Location: Cougar Mountain, Bellevue, WA – stolen Duwamish land
Date: March 5th, 2019
Activity: Hike and trail walking
The snow finally melted enough for us to get out for a real walk! All of the trails have been snowed in for weeks, but we were able to power through today! It was cold, and there was snow still on the ground, but the sun was shining really brightly! A beautiful day for a hike!
The kids have really lost a lot of their trail walking manners! I was so appalled! By the end of last hiking season, they were both heeling on a walk, and staying really focussed on the trail, but now they’re all over the place wanting to off-road explore and sniff everything. Obviously they get to do a lot of that anyway, but we had it worked out so that they got their farting around done during rest breaks. Obviously this means that I just need to get them back out on some actual hikes ASAP.
We started off with tio Jamie and me each walking a kid, but quickly found that they were much less distracted being out one at a time.
Leeloo responds very well to whistles, so I kept up a little melody as we walked to encourage her to keep the pace.
The kids had a BLAST. They got to cross bridges and streams, check out trees, and stomp through the snow. Sieh got to inspect plenty of trees. I was really impressed with Leeloo, because she normally asked to be picked up immediately when there’s ice or snow, but she just kept going today! I really need to see about getting the kids something for their feet, but none of the really good boot brands make them small enough. Maybe some latex-dipped socks just to help a bit.
Downed trees are a lot of fun.
Leeloo begged to climb a tree that had a large part of its trunk split off (we normally don’t get snow like we had, so the trees really suffered). She was so happy, she couldn’t stop kneading the air!
Lunch break!
Leeloo likes to ride on top of the backpack, but I have to make sure I hold tight to the leash because she falls off easily. Most of the time her balance issues aren’t that noticeable, but for feats like this her cerebellar hypoplasia becomes very apparent!
Sieh was very brave and leapt across this icy stream! (Check out his instagram @sweetyboysieh for footage of the event!)
He then sat very patiently while I took a picture of him sitting on a log,
and he was rewarded with being lifted up to investigate some strange marks on a tree.
I didn’t manage to get a video of it, but after watching me pick my way carefully across a stream, Leeloo started to follow. She carefully chose all the same stones I had stepped on, until she got distracted, and then just stomped the rest of the way through the frigid water.
This is Sieh’s most favourite tree of all time.
Near the end of our hike, we found a great big hollow tree. Sieh found a lair at its base and decided that he was now a forest cat, and that the hole was his home. I had to trick him with freeze-dried minnows to get him to come out!
Then, when I let him climb up in a split section of the tree, he got SO MAD when I told him he couldn’t climb any higher. He yelled so loudly, with his best angry face. He was pissed!
This was such a nice start to the hiking season, I can’t wait to see what the rest of the year brings!
Camp Like Noodle 