Today’s plan: hiking in the White Mountains. Showers were expected, but my daughter Aya had a genius idea: let’s hike on Friday instead of Saturday! I cleared my schedule instantly, thrilled to take her on her first epic adventure: the Mount Lafayette and Franconia Ridge trail loop. It’s an 8-mile hike with a massive 4000 ft elevation gain!

We set our alarms for 5:00 AM, filled with anticipation. Uh-oh! The weather report called for rain coming in earlier. After a brief 30-minute debate, we took a leap of faith and headed to the mountains anyway. By 8:00 AM, we hit the trail. Cloudy and humid, but luckily, no rain.

The uphill climb tested our endurance, but it was absolutely exhilarating! Upon reaching the summit of Mt. Lafayette, we savored a well-deserved lunch break before starting our descent. However, after about 30 minutes of downhill trekking, something felt amiss. Consulting the map, we discovered that we had accidentally strayed onto a different trail, leading us away from the parking lot! Our only choice was to trudge back uphill and then descend the 4000 feet.

A long day of seven hours of hiking finally brought us to the parking lot, utterly drained. I had forgotten how punishing it is on the knees and body to descend. But guess what? Aya, on her inaugural real hike, handled it like a seasoned pro. No complaints, just an overflow of positive energy.