Crystal Lake

The trail starts flat, then goes downhill, and does so fairly steadily. Cooper is asleep in the backpack but wakes when I stumble over a root, so we get him out and he tromps happily down the trail. To break things up, I run ahead and hide, then jump out as he approaches roaring like a bear. This scares him exactly one time, then it’s loads of fun. At the bottom of the canyon we wade through some mud and standing water, then get to the lake shore. It’s a dark day, damp but not wet, and winter is coming on quickly. After a short snack and skipping some rocks in the lake, we are back at it, huffing