New Year's Eve Hike

For nearly three weeks I'd been wanting to take a hike with Kailyn, but it wasn't until New Year's Eve day when the sun was shining and the temperature hovering around freezing when we decided it had to happen, as she would be driving back to school the next day. It was already afternoon, and we both had plans that evening, so we were a bit limited on time, and lamented the fact that we should stick fairly close to home.

We layered clothes, grabbed a few treats and Nikki's water bottle and of course, Nikki, and headed out to Round Lake for a quick jaunt.  About a block down the road we both remembered something we forgot and we made the next turn to go home, me for my walking stick, Kailyn for her camera.  Off again, and we both wondered aloud about Round Lake . . . it's so "ordinary" as we've been there many times, and I said, "Let's drive out to Moulton Falls". I did a quick calculation . . . 40 minutes to drive there, an hour or so to hike, return home . . . yeah, we could manage and be home by 4:30! So,  as we were driving the opposite direction, once more we made the same turn and headed back toward home, but instead over to catch 205.

As we were driving along, Kailyn asked, "Aren't we going the wrong way?  Shouldn't we be heading south?"

I told her "No" as it dawned on me that she thought I said Multnomah Falls,  and I said, "Oh, I'm sorry but I don't think we have time to turn around again." We laughed about how much the two places sounded alike, and agreed that it would still be great to visit Moulton Falls, and so we continued on our way.

We pulled into the parking area, found gloves and bundled up. As we exited the car we were blasted by cold air and thought, "Are we nuts?" but, decided to hike at least for a short while as Nikki was really excited to be out and about.  It was gorgeous!  We marveled at the icy jeweled little waterfalls and Kailyn took lots of photos.

It was freezing cold, and it wasn't long before our fingers were numb, despite the gloves, and our noses were red, but the walk was breathtakingly beautiful and worth every minute.  We were surprised to find that we weren't the only crazy ones, as we passed many couples and families coming and going on the trail.  It was a perfect thing to do on New Year's Eve day with my daughter and our dog.

Happy New Year ~ 2011