The Non-Torture Trail

I really didn't think I would blog about this hike, because frankly, it was pretty uneventful. And well, I want to keep my followers entertained...I have 7 now!!! Oh, the pressures of celebrity! (yes, I'm poking fun at myself, in case anyone thinks I actually think that's impressive) I've even had a couple 'hits' from Indonesia, and 24 from Russia believe it or not...isn't that weird? I'd love to know how they even came across it with all the billions of blogs floating around in cyberspace. But more importantly...do they like it? Do they come back to it because they think I'm funny? Maybe they think I'm inspiring! And before you know it, I actually do become delusional and think any of this actually matters. 

Therefore, I decided to go ahead and blah, blah, blah about this hike once I reminded myself that 1) your not getting paid to do this,  2) your doing this simply because you enjoy writing...especially when nobody is grading it and you can use all the dot-dot-dot's and parentheses you want, and 3) the whole world over, you still only get a couple hits a week, and those are probably just nuts looking for porn. (Not 50 days of sex?  BORING!)  And so, my non-titillating hike of this month is Sugarloaf Mountain. (Ok, all of a sudden 'sugarloaf' sounds dirty to me. I could insert any number of naughty jokes here...ok, ignore the word 'insert' before this gets any worse ;)  

Anyway, mind out of the gutter, this is a hike I was invited to go on with a whole family:  Melissa, her husband Rick, two kids, sister, and Rich, who is "framily". (New word. Honest, look it up.) I decided this was a hike to bring my daughter, Summer, along as well. If anyone has read "The Torture Trail", you'll know why I think long and hard before taking my youngest hiking with me. Summer can bring on the drama in a hurry; but most of the time she's great, so I thought I'd better give her another chance. And because somebody else was in charge of navigation, I figured our chances of getting lost were reduced significantly. (Though Rick did think we were lost at one point and complained that the map was confusing. A small vindication.) Plus, a camera was involved, and like her mother, Summer thinks a photo shoot increases the fun factor of any event considerably. 

When we got to the top, I realized the view would have been worth some drama, had there been any. Though, come to think of it, there was a little, but not from Summer. Melissa admitted she was wearing long johns and got reamed from the guys because it's July. But she was all smiles at the top when the wind was kicking up and the sun was going down and she was all cozy and we were all quivering like a bunch of chihuahuas after a fireworks show. 

But my shivering Summer, she endured it drama free--and she even came up with hiking lesson #6:  "If bringing hard boiled eggs as a snack, be sure to only eat one, no matter how good they taste."  It was a good thing this was not an overnight hike, because that was a lesson hard earned enough as it was, even without having to get up and dig a bunch of holes. And Summer up to this point had not even peed in the woods...but on the way down she swallowed her pride and snuck off trail to take a piddle instead of complain all the way down how bad she had to go. I will consider that serious progress. :)