Early Spring Hike

We went for a spring hike this week.  As you can see by the trail, it is no longer snow/ice covered, but very, very muddy!  It is quite messy hiking in the spring.

Annie misses the snow.  She absolutely loves the snow.  But she still loved every minute of our hike. She would run ahead and then turn around make sure we were okay and still behind her.  I wish I had some of her boundless energy! 

Annie and Cheetah, my friend's dog, got along together great.  This was the first time we had taken Annie on a hike with Cheetah.  They were like two peas in a pod.  Cosmo felt a little bit left out, as he didn't even try to keep up with the two of them, and he mostly did his own thing...

... which involved a lot of this!

The trail we chose to take had some incredible views.  The mountains are still snow-covered in the distance.  The sun was shining beautifully, but there was a north wind blowing, and the air was still a bit chilly.  At times, you wanted to take your coat off, because the sun felt so warm, and then the wind would pick up and you'd be zippering up your coat, and shoving your hat back on... and then the wind would stop, and you'd be hot again... we almost felt like menopausal women on the hike today... hot then cold, hot then cold!

You can see the trail we were on was quite steep. We were breathing pretty heavily by the time we got to  where the trail leveled out.

Cosmo was laid out on the ground panting... but Annie was still going strong... like I said, I wish I had some of her energy!

From our vantage point up here on this trail, we could see all the way into the closest town where the bridge crosses the river.  

And from a different vantage point, we could see all the way to Mount Spokane. 

This area up here had been logged fairly heavily, and most of the underbrush had been cleared away.  It made it a lot easier hiking around up here.

There were some great tree stumps left behind from the logging, and they made great resting spots for us!

Cosmo was trying to tell me he's getting too old for this kind of stuff!

From the highest point on this trail, we had a clear view of the mountains in a 360-degree view.  It was amazing.  The trail ended on a high plateau which had been cleared by the loggers with a few trees remaining, but you could see mountains in every direction you turned.  On such a beautiful clear day, you could see as far away as the mountains to Priest Lake, to Hoo Doo Mountain, to the mountain ranges in Washington, and to Mount Spokane.

It was an incredible day for hiking, and we loved the amazing views we got to see.  The trails were muddy closer to the bottom areas of the trail, but were almost completely dry farther up the mountain.  It took us about 2-1/2 hours to hike all the way up here, and then back down.  Not bad for an early spring hike!