Now You Hike

We had to test our ability.  All of us.  Would we pass?  Were we ready to hike into the wilderness with SIX children and survive?  Would the youngest kids be able to keep up and complete the hike?

These questions were put to the test on a recent Sunday as we took on the Yellow Branch Trail.

We put together a picnic lunch and then loaded it into a backpack for the trail.  This is the pack we would let the youngest kid wear.

It feels like it has been too long since we've been on the trail and we had perfect weather.   Once we got started there was almost no whining from any of the children.  Well, except for the times that the kids turned back and looked at the adults.  "What is taking you guys so long?"

After a few breaks to climb on some downed trees we arrived at the waterfall.

I did a headcount during lunch.   So far, everyone was still with us!   We stuck around for about an hour before heading uphill on the trail out.

All of the children continued to keep a blazing fast pace on the trail and forced the adults to keep up.   It was great not having kids telling me how tired they were and how they couldn't continue but now they were pushing each other so fast that I was wishing one would get a little tired.

Back at the cars with a full headcount we sat down with some pride that we survived.  We've answered the questions and the answers were all YES.

Now that we know we can hike we'll start planning the next one.