I was only going to go to the trail head...

Goat Mountain

But it felt good to be hiking, and I thought; "Sure, I can do this!", so I kept going. It got even easier when, a bit past the trail head, my friend took Amelia (in her backpack) and I took the other backpack. Lance carried Amelia on the way down. This was my first real hike in over two years. I will be sore tomorrow, but it felt good today. I kept a reasonable pace-not too strenuous. the trail was very muddy in places, and very steep in places and coming down was dirty work. And Amelia did beautifully! About 4.5 hours overall in a backpack and never a complaint. she slept for a bit and for the rest of the hike she was chatting to my friend, or imitating her heavy breathing. I think she mostly chewed on her hand and her backpack on the way down (Lance just told me she was also chatty on the way down), she's still not got her right molars in, thought the left ones have been in for a long time.