Mary's peak is the highest point in the Coastal mountain range which frames the east side of our beloved Willamette Valley.
The Coastal mountain range is (typically) much more temperate than the Cascade range, which borders us to the west.
Not only was this Siennalee's very first hike, but it was also the maiden voyage of the new Kelty carrier we bought for her (and the other teeny persons who join us down the road).
I was very happy to be out in the gorgeous mountains, smelling the pine needles warming in the sun...
...and again hiking with Jason under the BIG trees!
(We didn't get to do any hiking last year as Jason was serving in Kuwait for most of the year.)
Daddy and Siennalee at one of the trailheads we thought we'd take.
It's a family tradition to get our picture at the trailhead signs of the trails we take... Siennalee, through no fault of her own, couldn't make it past Daddy's head and into the picture.
Ah, there's my pretty girl!
Jason and Siennalee. Snow field in the background. Thaaat's right. Snow.
Remember how I said the Coastal range was usually more temperate? Not this year. We hit snow. And lots of it.
Daddy shows Siennalee some of the marvelous textures found in nature.
He picked her some moss at which she delightedly parroted "Moss!" and held on to for most of the hike.
Yup. Snow.
We tried to make it as far as we could down a trail not snowed in, but alas. SNOW.
So we hit the road. And let Siennalee do some hiking of her own, in her little sparkly pink tennies. (We'll do some proper outfitting of her hiking/camping wardrobe in the coming years.)
C'mon sparkly pink tennies! Don't fail me now!
Oh I LIKE this hiking stuff!
Siennalee kept spying things.
And collecting them. "Would you look at this pine cone? Oh yeah, it's a keeper."
"Hold the phone... there's another one!"
"Care to help me pick up all these pine cones, Daddy?" He declined. He'd found us a spot to eat lunch.
Siennalee was enraptured with the trees and the birds and the bugs and the winds and the pine cones...
"They keep going up and up and up, Daddy!"
Happy mouths full of peanut butter and honey sandwiches.
Siennalee found a friend.
She really likes bugs. And he seemed to like her... til she tried to feed him a cranberry and he fell off...
"What...? We were having such a good time, I thought..."
"Where bug go, Mommie? Daddy?"
No matter. Work to do. Pine cones to be picked up.
This was cute for awhile...
But Daddy must bow to the call of the hike... he wanted to see if another trailhead was accessible.
Alas, it was not. So after a vow to return on a more seasonable day (and less snow, hopefully), we turned back and headed homeward.
Good times in the great outdoors!
And many more good times to come!
