Final Swim Meet

Last Saturday, J had his final swim meet of the summer. He competed in four events, two relays and two individual events. He did the back stroke length of the 100 IM; a fifty free, fifty back and a freestyle leg of a relay.

Joseph was the first backstroker to the wall in the lead-off of the IM relay.



Then he won his heat of the fifty free in rather dramatic fashion. Joseph is in lane four in the pictures. Note that he's in second before the turn, still in second with only about a quarter of a length left, but then wins in the end. He dropped 8 seconds on his best time in this event.





Next, Joseph handily won his heat of the fifty back dropping another 8 seconds off his best time in this event. Way to go, Joseph! We're very proud of your effort!

Going Down

Oh...and here are some pics of the trip down Jefferson! It was not without event. The wind continued to howl until we got .5 from the top. It knocked G. into the rocks three times and he had three bandaids to show for it. Youch. But he did it. He kept going. And he leaned on God to do so. He asked me to pray with him a couple times. The sun came out for a little while and gave a little warmth, and before we knew it, we were back down below the wind zone.








We got down just in time! The clouds rolled in just before we went back into the woods.

The Raising of Boys

The boys did such a great job on this trip. I was so proud of them. They set up the tent. They built the fires. And they hiked 20.5 miles in three days (three peak hikes + a small hike around a lake one evening.) I really try to stretch them and challenge them. That's hard to do. I want to give them something I think they can do--but I don't want to break them. I want them to learn to push themselves harder than they think they can. Perseverance is a big thing we talk about on the hikes. There are always moments where it is hard (even for the adult!) and you might think about turning around and going back. Sometimes you need to. But often you should probably keep going. I think that's true a lot in life. There are often big rewards for keeping on the path. Things in life are going to be hard. School. A job. A marriage. We all need to learn to keep going sometimes even when things are hard.

On the trail, we often go over Romans 5:3-5, applying these lessons to our whole life with God.

Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; ⁴perseverance, character; and character, hope. ⁵And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

Mt Jefferson Pt2

There were so many great views. We were very blessed to have a reasonably clear day.


Here's a look back over the Caps Ridge--the rocks over which we had to climb.



A look back from a little higher. The upper part of the ridge is in the foreground. the lower part just down and to the left.

Here's a look across to some of the Presidential Range. I believe you can see Mts. Jackson Pierce, and Eisenhower.
Mt. Washington is the highest Mt. in the Whites. The highest on the East Coast. It was usually under cloud cover, but every once in a while the clouds would lift, and we could see its summit across the way. It's looming in the distance. You can just make out the towers on top. On the map it looks like Jefferson and Washington are close together. As you got higher up they looked very far apart. You could make out hikers on the ridge moving between the two peaks and they really did look like ants.
Even when we got quite a ways up and knew that we were under half a mile from the summit, we still couldn't see the actual summit. You can just make out two hikers on the ridge in this picture. They had moved on ahead of us when we stopped to get a little warmer. The whole top of the cone of the mountain is basically a pile of rocks with some short grasses and plants.
When we got above the Caps Ridge, it was like a whole different world. We had been quite comfortable with the temperature. But once over the ridge, the wind began to blow quite strongly. The kids were COLD. We had sweat-shirts with some hoods for the younger two boys, but I admit I should have had more. Next time--winter hats and wind pants for all. G. got really deflated by the wind. He started sobbing. He wanted to go back down. (within .2 of a mile from the top!) We found a little shelter from the wind (the next picture) and I got him to settle down some and regain some resolve to keep going.



The final assault on the top.
Victory! No kidding, the man who took this pic about blew over three times trying to get in position to take it. Cold. Windy. But amazing. Mt. Adam's looms over our heads. (N. and I were up there a year ago.)

Mt Jefferson

Mt Jefferson is the third highest peak in the White Mountains. We went up the Cap Ridge Trail, a five mile round trip hike to the summit. The boys had already done some great hiking, and I was a little concerned how they'd hold up on this hike. It was shorter in miles, but it would have some challenging rock scrambles on the upper levels. The rock scrambles were the very thing that made them want to do it, though.




The boys always have their eyes out for cool things as we go. J. and G. were ecstatic to find a whole patch of raspberries along the trail. N. and I could here the shouts of glee as we rounded the bend.



Not long after the berries, the boys discovered the first outlook of the day. I wish I could have somehow captured the excitement in their voices as they looked down into the valley.



From this point it was about a mile and a half to the summit. We go a good glimpse of some of what was ahead of us.

So up we went.

In about 20 minutes we looked back to see the "bubble rocks" (as we called them) down below. We couldn't believe we'd gone so far so fast. But things were about to slow down drastically.


The Caps Ridge consists of a series of rocky outcroppings ("caps") over which we had to climb. The boys saw these and immediately said, "Mom would NOT like us doing this. Awesome!"


Well, I've got to go to work. I'll post part two of the Mt. Jefferson climb later.

Zealand Falls and Mt. Hale

On the second day we hiked an 8.7 mile loop. ( a record number of miles for G. and J.!) The first part was a fairly simple and beautiful walk through woods and beaver meadows to Zealand Pond.



Here's G. by a cool beaver dam.

The dam creates some really neat ponds.
But also floods the trail! Other hikers said they took their boots off for this ten+ foot section of flooded trail.
We skirted the edge and used the logs at the end.
The boys begged me to take a picture of their dry (!) feet at the end.








Zealand Falls


A little cloudy and hazy, but a nice view from the front porch of Zealand Hut.



On top of Mt. Hale.

Mt Willey

Ready for the hike up Mt. Willey. The Kedron Floom is about a mile up the trail.



Getting a little rest at the flume before the hard part of the trail starts.
Kedron Flume
I read "Tired" "Content" "Happy" in this face. (Oh. Note the dirt on those legs.)
Lots up steep "ups" on this hike. This one at least had stairs. Most was just rocks and roots. Classic White Mnts.

The trail guide book mentioned steep sections with ladders. We thought they were closer to stairs, but they were still plenty steep.

From the top we could look across to see two of last year's peaks--Mts Webster and Jackson (a 4000 footer).

This shot looks down into Crawford Notch toward the campground.

Three happy and victorious boys. It was a steep and tough hike. J. really struggled with his asthma and it took him a while to make it--but he did it! 5.4 miles round trip.