Lafayette and Lincoln. October 17, 2016

Alex will have a full trip report, along with a complete set of photos, on her blog tomorrow morning.

**We still need to raise a little less than one hundred dollars to round out the "individual contribution" portion of this year's fundraising goal for Global Fund for Women.  The girls wanted to get five or six $576 donors, and they have five generous $576 donors and a bunch of wonderful individual donors whose contributions almost reach $576 dollars.  If they can get a few more donations that add up to $94, then that rounds things out nicely for the year and puts them ahead by about $450 for next year's goal.  So if you can donate to Global Fund for Women through the girls' CrowdRise site, that would be great!  Every penny helps Global Fund for Women support human rights for girls and women around the globe.**

This is a crazy week with many academic and extracurricular responsibilities!  Actually, it's a crazy month.  Thankfully, we're good for the Grid as far as October goes; the girls already have a ton of October 4K hikes under their belts.  As long as both girls average four hikes a month for the next three years (Alex)/four years (Sage), both girls will finish the October portion of the Grid well before they finish their high school years.  We can therefore relax a bit when it comes to the rest of this month.  Not that we like to relax, mind you...if we don't hike once a week then we all feel a little off.  We each need our weekly dose of mountain therapy in order to feel strong and on top of things.

Alex didn't go solo on this one.  Her solo days will soon be over for this year; I don't want her to hike by herself when the temperatures gets below a certain point and/or the cold rain, snow, and ice arrive.  It's too easy to become hypothermic without realizing it when you're on your own, and though Alex is an experienced and responsible hiker, the margin of error in the mountains falls to zero in the late fall and winter months.

This day wasn't winter-like...at least, not down below...but I saw the forecast for Lafayette's peak and wasn't comfortable with Alex going solo.  Low 40s, near-zero visibility along the ridge, and robust winds...in retrospect, Alex probably would have been fine since she knows that trail well and she knows how to keep herself warm and dry...but still.  Next year, I will likely be fine with her going up on her own in such conditions, but I wasn't quite ready to trust everything would be totally okay this time around.  Again, Alex is capable, experienced, level-headed, and prepared...but we need to let my Mama-nerves handle this process in a way that's comfortable for me.

Something's up with my iPhone...many of my photos from this hike disappeared.  The following is what I still have, most of which were taken on Little Haystack as the sun finally burned off the clouds.  Alex will have her own trip report with a complete set of photos on her blog tomorrow morning.

We might wait until November to hike again, since we're in good shape for October and both girls have many academic responsibilities in the coming weeks.  Then again, we don't like to let too much time pass until we can get back up on the peaks, so we'll see.

Happy Hiking,
Trish