Lilah Rose » hiking http://peekabooproductions.org/blog The life and Times of.... Fri, 07 May 2010 04:07:03 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 en hourly 1 Laguna De Peñalara http://peekabooproductions.org/blog/2009/08/03/laguna-de-penalara/ http://peekabooproductions.org/blog/2009/08/03/laguna-de-penalara/#comments Mon, 03 Aug 2009 18:12:06 +0000 JWP http://peekabooproductions.org/blog/?p=306 Laguna De Peñalara

Post from: Lilah Rose

Though that hardly bothered you, as your main focus on the day was in climbing rocks!]]> Laguna De Peñalara

Post from: Lilah Rose

View from ridge trail to Laguna de Peñalara
This Sunday marks our second outing into the Sierra de Guadarrama range which separates Madrid from Segovia. This time we went to the Parque Natural de Peñalara for a relatively easy hike to the Peñalara Laguna Grande. Which is a rather small glacial lake located ~2K meters above sea level. Other than the first 15 minutes, which were pretty steep, the hike was quite easy (as noted by the number of grandmothers we passed) unfortunately being a nature preserve there was no swimming allowed, in fact a cable barrier kept you from getting any closer than a 100m to the lake (rather pond) itself.

Though that hardly bothered you, as your main focus on the day was in climbing rocks! And in that there was no stopping you (at least not without the threat of tears). As typical you were a bit apprehensive at first but by the time we were leaving you would get to the top, of even the smallest rock, and demand that we take your picture.

Your second focus on the day was pointing out the cow poop along the trail, of which there was no shortage as the park is apparently home to herds of free roaming cattle. Thankfully your mom was able to find us a suitable picnic spot amongst the rocks and cow poop while you and I took our sweet time (thanks to the rock climbing) covering the last 300 meters or so.

This setting also, finally, provided you with a chance to get in some good “echos”, of which you have been entranced with ever since the first reading of “Little Beaver and the Echo“. And despite the large number of other people enjoying the day by the lake we couldn’t help but allow you to get in some good “ECHO!!”s, though we did manage to get you to only do 2 or 3 at a time and put some time in between each set.

After a couple of hours we made our way back down the mountain, slowed only by your unsurprising desire to go bouldering. At one point you just sat down and randomly started making faces, starting off with both forefingers stretching the corners of your mouth, then a few “blow-fish” looks, then just as quickly on your way again. Your mom wasn’t quick enough to get the former but she got a good one of the latter.

Towards the bottom of the trail we found a mountain spring where you happily washed your face and hand with the cold water and helped mommy to refill our water bottle.


Mountain Climber
[See post to watch Flash video]

The hike up

Picnic

Heading home

]]> http://peekabooproductions.org/blog/2009/08/03/laguna-de-penalara/feed/ 0 40.8390083 -3.9531898 First Hike http://peekabooproductions.org/blog/2009/07/07/first-hike/ http://peekabooproductions.org/blog/2009/07/07/first-hike/#comments Tue, 07 Jul 2009 21:42:49 +0000 JWP http://peekabooproductions.org/blog/?p=234 First Hike

Post from: Lilah Rose

First HikePost from: Lilah Rose Today, Lilah, we made our way out to Parque Regional Cuenca Alta del Manzanares. Which is about a 30 minute drive just north east of Madrid, where you participated on your official first hike. The weather was perfect, a nice breeze and enough clouds to keep the temperature bearable. [...]]]> First Hike

Post from: Lilah Rose

Today, Lilah, we made our way out to Parque Regional Cuenca Alta del Manzanares. Which is about a 30 minute drive just north east of Madrid, where you participated on your official first hike. The weather was perfect, a nice breeze and enough clouds to keep the temperature bearable.

The park was free to enter and a lovely drive up to the trail head. You probably walked a good 40% of the time all on your own, mostly the flat and downhill portions, the rest of the time you were either on my back (the way up) or your Mom’s back (the way down) talking about any and everything that popped into your little head. As is your habit of late, you were most concerned with what any and everything was saying (what’s that Rock saying daddy? What’s the ground saying mommy?) as well as hunting down your echo, luckily we eventually found her towards the end of the trail, not so sure the rest of the park was equally pleased with your discovery, and certainly not with the hunt.

You found and commandeered a hiking stick about 5 minutes after being let out of the backpack which stayed with you through the end of the day (actually it might still be in the Premacy) along with the requisite bird feather. Around the halfway point we stopped for some oranges, apples, and sesame seed treats. A wrong turn kept us from making it to the summit, but that should provide enough of an excuse for us to go back (along with the swimming hole).

As we neared the end of the hike you pointed out that you had dropped your hat….about 500 yards UP the trail, I guess it could have been worse…. One guess who had the pleasure to back and retrieve it….

And of course no hike is complete without a stop by a cold mountain stream to cool off and relax, and today was no exception. You were not to keen on the whole idea at first but eventually you warmed up to the idea as you can see in the pictures below.

On our way out of the park we stopped by the village below for a bite to eat and a look at the local castle as well, needless to say your were OUT like a light by the time we got home (well after your first roadside poop).

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