of Pinnacle Mountain. For those of you who don't live here in Arkansas, Pinnacle is not what I would classify as a "mountain", but merely a hill. But don't tell my body that, I am sure I will be hurting tomorrow.
It was a beautiful January day in Little Rock. We took the entire family and hiked the trail to the top. It is about two miles round trip. The first half of the hike was pretty easy. Not too steep, and there is a pretty good trail. I helped Emily, Eddie carried Danielle in the Mei Tai, kept a close eye on Brian and carried the backpack. However, the trail gets very rocky (big rocks), about 3/4 of the way up. I was thinking that we should just stop, but part of me really wanted to get to the top. I was concerned about the kids getting tired, Danielle was getting fussy and I was wondering how we were going to traverse the rocks going back down. Since I knew it was easier to climb up the rocks than it would be going down.
Once on top, we rested, had a little snack, let Danielle stretch, and made sure she had all of her needs met, before we headed down. I am glad that we succeeded, and completed our mission. It was very cool to look out over the lake, the river and the rolling landscape. I was still thinking we were a little crazy, and wishing that perhaps we could go down by helicopter.
Danielle was definitely not happy about being stuck in the carrier, but that was the only option. The kids did great on the way down. I had them scoot down the rocks on their bottoms, I used the same technique. We arrived down the mountain, I mean hill, with only one minor stumble. It wasn't that bad.
I now have another fear to add to the list though, someone tripping and cracking their head on a rock! I don't know if we can do that hike again. I am also glad that we went when it was 60 degrees (perfect) in January, and not ninety degrees in July. We are definitely planning on doing lots of free or cheap outdoor activities with the kids this year. It was a fun day. Eddie and I were tired, but the kids had enough energy that they still wanted to play at the playground when we got to the bottom. We are going to have to get in better shape so we can keep up.
