Hiking Sunrise

Last weekend we drove up to Sunrise Ski Resort, took the chair lift to the top of the mountain, and hiked down. The day was beautiful and the weather was perfect. We almost ran into a bear on the way down, too - not that we really wanted to come face to face with a bear. As we were hiking down the mountain, several people from the chair lift above us hollered down saying there was a bear just a few yards ahead. The kids were bummed we missed it by the time we made it to the area where it was last seen, but Jeremy (the only adult male in our group of three women and five kids) was relieved he wouldn't have to defend us all in the event of an animal attack.

We hardly made it onto the chair lift when Brooklyn said she was hungry (no surprise there). Luckily, Brody made a delicious trail mix snack for everyone as one of his Cub Scout requirements.

Ella and Brooklyn seemed really comfortable on the chair lift, which surprised me. I think this was their very first time on one and they were surprised at how high up we were.

At the top of the mountain the view was amazing. It took us an hour and a half to hike down - stopping every chance we got for pictures.

Case, Brooklyn, Ella Sugar, Brody, Katlyn and Ledger all ready to go.

We hardly got ten steps down the trail when Sugar - reminding everyone to be very careful because the trail was slippery - slipped and fell right on her butt! It was hilarious! And even funnier was to see Case pulling Sugar up off the dirt path.

Taking a break.

We took the green "Sugar" trail of course.

Ella loved the hike down, until she fell a few times scraping up her knee and bruising her buns. Everyone fell a few times and we started keeping track of the number of falls.

I was so proud of Brooklyn for making it all the way down the mountain in shoes that were two sizes too small. We got about 3/4 the way down the mountain when she started begging me to carry her  because her feet were hurting, but I just couldn't because I was having a hard time standing up and not falling down like everyone else. Well, when we took her shoes off in the car on the way home she had some really big blisters on her feet. I felt so bad. Sorry miss Brooklyn.

After hiking down, we rode the chair lift back up and down again for a nice relaxing ride. The views coming down on the chair lift were awesome.

Jer, Ledger, Case, and Linds on their way down the chair lift.

The view coming down.