hike on Klahhane ridge

On Saturday we drove up Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park to do a 5.5 mile hike along Klahhane Ridge. It was gorgeous up there - wildflowers in bloom, snowy Mt. Olympus in the distance, the sea and city of Victoria appearing over the hills. The children were decidedly unenthusiastic for the whole way out - they were hungry, they were hot, they were tired, their legs were hurt, etc. But I'm stubborn and we kept going until the trail split at the turnaround point. We sent Steve and Cuong off on their own to run up a ridge and then all the way back down to our house at Lake Dawn (~6 miles); Anne and I took the kids back along the same trail to the car. Surprisingly, the kids were awesome on the way back. We sang old camp songs (B A bay, B E bee, B I biddy-bye B O bo....) and taught the kids tongue twisters (Peter Piper, she sells sea shells); it's possible that their speed was a direct reflection of the fact that we told them we were racing their daddies, and that the winner would get ice cream. We won; everyone got ice cream. :)