Oak Hill Firetower--Conquered!

Earlier this summer, we tried to climb up to the Oak Hill firetower on the border of Concord and Loudon. Brynna-bean couldn't quite make it, and we turned around about a quarter mile short of the summit.

About a month ago, though, we had a beautiful weekend day and Brynna proposed that we try again.

Silly faces at the trailhead:

Trek-trek-trekking along:

Jasper, as always incredibly happy to be outdoors with his pack:

Brynna's main interest in hiking, I think, is the consumption of trail mix. We had to carefully negotiate how often we were going to stop and snack, and carefully plotted our stops on the map. This is snack number one:

Snack number two. "We're going up, up, up!"

Mugging for the camera at snack stop #3:

Alex was off doing the grocery shopping while B and I made our (extremely slow) ascent, and Brynna was incredibly proud of making it to the top before Dada caught up to us. She and I made a quick ascent of the tower, during which I was acutely reminded that I get a little freaked out climbing up those things! Brynna was a champ, however, and didn't seem nervous at all.

We descended quickly, since Jasper was quite frantic waiting at the bottom for us. I had tied him to a tree, because otherwise he would certainly have followed us up, and with the incredibly steep stairs, I was afraid he wouldn't be able to get down safely, or that he would knock one of us down trying. He had chewed halfway through his leash by the time that we got back to him.

When Alex arrived, I stayed on the ground with Jasper while Alex took Brynna up again. Here they are peering over the edge of the platform:

A full view of the firetower (Alex and B just getting ready to start down the stairs):

Jasper and his funny bat ears, romping around at the base of the tower:

Alex-Brynna-Jasper on the trail home. Alex mostly entertained Brynna with the story of the tortoise and the hare in an attempt to encourage slow-and-steady progress down the hill.

We negotiated just one snack stop on the way home. Jasper was wondering if we brought goodies for him too:

Before dark, we made it back to the car without difficulty, and with everyone still in a good mood. Success! Brynna's first ascent under her own power. She was SO SO proud of herself, and we were very proud of her too.