Crazy idea

I decided I wanted to have the family take the hike from Tony Grove to White Pine Lake on Saturday. Candice's friend Ben was here from Philidelphia for the weekend and Candice had wanted to go on a hike so we invited them to join us. Ben unfortunately wasn't feeling well in the morning so he didn't come but Candice decided to still go with us. Megan was working and she also tweeked a tenden in her right foot at a volleyball camp during the week so she wasn't able to come either.

We had hoped to leave about 10:30 a.m. but of course didn't get off until 12:00 p.m. so with the drive we didn't get on the trail until about 1:15. Just as we got started, someone asked how long the hike was and Mike said, "It's about 2.5 miles." I thought, "That's perfect!" Then we walked for what we thought was about a 1/2 a mile and came to a sign that said it was 3.8 miles to White Pine. I kind of knew we were in trouble then, but we trudged along. A little ways farther, I said to Heather, "If the next sign we see says we have have 3 miles to go, I'm not going to make it." Tyler was always quite a ways ahead of us, but he stopped to take a break in the shade and announced, as we reached him, that we had gone .8 miles (he had this chip in his shoe that registered on his iTouch the distance he'd gone) so it really was still 3 miles to our destination and Mike also told us at that point that once we got to the summit it's a pretty steep descent with switchbacks down to the lake so maybe we could stop at the summit and then turn around and come back. We were also a little pressed for time because Heather was supposed to be carving pineapples for the Ward Luau at 4:30, Candice wanted to get back to spend time with Ben, and I was supposed to put together a spinach salad for the Luau that started at 6:00.

So we kept going and we reached the summit at around 2:30. We began talking about turning around and heading back and Heather didn't want anything to do with that. She wanted to see the lake and figured if we'd come that far, how in the world could we turn around and head back without seeing it. Candice and Mike were really fighting for the turning around option, but I told Heather I'd go with her if she wanted to go and Tyler said he would too so we all ended up heading down the hill.
Me and the kids made it to the lake about a half hour later and Mike came down about 15 minutes after we had gotten there. Everyone but me took their shoes off and soaked their feet in the lake for a few minutes. I didn't want to put in the effort. Then we decided we better get back.

We finally got back on the trail, after a potty break in a not so desirable outhouse, at about 4:00 and knew at that point that Heather would not be assisting in pineapple carving and I was starting to worry about getting home in time to make a salad.

The trek back up the switchbacks to the summit was very difficult and there were a few times that Mike thought about sitting down and staying there for the night or maybe longer. Tyler and Candice left us in the dust but Heather and I made sure Mike was still with us. Once we made it back to the top, the rest of the way was mostly downhill and quite doable, it just took time to go the 2.5 miles back to the car.

We finally made it back at 5:35 and Tyler said he'd been there for at least a half an hour (he had been smart enough to take the keys so he could enjoy the nice air conditioned car while he waited for us), Candice had gotten there about 15 minutes after Ty and she was ticked because it had taken us so long and she hadn't been able to spend the day with Ben, and we quickly realized we were not going to be on time to the Luau and no spinach salad was going to be made. But we accomplished a great thing and I was so glad that Heather talked us into going the whole way. We were tired and thirsty but, believe or not, after all of Mike's complaining he said, "I would do it again next Saturday." I'm not so sure I would, but I would like to go again sometime when we aren't in such a hurry and we can take our time to enjoy the scenery, especially White Pine Lake. It was good to be together and accomplish what I perceive as a great feat for our family.