A Father's Day Gone Wrong

I had great plans for this Father's Day.  I bought Dave a new four person tent--the REI Hobitat with the special hobitat "garage" addition.  Despite my supposed outdoorsy-ness, I dislike being wet or dirty and have an irrational fear of bears and cougars.  Because I love my husband, I thought that one of the most loving things to do would be to buy him a tent and plan a camping trip for Father's Day weekend.  I even bought a new Coleman stove so we could cook in style.

I had it all planned out.  I reserved a campsite at Penrose State Park.  Penrose has both trails and a beach, our spot was near both the bathrooms and a water source.  The s'more fixings were purchased.  I then watched as the weather report got worse and worse, by Saturday morning it was raining with a forecast of rain all weekend except between 2 and 4 am Saturday night.  Dave and I decided that camping in the cold and rain with a baby and toddler would not be fun and opted to instead go swimming at the Mountlake Terrace pool on Saturday (totally good family fun) and a hike on Sunday.

Sunday morning I made Dave the obligatory breakfast in bed and then we proceeded to get the family out the door and headed to Cougar Mountain State Park for a little hiking.  We hadn't been to Cougar Mountain in a few years, but an article in the Seattle Metropolitan magazine mentioned an easy to follow trail so we thought we would give it a shot. 

If you have never been, Cougar Mountain is easy to moderate hiking, with a massive tangle of trails.  It has waterfalls, abandoned mine shafts, a rusted out railway car, viewpoints, just about everything (if you can find it).  Did I mention that it is a massive tangle of trails? Or that not all trails are marked and others are incredibly misleading?  Our short little hike with the kids turned into a very long hike, accentuated by wrong turns, turning around multiple times, and eventually waiting for someone to run by and tell us how to get back to the parking lot. In short, we got very lost. 

Before the hike --so full of optimism

Both kids gave up and slept for most of the hike, which meant we never stopped to rest, lest they wake up.

 Today I learned that if you are going to Cougar Mountain bring a map, compass, and GPS (cellphone GPS won't cut it). 

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!