We started off the day like any other Saturday - being lazy & sleeping in, all of us but Mikeal anyways, he was up early to get in some video game time since he was no longer grounded...
Then as afternoon rolled around I crawled out of bed and went straight to work on my Math Final - yay nearly done with this semester!! Just have an English final left and two other small assignments.
Brian crawled out of bed and enlisted Mikeal to assist him with getting some things picked up and the dishes done.
Then we decided we'd go out to the local state park to grill dinner and take a small hike - AWESOMENESS!
We grilled some burgers and hotdogs, ate until we were satisfied, cleaned up our mess and decided to hike a trail we've not been down yet.
You know, one of those trails your husband (Brian in this case) says is only a .5 mile trail (because the sign says .5 miles TO the trail)...so you think, ok, no problem, whatever, chances are great he'll get frustrated or tired of it before you do, so you're game. You, having prior hiking knowledge, are sure that the sign doesn't quite read the way he reads it to read, but you're enjoying the day with him and the kids, so why make a fuss?
You start off on the trail, it's roughly 4:30pm, and you head out...
You see some pretty cool things, like this stump, it's nice and peaceful, outside of the chatter of the kids...
A bit later you realize you have just walked a whole mile, in a circle, first UP the hill, then aroudn the hilltop, back DOWN the hill and are now back at the car...
OK...it is determined that apparently the first trail was not the right trail, so you head back to the trail head, to take the second option...
There's still plenty of daylight out, and this trail you're looking to go down is just a .5 mile trail...right?
The scenery is again beautiful, despite Spring just being around the corner...
...and there are squirrels EVERYWHERE!!!
And then we came to the end of that trail...a little over a mile later. It dead ended into the creek (well, there was a crossing bridge, but it was washed up on the shore on the other side from the floods last year) so we headed back to the fork of the trails...a mile worth of backtracking...
So backtracked to the fork in the trails and took option 3. I made them pose for a picture next to a tree, aren't they adorable!
Mikaila stopped being quite so keen on walking, so Brian ended up carrying her for a bit...
As the sun dips over the horizon, SURELY this is the right trail...only .5 miles to go to our destination, right?
And we come to another impasse, again our trail bridge was washed out, so we went through the campgrounds and stopped for a potty break since those were the ONLY bathrooms open at the park and I HAD TO GO! On our way back through the camp ground, to hike back through the woods in defeat we came across this lovely version of a bridge through the creek.
Can you see at the end of the rock bridge that small skinny log we have to walk across? Yea, me and my giraffe legs don't do such things stably...I made it though and we continued on to the trail...and YAY! We're now on the actual trail that we wanted to be on 1.5 hrs & 5 miles ago!!! So, theory is we only have .5 miles to go until we're at the site we want to see in the woods (the Ore Pit). And now that we know where we're at & where we're going, no big deal to get back to the car before dark, right?
Roughly another 2 miles later we happen upon what we assume to be what we're taking this trail to see...a giant hole in the ground, filled with muddy water...oh joy!
Now at this point our choice is to either continue on the only marked trail that we can clearly make out at this time or head back the way we came...we continue to press on, surely it's not far to the part of the trail that we know loops back around the hillside to the campgrounds, where we entered this trail, which happens to be .5 miles from where we parked the car, via the road...and there's still enough light to make that trip, right?
Another 2 miles down the trail and it's obvious that the trail we're on is not taking us back to where we had originally believed we'd be heading...and someone is getting just a wee bit worn out.
We continue to press on...and then we see it! Evidence of civilization!!! It is now mostly dark, roughly 7:30pm, the last rays of the sun have dipped over the horizon and the Super Moon is rising...We are at the back side of the park, the car is at the park entrance...we have about 2 miles of walking uphill to get to the campground and then another .5 miles of walking downhill from there to get to the car.
We finally made it back to the car and I snapped some awesome pictures of the Super Moon on our way home. It was a wonderful afternoon and evening out with the kids and Brian! Hoping we can make this a regular occurrence, even if we do get lost again. ☺♥
You'd think after a roughly 13 mile hike through the hills and woods that at least one of the kids would be asleep now, at 10:30pm....Oh, did I happen to mention the fact that I was wearing my new Sketchers Shape-Up shoes...that is NOT recommended, ever, for hiking.
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