Day 1: you, now

Me, now? Really? Well, day 1 of september started with beautiful skies and a plan to hike Mt Monadnock. Monadnock (a little over 3,000 ft) is a great mountain to hike and generally you can do the whole hike in 4 hrs. We got to the mountain a little later than expected and stopped for lunch halfway up the mountain for longer than we should have (the stopping place was named the halfway house). We summited 2 hrs after lunch and after a quick snack we moseyed back on down. We, the adults, determined to take a different route down due to the sheer faces and rock climbing we did on the way up, near the peak (Kevin and I climbed a good portion of this side 2 years ago but didn't summit due to wind and fatigue. We didn't realize some of the incredible steepness of this side) {this side is also not the "popular" side that everyone takes...we figured it would be better than some of the steepness of that side...figured wrong.}
  The hike back down took some time due to two cranky four year olds. Not to mention, the brand new to us, trail. We only felt lost and scared once, due to very poor signage along a smaller trail that was very steep and not easy to follow.  We were somewhere near the middle of the mountain in thick trees, steep rocks, and then came the rain....oh, the rain.  All of the weather reports said, "GORGEOUS weekend, maybe a  10% chance of a passing shower", he omitted the tropical downpour that would last for 30 minutes...the last 30 minutes of the hike, which was mostly on an exposed dirt road. Ugh!

When it was all said and done, we all earned our ice creams and hot showers!  The whole hike took us 6 hours, I have never been on Monadnock that long... We also decided not to take 4 year olds or 1 year olds up the mountain again. Wait until they're older.   Oh, so this picture is me, now, sweaty and hot at the top of the mountain, (should've noted the somewhat menacing clouds behind me).