Rasmussen Adventure Co.: Bead Lake

I clocked another 10 miles with my hiking group, Inland Northwest Hikers. This time we headed up past Newport to hike beautiful Bead Lake. This was a fairly easy trail that follows the lake shore most of the way. We dipped back into the forest a few times. There was an gorgeous primitive campground about 1.5 miles in called Enchanted Campground. Put a pin in that one for the future when you need a place to take small children backpacking, perfect destination for a child. The lake was a gorgeous clear emerald green color and we did not see another hiker the whole day.

Once again, Sweet Tater was the barefoot star of the group. They all love her so much and I am grateful for such a great group of hikers that are patient and willing to stop if Tate needs to wiggle or take a quick nursing break. We hiked in about 5 miles to a nice lunch destination in a shaded grotto of cedars and then headed back, taking a quick break to let people jump in the lake if they wanted to. Of course Tate wanted to swim so we put our feet in. She is getting a little bit harder to hike with. Even though she loves being outside, she is getting to the age where she wants to run down the trail. Between being strapped in to the car seat on the way there, and then strapped into the carrier we have found that 10 miles is her happy limit. Lets face it, she is pretty heavy, so 10 miles is also mom's happy limit too.