more weekend adventures

the kids and i stopped at maverick on the way to kelly canyon for our hiking adventure. i had to entice them with snacks to get them to go with me and i asked olivia to load my pack while i drove. my sweet olivia is twelve now and only listens to about 1/3 of the things i say to her and instead of stashing the extra gatorade's in the back of my car for future use, she shoved them in my pack.

we parked the car, put on our packs, and started hiking up the road to the trail head. the route i had chosen for this short, kid friendly hike began with 20 feet of muddy incline steep enough to require one to dig their feet into the mush and grab hold of the brush in order to make progress up the slope. it quickly became obvious we weren't the only species making our way onto the trail as we noticed deer, dog, and even eery  bear prints scratched into the earth. i had been talking to the kids about paying attention to nature and the amazing world that surrounds us and this discovery made us even more aware. i wasn't too worried though as i guessed that those tracks had been made when the ground was much wetter from rain than it was presently, giving those animals at least a day or two head start.

olivia and lincoln began teasing ty about the possibility of his falling into some poison ivy and that he better learn how to identify it. ty is the youngest child, accustomed to being spoiled, and tends to be quickly reactive and, of course, this set him off and he started whining. walking directly behind ty and his newly acquired "walking stick", olivia realized she was in danger of being hit in the face while ty swung this stick at passing trees and she began yelling at him to walk faster. i told her to go in front of him, which is when the whining about "budging in line" started. at this point, lincoln, in all seriousness asked, "are we done yet?" i looked at my watch and reported that we had been hiking for precisely 6 minutes and 20 seconds.

we continued our hike, following the trail which at times declined for a while before heading upward again.  we were still in the trees and it was difficult for the kids to visualize the top of the mountain. having hiked this trail before, i knew what to expect and could encourage them on with a explanation of what kind of landmarks to look for and could provide an estimated time frame which helped them be more patient with our progress.

soon, we got to a clearing and the trail became more obvious to them. the markers were no longer attached to trees but to the tops of tall metal spikes that pierced the ground and showed the way. we agreed that we would hike two more markers and then sit for lunch and rest. once there, i pointed out that since we had hiked high enough to see over the trees that once impeded our visibility, we could now see the valley floor both eastward and westward and the view was spectacular. and for a few moments the kids could appreciate this new perspective, given to them only after effort and sweat had been shed.

we sat, we watched, we ate, and we talked. we pointed out the landmarks that we could see differently now from above, like the giant hole in the ground caused by a mudslide, the roads, and the rocks that have become familiar to us over the last year of exploring new hobbies. and while the kids watched the earth, i watched the kids...and gained a new perspective of them...beyond their whining and their complaining. i could see that they got it, if only a portion of it but they got it, nonetheless.

i noticed at this point that my pack was loaded with a lot of extra weight; way more gatorade than we could possibly consume on this short hike and while i was strong enough to carry it without problem, it was still more than i needed to haul. i had no choice, on top of the mountain, but to stick it back in my pack and carry it back down to the vehicle. after we resumed walking, a herd of cows forced us to circle around the known trail and through the brush side-hilling towards a low spot in the landscape and a dry stream bed that i believed would eventually lead us back to the trail or at least down to the canyon floor and our ride home.

and it did. 

when we reached the road, we crossed over and soaked our feet in the cool stream of mountain run-off and expressed our excitement of all we had seen and experienced. the kids talked about all the tangible things they had seen; the trees, the tracks, the flowers, the other peaks, and the clouds.

but i hope that someday they would see more.

i hope they will see that sometimes we have to push further to get through the trees and into the clearing. i hope they will see that following other footprints is often a good idea but that sometimes we have to be brave enough to forge our own path. i hope they will see that sometimes we carry unnecessary weight and we should re-evaluate, often,  what we keep in our packs and that sometimes our complaining prohibits us from fully accepting our outward surroundings and that sometimes we have to dig our feet in and pull ourselves up out of the mush.

and i hope they will see that the view and the rewards and the snacks are much sweeter when earned and when shared with people we love.