We are entering a new era with our oldest.  The era that he may not be around for family adventures too much, he's going to be having adventures of his own.  At 15 years old and involved in activities he skipped our family hike.  Gasp.  At first I was unhappy.  I mean school tennis on a Saturday and then again on Labor Day Monday.  However I realized that I can't expect him to always be part of our immediate family.  There will come a time that he strikes out on his own and he has to make decisions as to what he wants to devote his time to. Right now it is tennis and that's ok.  So I happily packed the lunches while John took Isaac and a bike to Tennis.  We packed the backpack, a fanny pack for me and my camera.  I left a list of chores needed to be done after tennis and we got out of Dodge.  We took a right onto Glacier Creek road which is right after the "resort" town of Glacier.  That's what the book called it.  I almost snorted coffee through my nose.  "resort" town.  How funny.  We then took an immediate left to Skyline Divide and drove through pot hole after pot hole climbing the mountain in our trusty little red truck.  There was an outhouse at the trail head and we picked up a blue bag just in case for the trail. Pack it in, pack it out. We placed our Northwest Forest Service pass in the window, we made sure to bring the correct year. Then we hit the trail which was a fairly steep hike, climbing about 2000 feet in 2 miles but oh so worth it.  Once we popped out on the ridge, the views were amazing!  We could see all the way into Bellingham when looking west.  It felt like the top of the world.  Note, we did cross into wilderness area and knowing that we left our pooch at home.  However there were many dogs on the trail.  It was a very popular trail and we met groups of people after groups.  I wonder if it would be less crowded after school starts or on a week day.  There are many little side trails but to the ridge it is a 4 mile round trip with the option to make it an over nighter or a very long 11 1/2 mile day hike.  This was on my summer bucket list to do and I am so glad we made it.  However now I want to get up there before the sunrise.  I can just picture it.  Also, we were at the tail end of the wildflower season and just at the start of the wild blueberry season.  Still so very lovely except for the flies, oh the flies were bad.  But that is just part of the beautiful out doors.