By: Kevin
The staff of our emergency department at the hospital not only enjoy working with each other, but also hanging out together outside of work as well. On this day we all met up at the trailhead of Monserate Mountain for a group hike. The trail was great. Even though it had rained within the past few days, little mud remained on the trail.
The ascent was quick but tolerable and we summited 1200 ft above our vehicles within less than 2 miles. One of the guys brought his drone and got some awesome aerial photography of the hike and mountain.
I asked my coworkers if I could bring the kids along, and while they agreed I think they expected the kids to be bringing up the rear of the group. Wrong! Bug was out in front leading the charge. In fact, one of my coworkers commented about Bug literally running the trail even after we summited and were headed back down. Both Pie and Bug got turns flying the drone which they both thought was awesome! Of course as soon as we got back in the car they both wanted to know if we could get a drone like the one they flew. I did look at the drone online, but with a price tag of around $800, it will not be a purchase we will be making this month…or probably next month either.
Miss Kicky Feet made the trip too, although she was in the backpack on my back. She would have liked to walk more than she was allowed to, but that surely would have slowed down the group a good bit. I let her out to run around at the summit before loading her back in the pack for the trip back down. I have to say, I LOVE the Osprey pack! It makes all the difference for distance hikes with a toddler on your back.
All in all the trip went pretty well without even a scraped knee. The only casualty of the trip was a pair of boots that didn’t make it the distance. The wearer did make it all the way up and down the mountain before deciding to retire the boots and make plans to buy new ones. I do have to admit watching him hike the mountain without soles on his boots was rather entertaining.
Following the hike we all met up at one of the attendee’s house to have a grill-out and relaxing hangout. I mean, we had to replace those calories we burned off, right?
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