A Walk in the Woods

On Sunday, we decided to go for a little hike with the kids. Before we had kids, Jamey and I would go on hikes often. As I remember, I was always trying to keep up. Jamey loves trail running (I'll talk more about that another time), so it seemed only right to get the whole family out on the trail. For a very, very short spurt we were all running at the same time- Jamey thought this was great. I kept imagining someone diving headfirst into a rock.

We started out by heading to an easy little trail that we thought the kids would enjoy, but it was closed. You don't usually think of trails being closed, but this one was. Jamey wanted to hop the closed sign, but I'm too much of a stickler for rules and the law. So, we drove on up the dirt road to another trail Jamey thought would also be easy. Once there, we headed out on the trail- Sadie rode in the backpack and Sam walked.




We got to the look out after just a short while and decided to continue on the trail. This trail is part of a longer course that Jamey has run in the past. Up ahead was a pretty steep descent, which of course, we all had to hike back up if we went down. Down, down, down we went. We couldn't believe how much of a trooper Sam was- slipping and skidding his way down the mountain. All I could think about was that Sam was going to have to hike back UP this mountain. We made it almost to the bottom and decided to turn back. I was expecting tears and had visions of me carrying either a 40 or 25 lb. lug-of-a-child back up this steep mountain. Well...

Sam tore it up. He needed lots of short breaks, but lead the way most of the time, barely breaking a sweat. Jamey estimates (and he knows these kinds of things) that we climbed about 700 feet of elevation (one way, 1400 feet total up and down) over the 2 miles.

Once back on top of the ridge, Sadie was able to walk and off they went, often getting side-tracked by acorns, moss and wildflowers. Sam had fun looking for trees that may be big enough for Sam Gribley to live in (We finished the book, by the way. I bawled my eyes out. I was crying so hard, Jamey had to pick up reading the last few pages. It's not that sad, really. I'm just a sap.) They each suffered a couple spills. Sam shed a little blood, but all in all it was a really fun hike.




My poor daughter. I forgot to bring a barrette for her hair, so the whole time she was walking, she had to hold her hair out of her face. We think this threw off her balance a couple times. My advice? If you have kids, take them on a hike. They might surprise you. Oh, and take a barrette. Pin It