A family hike in the rain

As part of my training for Mount Rainier and my effort to get my kids in the outdoors, the four of us went for a hike on Rattlesnake Ledge on Saturday. Though the weather called for rain, I thought it would be acceptable with tree cover.

At the the parking lot, the boys were already having plenty of fun:

They both did a pretty good job, stopping occasionally to play in various forts, climb rocks, and frequently ask if I could make the ramen we bought at QFC (which I'd planned on being lunch when we hit the summit). I carried Reed up for a significant chunk of the ascent.

The first part of the hike was quite nice weather -- dry and calm.

But before long, the wind picked up, the rain started and became pretty consistent, and it got chilly. Reed -- ever the contrarian --  refused to wear his rain jacket, and with us very nearly to the top, Andrea and he turned around and started down the mountain. It was the two of them only because Jacob insisted on making it to the top, which we did not five minutes from when Team Shirey split up.

It was cold, windy and very limited visibility at the top: perfect for me.

But Jacob got chilly in a hurry, as evidenced by the first picture from our descent (not 100 yards from the summit): 

 Soon he was suffering from the weather, so I spent a fair portion of the descent carrying him down.

A few minutes before we reached the trailhead, we caught up with Andrea and Reed, and the four of us exited together, stopping for a brief photo-op at the sign: