34. One of five hikes complete!

Friday night, we (Edith, Madalynn, Thatcher and myself) headed out in the snowy, wet weather to Voyageurs National Park, late, but hell-bent on conquering our first wintery hike. Geared up with ski-pants, boots, jackets, scarves, tuques, mitts and undeniable excitement! We got our snowshoes and headed out. Madalynn with her desire to "entertain", thought it was much funnier to goof off and twist the snowshoes around and around her little feet so that before the hike began between Ede and I we had "fixed" her boots half a dozen times..."She can go without snowshoes – If she sinks, she sinks, she'll figure it out"

And we were off, Madalynn and myself leading our little troop, Thatcher and Ede following behind. We made it to the fire pit where we had to stop for instructions, After our talk, Madalynn and I started up the trail, me on snowshoes, her in her boots and falling every other step, we pulled off to let the others pass and get her back on track while waiting for Thatch and Ede to show up. "WAIT, what? they're not coming"

Ok Madalynn it's you and me, so off we go.. two steps forward, Mads falls in the snow, two steps forward, Mads falls in the snow, two steps forward.. you get the idea. To Madalynn's sheer delight a very tall hiker offered to carry her on his shoulders, she was thrilled and secretly so was I... (two steps forward, Mads falls in the snow...) There was a few close calls, one or two "ahhhh, Um, I'm tangled in a tree"...but we made it to the turn-around, thanked the man and Madalynn and I headed back.

Madalynn struggled a bit, but was a complete trooper, even singing Enrique Iglesias to boost our spirits, We hiked all the way back singing "Baby I like it", probably to the chagrin of other hikers. However loud and annoying it may have been...it worked, We MADE it, Madalynn walking the whole way back by herself!  First hike done! Next time, no boots, and less layers, whoever thought we needed all those layers, has obviously never done this before!