Bodenburg Butte Hike

 I've been doing major yard projects all week but finally took a break to hike the Butte with my friend Pam and our dogs. We almost turned around when we got to the parking lot because normally there are only one or two other cars there. But today it was so full that there were only a couple of available parking spots. I couldn't imagine hiking this trail with such a huge group of other people. I asked a young girl who had just come down and she said it was a huge school outing and the trail was full of young kids. We decided to go ahead and hike there since we were already there. The trail was in great condition with only a couple of small snow patches and occasional muddy areas. I was tired from all of my yard projects but we easily climbed the stairs to near the top. At the top we found a couple hundred kids. They were pretty noisy and not under very good adult control. They kept trying to pet our dogs and were all blowing whistles and many were flying kites. I managed to worm my way around them to get to the high point to take a couple of pictures. It was very windy and chilly, which is typical of the place. Pam reluctantly followed me through the gang of kids. We didn't linger very long. We decided to hike down the other trail with the intention of turning around at the bottom then retracing our steps and going down our original trail to our cars. But we found the trail somewhat difficult to find and had to do a bit of rock scrambling. It was also extremely dusty. We weren't sure if the school kids would still be up there so instead of climbing back to the top, we just followed the road back to our cars. The distance is about the same either way. Right around 5 miles. Generally I would prefer climbing back to the top. But, like Pam, I wasn't looking forward to sharing the trail with that mob of unruly kids. I enjoyed the route back, mostly on the bike trail. Our dogs certainly loved the whole trip. I'm going to do the same hike tomorrow with the Valley Wanderers. I hope we can hike both routes like we had planned today. It's always a beautiful view and a very nice workout.