Today, we summitted Sauk Mountain.  We had planned on a hike in Canada but when reconsidering we decided to turn our eyes to something within the USA.  We've hiked pretty much everything along the coast in Whatcom County.  The hikes towards Mount Baker would still be snow bound, they open late July to August so they were out.  We turned to our trusty guide, Hiking the North Cascades to peruse the lists of hikes.  The very first hike in the book was Sauk Mountain.  It is past Concrete, which I've never been to.  It's eight miles of an "improved (by large potholes) dirt road to the trail head.  It is a 4.2 mile hike and open June through September. 
Perfect.  We piled into the truck, stuck the kennel in the back with the dog and headed out.  Return to the house to put other dog in kennel, return to the house again to get more snacks, a Forest service pass, some more to drink and finally we were off.   Only 1 hour later than expected but we had the whole day.  We arrived at the trail head around noon and Skagit jumped out of the truck and just layed in the dirt.  Finally, he made it!  ( He doesn't like riding in the vehicle no matter what it is. )
 Off we started, you could see the switch backs up the whole side of the mountain and it freaked the boys out a little bit.  They could just see themselves rolling down the whole mountain.  The kids really have two speeds, fast and stop.  With Isaac, we had him check his sugars at the beginning and reduce his basal by 50% and then checked it an hour into the hike.  We leap frogged another group of hikers (some older gals) pretty much the whole way. 
I told them at the beginning that they would beat us to the top and they did.  Once at the top we met another group who brought their baby up and their little skipperke dog.  We had lunch at the summit took some photos and headed back down.  We didn't get very far when we noticed a group of young men sliding down a hill of snow.  That hill was too steep for us so we found our own little hill, broke out our black "emergency" bag (it is a large plastic garbage bag) and proceded to sled down the hill on the bag and our windbreakers.  Skagit even got into the act by laying on his stomach with his front feet straight out in front and his back feet straight out behind him.  It was great!  I love sledding in July wearing shorts.  Then another hour and a half of hiking and Skagit quit.  He found a bush downhill of the trail and laid down.  He was NOT moving.  We were a football field away from the car and I had to lift him back on the trail TWICE!  We brought water for him but he is only 8 months old and it was far for him. We took him to the Skagit River to cool off.  He is a water dog.  Loves to swim, hiking not so much.  I guess his name fits.  Any how, we all had a great time hiking. Any earlier in the year and I think that it would have been too snowy.
 Some notes on the hike, bring more water and food.  We didn't run out but it is nice to have extras.  Using the garbage bag for a sled worked out great, bring some more:  they don't take up much room and it's fun.  Take more rests for the dog.  using the trekking poles really saved my knees.  I had some uncomfortable pain once or twice but I didn't have to turn around and hike backwards downhill.  Playing twenty questions on the way to the trailhead is always a good idea.  Job's person was Henry Ford.  We all had a hard time with that one. 
Au'jourdhui, nous prennons une promenade au tour d'une montagne.  Nous avons decide que c'est mieux de faire une promenade en Washington que Canada.  Nous avons faire toute les promenades pres de chez nous et l'ocean et dans les montange il y a plus de neige jusqu'a le fin du juiliet ou premiere d'aout.  Alors nous avons ouvrire notre livre de promenades dans les montanges.  La priemiere promenade est le montagne du Sauk.  C'est just 6 km au retour pour la promenade.  Nous sommes arrives vers midi est commence le promenade.  Skagit n'aime pas le voiture alors quand nous arrivions il juste couche par terre.  C'est drole.  Apres deux heure nous arrivons en haut.  C'est magnifique!  Nous prennons quelques sandwhiches avec nous et mangons notre dinner en haut.  Les garcons n'aiment pas voir en haut.  Ils sont en petite peur.  Quand nous decendons, nous sommes allees sledding.  Nous prennons un grand sac d'ordures avec nous si nous avons un urgence.  C'est un traineau parfait.  Meme le chien aime aller sledding.  Je pense que c'est grande d'aller sledding en juilliet dans des shorts et des t-shirts.  Nous sommes pres de la voiture quand Skagit decide qu'il ne peu pas bouger plus.  Il etait trop fatigue.  Il est juste 8 mois et 6 km est trops loin pour lui.  Nous avons decider que c'est promenade est parfait pour notre familee.