I've heard several times that you're not a true Eugenian if you haven't hiked Spencer's Butte. And I am happy to announce that after over 2 years of living in Eugene, we finally hiked the Butte. And not only did we hike it, we carried both our kids on our backs the whole way up and down in true Eugenian style. As you can see, we had Dustin in the backpack, Liz in the front pack, and Tim and I huffed it the whole way up the mountain. The kids were amazingly content riding their taxi's to the top. They were a good workout for us. I was a little surprised that you actually kinda rock climb at one point, which added a level of difficulty with a kid throwing off my center of gravity. But, it was totally worth it to see the view at the top. We all sat and had some snacks and let Dustin climb around. It was such a clear and pretty day, we could see everything. Just beautiful. The way back down, however, was another story. We decided to go the opposite side of the mountain and be adventurous. Within the first 5 minutes, we lost the trail and ended up having to repel down a very steep cliff of mud!!! Yikes. All I can say is that we must have some good guardian angels taking care of us because we all made it down safely in one piece. All in all though, definitely a worthwhile Eugene experience.
This nice little cliff was what we had to go down to get back to the trail! I swear it's even steeper than it looks!
10 comments:
Well, you got some GREAT pictures out of it! Maybe we can all do Pisgah sometime - I think that's another inaugural Eugenian hike (prolly with better marked trails too!)
Congrats for accomplishing the task at hand. Now you are dubbed Eugenians!! Great pics too.
Wow, way to go guys! I tell ya we LOVE that hike! ;0) We should ALL do it as a ward activity!
Raleigh and I hiked that for the first time like a month ago too. We made the mistake of going UP the way you went down. Yikes! My thighs were burning like crazy. Good thing Ral carried the kid or I would have been in serious trouble!
Okay you two...I totally want to go next trip...What awesome pictures! I've never heard of Spencers Butte but it is beautiful!
Wow, what a hike with the tots, good job.
Robin
Dave took me up there once...Even though it was too muddy so we didn't get to go all the way to the top. Good job for the work out!
Holy cow, Jen! You guys are totally hard core! That sounds so fun! I wish we could have been there with you! Did I already ask you if you are interested in running the Rhody Run? It would be fun for you guys to come over that weekend!
By the way--I need your address. Will you email it to me? My email is lac1107@aol.com. Thanks!
I could barely make it down that thing without kid throwing off my center of gravity. If it had been me, kid and all would have been the sequel to what happened to Jack and Jill when they went up a hill.
Oh boy, you're tough! We never hiked it and we also don't own much Tie Dye, so I guess we were never really locals.
What an adventure! Curtis and I talk of being adventurous with the kids (all of our backpacking camping trips this summer) but it's mostly just talk because the effort to pack up 3 small ones and their things and get out the door into nature and packing them around without suffient front/backpacks is too overwhelming. So, what I'm trying to say is: good for you! Having experiences with kids can been so energy draining but way worth the memories created!
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