Carpenter Mountain

We had been continuing to unpack our stuff and get used to living in Oregon, but it still was summer vacation, so we had to take the time to get out and enjoy it a little bit. We had a bit of time in the afternoon, so I went with Carl and the kids up to Carpenter Mountain. It took us a long time to drive the miles and miles of dirt roads to get to the trailhead. Some were better than others, but eventually we got to the trailhead. The view from the trailhead was good enough to be worth the drive as we could see the Three Sisters from there.
The trail was not very steep, but was covered in huckleberries. This was Zyla's first introduction to huckleberries and she was all over it. Conrad and Zyla had been enjoying the blackberries growing right near our new rental. This was a bountiful harvest that Oregon had to offer. There were multiple kinds of huckleberries on this hike to enjoy and the harder part was just keeping Zyla moving enough to keep our momentum going. I would hand every other huckleberry back to Conrad so that he could enjoy it also. I think Carl was happy with the pace of the four year old because his knees could not take a long walk. The trail wound through the woods with expansive views along the way of vast expanses of forest. The region we were living in just had an immense amount of trees. I think we were really digging the green even though it was rather hot and dry during the summer.
We eventually made it to the lookout. The last hundred feet were pretty steep and I was glad Jacqueline wasn't there because I had to carry the kids up to the lookout with a pretty significant drop off on the side. It all went fine. There was a forest service worker there manning the lookout. We talked to him for a while and he showed us how he used certain things to report fires. There was a fire going on currently and we were able to see it pretty well from Carpenter Mountain. In fact you could really see quite a bit of forest from up top. We enjoyed the view, but did not stay too long as I was a bit nervous having the kids up on top.
Down we went eating more huckleberries as we went. The pace was just perfect and Zyla did great. It took a bit of plodding to get her to keep moving all the time, but all and all she was turning into a pretty good hiker. She was starting to enjoy it too as she got to reap the rewards of a fruit harvest along the way.