Her First Hike

It's been a long time since we've gone on a hike. Last week I was off on Friday and the weather was beautiful. We loaded up everything we needed and headed to the mountains. It's about a forty minute drive to the state park. Well worth the gas money to hike such beautiful land.

About fifteen minutes into our drive I was running an inventory through my head. Camera, tripod, bottled water, baby, baby harness to carry her. . .

"Cari, did you get that harness off the kitchen table?"

She turned around and dug through the back seat. "I thought you got it.", she said.

There was no way we were hiking over three miles without that thing. I turned around and drove home. That part of our trip was not worth the gas money. The other frustration was that we are under time limits on our hike. We have to be back home before the school bus brings the other kids home.

An hour or so later, we were beginning our hike. This was Brenna's first hike. We took a lot of photos around the waterfall. I was taking photos of the falls while Cari took photos of my taking photos. This seems to be a new hobby of hers. Lately, there are a lot of shots like that.

Before we left, we got a shot of the three of us.

I packed up my camera gear, we took one last look at the falls, then I turned to head down the trail and bumped into an animal that had snuck up on me. His head was at my waist. My heart raced and I tasted that metal taste in my mouth. I jumped back. I knew what kind of animal it was but it was different. I had to look at it for what seemed to be a long time. I was still evaluating it in my mind. The noise of the waterfall allowed this large dog to sneak up and get to me. It's owners were coming up the trail and the dog was friendly. A big and friendly dog just scared me half to death.

About the time I caught my breath, we saw a large snake climbing a tree. He was about four feet long. He posed for a picture for us and then we ran away screaming.

We really wanted to show Brenna some nature. Just not the kind that moves and breathes. She did really well on the trip. She didn't complain about her legs getting tired or give us the "are we there yet?". I, on the other hand, was carrying her in the harness. When we got back to the car my shoulders were KILLING me. As much as I love hiking, I'm going to have to learn to pack less gear if I'm carrying a baby.