TLDR – We hiked up Great Sugar Loaf south of Dublin
The hiking
Took the kids for a hike Thursday morning to our local Irish mountain, Great Sugar Loaf. At 501 meters, it’s more of a hill in my mind. By local Irish standards, it stands out as a mountain peak. The Arched car park entrance is about a 25-minute drive from the house down the M1 and some narrow Irish roads. – Directions provided by Apple Maps; simply asked for the Sugar Loaf car park.
Chief and the kids jumped from the car, looked up at the peak, and off we went. The start of the hike is a wide grassy path between some sheep pastures. Maddex was hiking his own hike most of the way ahead of everyone else at his own pace.
After the grass path was a dirty, gravely, dusty, rocky path – Nervous someone would slide in the loose rock here we stayed close together. Chief didn’t mind at all; new smells and new places to leave pee-mail.
The gravel and dust eventually gave way to a rock scramble to the top. Part of the rock scramble was taped off by some volunteers creating stone steps using local stones from the mountain; Impressive work. Roxi and Mom were not up for the rock climb and went to a smaller peak further down the path. Khaleesi, Mila, Maddex, Chief, and I climbed to the top. A few of the rock climbs were taller than Chief could climb. He would turn back and find another path around them. Mila was super nervous for him – I let him work out his own path.
From the top is another epic Irish view of the green—epic even with the overcast clouds. Maddex found a rock on the edge to sit on while the girls walked to all sides of the peak. All of the kids expressed, “We miss hiking. We should do this more often.” Michelle and I found much joy in this statement. We Hiked all the time back in the States. It’s time to bring back more hiking.
There were no falls or slips on the way back down. We met back up with Mom and Roxi and sat for a bit to drink and eat apples and chip bags before walking the rest of the way back to the car. At the grass path near the start, Chief was running off into some brush, and all of a sudden, a sheep popped up in front of him. They looked at each other for a bit. I whistled and clapped a few times, and Chief came back to us. No Chief herding or chasing of the sheep. The round trip was maybe 90 minutes.
Bunch of Pictures
