Alger Alp #64

The weather for Sabbath (Saturday) was supposed to be really nice, I had been craving going on a hike and wanted to see some fall colors, I also wanted an easier hike since my shin splints seemed to be gone finally from our PCT trip. I talked to L to see if she wanted to come along. She said yes of course. We decided to go after church and somewhere close by. We chose Alger Alp North Route, the south route is all old logging roads, which sounds really boring to me.
Alger Alp trail head starts at the Squires Lake trail head. You can read the post for Squires Lake here. (One of my favorite hikes!) FYI the parking lot is very small, so it fills up pretty fast.

The kids weren't excited about going, but I drug them along anyways, the dog however was very excited to go. She doesn't like being left behind if you are going somewhere.

After a short somewhat steep climb we arrived at Squires Lake. The kids did enjoy the bridge and looking at the lake, while L and I were talking about which way to go.

When facing the lake we went right and that lead us to the South Ridge trail.

The kids were doing alright, G was saying that the hike was really hard for him. But that is because he doesn't do a lot of hiking, and I don't think he enjoys hiking either.

Miss A was kinda in a good mood in this picture but shortly after she turned into

Miss Grumpy pants because she wanted to be in the lead. H and G had passed her when they started playing a game and H took the dog. I think she ended up complaining for 20 minuets about how she was to be in the lead, how she hated hiking, how dare G be in front of her because he was slow. I told her that was rude to say and that she needed to be nice. She finally calmed down and started to pick up her pace again so we caught up to the boys and dog.

The trail is nice because there isn't lots of shrubbery overgrowth. There are lots of roots on this part of the trail. At one point the roots were like steps going along the trail that was fun to walk on.

"Mom are we to follow this trail?" 

We then hiked on the Pacific Northwest Trail. Which is cool, this trail starts in Washington State at Olympic National Park and goes all the way to Glacier National Park in Montana.  (maybe I should do this trail next summer as my 3rd overnight backpacking trip?)

The sun was so warm and the views that peeked through the trees as in the picture below were so lovely.

A much happier kiddo, the boys were still playing that they were hiding from an enemy.

At this junction L checked her downloaded map to see which way we wanted to go.

We stayed on trail 1300.

Which as you can see, is an old logging road. But it was nice and wide.

Come down the hill and stay to your left/straight (whatever you prefer to call it.) Just don't go right.

Then you come up and the other side and stay left. The boys were still playing their war game and Miss A was finally happy.

Stay left again at this junction

I can't remember if we took this trail or not.

We then started to hike up this hill, that had numerous curves that made you think you were close to the top, but alas it was not so.

This was finally the top of the hike. At one point G convinced H to carry him. I don't know why H agreed to it but he did, for like 30 seconds.

These are 2 of my favorite pictures from the hike because of H, the sunlight and the dog.

The valley and sound were so pretty to see. If you look closely you can see Interstate 5.

When I was taking the picture of the kids and dog, G was finally arriving to us.

/Miss A was very happy to sit down. She had been complaining that her legs were hurting her, which was unusual for her. I should have known that something was wrong because the next day she was sick.

We wore the kids and dog out, had an enjoyable day even if the kids complained the whole time. But it was so nice to be in the sun and enjoying nature.

Until next time!