) and where we could eat some snacks.  BUT the top was less than hospitable.

We found the cabin where the firemen who manned the fire towers must have stayed.  It was boarded up but at least there was a porch with a few feet of dry spot.

We had some snacks and MiniM.E. walked around a bit.

But when we didn't let her crawl around on the wet rocks and in the spider-infested swampy grasses, she wasn't happy.

To be honest, I felt pretty much the same way.  We were tired and cold and wet.  There was no view.  AND we had to climb back down.  With cranky baby.  Had we gotten cell phone service I would have called for a rescue helicopter.  But alas... no bars.  Good thing we signed in at the bottom of the mountain...

So we packed up the cold, wet, cranky, tired baby and started back down.

The climb up must have tired her out because she fell asleep right away.

Fortunately when she was rudely awakened by screaming children half-way down, she seemed in good spirits and we only had to sing "Wheels on the Bus" for a few minutes.

I was proud of us for making it up, but SO glad to see the car when we were finally down three hours later.

MiniM.E. was happy to see the car too.  The best part of the day for her was "driving" while we packed up the car.

She was so glad to be warm and dry and off the mountain that she didn't fuss at all on the way home.  And MiniM.E. is not a great car traveler.

The positive of the trip?  We saw some nice foliage on the drive.

When I was taking German lessons, when we learned about seasons there was a statement for each.  For fall, it read "In the fall it is cold in rainy.  The people stay inside."  Lesson learned.