Do if for the Blog!

We'll start at the end of the story. The final leg of our famous Waterfall Hike involved a very precarious climb to Rainbow Falls. We were on a ledge with snow up to our thighs. It was slippery and our feet were soaked. I thought it might be a bad idea to continue until Oscar said "do it for the blog, mom". So I succumbed to peer pressure from my nine year old and we continued, making it another hundred feet to see Rainbow Falls in all of its spring glory - even felt the spray. We tried to get even closer but Oscar slipped (per Oscar "and almost died"), and we decided that we had made the most of the day.


The weather was perfect for the hike, and this was one of our favorites from last year. Unfortunately, both West River Trail and East River Trail were closed because of significant snow. We didn't have our snow shoes and might have soldiered on despite the warning but I do remember there was a lot of narrow climbing and the ranger looked alarmed when I hesitated. We then decided it was our first hike in awhile and it would be ok to just take the Lake Road. This would mean we'd miss all the falls, except the grand daddy Rainbow. We hiked for about 4 miles and reached the Lower Ausable Lake Dam. The boys took their shirts off and dived into snow banks. We let our socks dry out and hung on the rocks for awhile, before our fateful decision to climb the rest to Rainbow.

The way back was easy peasy, mostly downhill. We had some Naan for sustenance. The boys passed the trail for their all-time favorite mountain..Nippletop. The giggling lasted for about a half mile. We probably hiked around 9 miles total, a great first outing. The boys came back and had brownies and we had ginger flank steak and sugar snap peas for dinner. A great escape.

** pix shot with my bberry. excuse quality