Green Mountain Hike

We've had a string of gorgeous, but very cold, winter days.  I've been wanting to take the family on a hike, so when Saturday promised to be sunny, I decided we'd go to Green Mountain.  We invited another family who has an adventurous streak.  They have four kids, plus two of the mom's half-brothers, who are the age of her two oldest kids (13 and 10) were visiting so they joined us as well.  At the last minute, Brad and Jillian decided not to go.  They definitely missed out!

Kylie leading the way, with Ben and Jeffrey following.

John, Jeffrey, Kylie, Aaron, Alan, and Ben, about 1/2 way up.  

We ended up ahead of the rest of the group, who had the two younger kids.

At the top!  That's Seattle and the Cascade mountains in the distance, with Puget Sound, Bainbridge Island, Silverdale and Bremerton in between.

Ben and I at the top. 

We ate our lunch and waited for the rest of the group to arrive.  Kylie was anxious to head back down (she was slightly under-dressed for the cold weather), so she went on ahead.  

Somehow I ended up with all but one of the kids on the way back down.  The mom and dad of the other family was behind with the youngest girl, and Kylie was way ahead.  We went down a different way so we could see the view of the Olympics.

Everything went well until about 1/2 a mile from the end, when we had to decide which way to turn to join the main trail.  I chose the wrong way, and after about 15 minutes, realized we weren't in the right place.  I had a map, and thought I knew how to get us back, but I was with six young boys who were a little freaked out about not being where we were supposed to be.  Eventually we came to the main road, fortunately only about 1/4 mile up the road from the trail head.  I think we ended up hiking about six miles instead of five.  I'm glad we went, but next time I will choose the left instead of the right!