Giant

For # 3 of our 46er summits, we decided to do Giant Mt. It was our longest and hardest climb to date. I will let the boys add any details but Joe and I were absolutely amazed at their stamina and good nature. We hiked for over 7 hours including ascent and descent. It was only a 3.1 mile hike to the summit but it was steep from the moment the trail started. There was also quite a bit of bouldering. We took the shorter Ridge Trail, not the Roaring Brook trail. We had heard the Roaring Brook had a path along a waterfall but was longer. Nevertheless, we were treated to a few small waterfalls along our hike too. We also came upon a really neat lake, about 3/4 of the way up, called the Giant Washbasin. We were really running out of steam and Oscar was ahead. We saw him scamper up a boulder and then turn, smile and raise his hands above his head. We knew we made it! Summit was crowed but fun. There were a few cute dogs to pet and we had a lovely picnic lunch. Descent was tough because of the boulders and incline. Clarke was challenged by a sore twisted ankle but handled. Lots of falling and slipping and sliding. At the end of the day, we all enjoyed a great sunset and evening. I made shrimp fajitas and the boys had root beers. Joe and I were struggling to keep our eyes open and the boys were....outside playing baseball. Youth! We think for our next we will get a very early morning start (before 7am) so we can relax a bit on the way up.