Squak Mt 5.18.09

Monday's have been my day to watch the kids so I thought with some warmer weather a day out would be in order. I have taken my oldest many times to Squak Mt. and worked at building up her stamina to make it to the summit. Today was the day for our first try. I was unsure if she was capable at 3 and half I thought my desires might be too much. So I loaded the baby backpack with lunch and the little one and we were off. It was a little cool and mostly cloudy for the majority of the ascent. I decided to try to take the most direct line to the summit. Usually we use the trail system for our Squak jaunts but for today I wanted to use the South Access Road. We had a great conversation along the way and the little one was very happy to be along for the ride. I started entertaining thoughts of success but I was still unsure. We passed a worker a short ways from the summit. His encouraging words were the perfect tonic for the last bit to the summit. Soon we rounded a corner and caught sight of the towers. This spurred the oldest to break out in a run. Soon we were at the summit for a well deserved lunch. For the descent we used the East Summit Trail to connect with Phil's Creek Trail and rejoined the South Access Road for the remainder of the descent. Needless to say I was very proud of my little girl. At her age I think that it is pretty stout accomplishment.




Approx 5.5 mile approx 1700ft of climb 4:00 to car to car.