Hiking - in the snow

Saturday morning I got up and decided I wanted to try and get a hike in before all the snow melted.  This was a rare opportunity and it was worth giving up a lazy day in front of the TV.

On my way out of the house I grabbed my son off the couch and took him with me.
We drove up to Jones Gap State Park and saw almost no snow on our entire drive.   The winding road that lead to the park entrance was the first place we really started to see snow.  Down in this valley, there was plenty of white to hike in.

We headed up one of the newer trails that took us to Rainbow Falls.  When I say "headed up", I mean it.  This trail was a climb the entire 2 miles.

We didn't see anyone on the trail but we saw footprints in the snow.  We discussed how many people we thought we would see based on the footprints.  We decided that there were two or three people and a dog.
As we approached the top we saw our first people headed down.   Sure enough there was a dog.  We scored a point on that one.  But there was a problem with our guess.  There were not two or three people in this group, there were five.   My son looked at me after we passed them and asked if maybe some of them rode on the dog on the way up.

After many breaks, we finally made it to our goal of seeing Rainbow Falls.

We made quick time on the way out.  I contribute part of that speed to the promise of food that I gave my son.

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