Zyla hikes the Sand Bench

Grandpa Tom was up for a few days after finishing his skiing trip in Salt Lake City. Jacqueline had started back to work, so it was he and I and the kids for the day. So what else would we do, but go for a hike. It was winter time or at least something that represented winter in Southern Utah. The temperatures had been unseasonably warm and we were going to take advantage of it. We wanted to pick a trail that would be quiet and not too steep or too many drop-offs. So we went with the Sand Bench Trail. This trail is about 3.5 miles with a loop of 2.5 miles.

This was slightly ambitious for Zyla, but right at her ability level. We had the entire afternoon, so why not. It started out well. Hiking with kids is a series of strategies to achieve results. The initial strategy was to have Zyla be the leader. The leader had to stay in front of everyone else. She did this well running at times. Then she would get tired and have to hold hands with Grandpa Tom or myself. Conrad on the other hand was pretty content. I almost forget he is in the backpack other than the weight with which he helps me to get in shape.

Zyla did really well and I kept thinking we were getting close to the halfway point. We ended up being pretty far away and for the last 1/4 mile, I carried her to the picnic table. Conrad got to get out for a while and run around here. We had a snack and I tried to convince Zyla to take a rest. It is hard to tell a 3 1/2 year old to save their energy. Back on the trail, we switched strategies to playing hide and go seek. This was always a successful strategy as two people moved fast and the other person caught up to them and gets scared.

Our hiding places are typically two steps off the trail. This kept us moving along nicely. Grandpa Tom got tired of hiding after about an hour and as soon as we were done hiding, Zyla wanted to be carried. I told her we had to make it to the sign which was the end of the loop. Luckily there were a bunch of stairs to the sign as we finally were going downhill after a lot more uphill then I was remembering. After the sign, I carried Zyla for a bit. It was definitely getting close to the time where I would not be able to carry both children at the same time. That is about 60 pounds of human to carry. Zyla was able to get down after a bit and the last strategy was running down the steep sandy hill. Her shoes were so full of sand even though we dumped them out multiple times on the hike. She did great hiking at least 3 of the 3.5 miles. She stayed positive the whole time and wanted to go hiking again afterward. Mission accomplished.