Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Mt. Whitney







We had an awesome July 4th weekend, despite living in the middle of nowhere! We had our first family picnic at a local park, and Maddie enjoyed her first swing ride. There were flittering smiles, as she just wasn't really sure if it was supposed to be fun. That night, Bill & I were able to enjoy the local fireworks display from our driveway. Living in the land of forest fires, you can imagine fireworks are limited out here....but for Ridgecrest, we were impressed. I sure do miss TN fireworks, though!

On Saturday, we decided to take on Mt. Whitney. Bill got a fancy, new backpack for Father's Day to carry Maddie in & wanted to try it out. We decided to do a "leisurely" hike, and tackle just the first 3 miles of the mountain...which ended at a lovely little "lake". The three miles was at an incline of 1500 feet, and we were feeling it by the time we made it to our destination. The summit to the mountaintop was another 8 miles! Our puny 6 miles roundtrip was more than enough for us. It was a very rewarding day! We were told when we arrived that there have been bear sightings almost every day, so we had to empty our car of everything that smelled (gum, baby wipes, lotion, food, etc) or they would tow our car!! While it would have been cool to see, we fortunately didn't encounter any bears. We'll definitely do this trip again!!

1 comment:

linnyjo said...

What a great way to celebrate Independence Day week-end! Your 6 mile (round trip) hike makes my measly 3-1/2 mile flat-land walk each morning look like childs-play. I do enjoy the early morning (4:30sh)walks. It's usually still dark when we leave, and it is lovely to see God's beauty as it unfolds. God's richest blessings on all of you!!
Love, Linda