One for the books

Cadillac Summit

Cadillac Summit

At the end of this adventure there will be moments that stand out. The kind of moments we were anxiously anticipating when we set out on this journey and so far have not failed to appear every now and then. The days that just go perfectly, where our chests swell with balloons of happiness that instead of bursting they swell through the entire body and we wonder how we can possibly ever do anything else besides what is in this moment. There was the river in Sequoia, school days under the big tree in San Diego, City Park in New Orleans and our kayaking trip in Fl. Now, there is the hiking in Acadia. I am so happy this gets added to the list because when we set out on this trip, my "Must-Get-To" point on this trip was Acadia.

Trail Head

Going Back Down!

The day started out slowly. Our friends had just left us the day before and we were having a morning around the house. The boys played with legos and I found us some more campgrounds for some upcoming legs of the trip. We got dressed around noon, had some lunch and headed for the trail around 1pm. I thought the hike would be around 3 hours so I packed some apples, beef jerkey and some Hershey's bars to enjoy at the top. We pulled up to the Gorge Path and I promptly led us up the wrong path. The online reviews talked about how the path went directly up the river bed, so that is where I headed. About 10 minutes in and realizing that we are clearly bush wacking we turned around and headed back to the path that the boys had pointed out when we arrived. Yup, they were right. 

Wrong Way!

Water Wonder

For an hour and 40 minutes we walked up a beautiful path alongside a river and placed stone stairs. It got pretty steep and the boys just continued to chatter about anything and everything. We talked about who would like to be there hiking with us, how it was unfair our friends only got to experience the rain, and what the hike would be like for some of their favorite book characters; Little Bear and Boone. Austin loved finding all of the cairns, saying they were good luck for helping us up the mountain. They held hands, took turns leading and asked for pictures with pretty sights they saw. It was a commercial for hiking. 

Cairns!

Good Luck Cairn

The first couple we ran into coming down gave me a glance and asked if I was really taking the boys to the top. "I think so" I replied. "We are really only committed to going as far as feels good today, so I'm not sure how far we'll get." They let me know we would want to stop not too far ahead because that is when it gets really steep. The second group a minute later told me the same thing and the boys said, "We are going to the top!"

Headed UP!

Water Fall Pose

So we did. We hiked to the top of Cadillac Mountain and it took two hours for us to reach the summit of that 1.8 mile trail. We looked like mountain goats going over the last boulders and I kept catching my heart in my chest as we scrambled up another without looking down. We celebrated by buying souvenir patches, a whoopie pie and a secret wooden box. We shivered in the cold weather as the clouds came rushing through when we hit the top, drank some water and found our path down, the North Ridge. 

Sitting High

You Got It!

Made it over the boulder

Austin took a tumble so we sat down and snacked. By the time the we reached the bottom Austin would have fallen 3 times and Oliver and I each once. Miraculously, nobody cared. Austin didn't care that he fell in a puddle and his pants were wet. Oliver didn't care that he landed on his hip. The chatter just kept up a healthy pace and there were more giggles, pictures, blue skies and rocks to be found. The trail down was 2.2 miles and we had one last mile to get from the trail head we emerged on to the one we had parked at. It was by far their longest hike at 4 hours and 20 minutes. When we saw the truck, Oliver took off running after Austin but his legs looked like wet noodles and he found it hysterical that they couldn't run fast. I wasn't sure what their little bodies could handle and honestly, when the hike turned out to be so much longer than I anticipated I had visions of tracking down a park ranger to get a ride back down the mountain. Their cheerful attitude and non stop wonder about what was around us made us keep going and though I don't think another half mile was in their little legs, they ended the trip cheering and smiling and making grand declarations of biking when we got home. And then they did. Or more accurately they scootered, for 2 hours.

View from almost-the-top

Looking up at what we just did

Summit!

 "I'm going to tell Daddy he can climb to the top and we will drive up and pick him up," I said. "That wouldn't be very nice," Oliver replied, "I'll just go up it again with him."

Made it back!