The nice part about living someplace new is that it is easy to find a new hike right in your neck of the woods. Popo was up visiting, so we decided to take him for a hike with the kids. I was still carrying Conrad, so we had to find a hike that Zyla could do. We chose to go up to HJ Andrews which was an experimental forest connected to the forest service right up the road from Blue River Reservoir. We took two cars so that we could make it a through hike as the trail paralleled the road as it followed the old growth forest along Lookout Creek. We dropped Jacqueline and the kids off first at the lower trailhead to try to get them to get as far ahead of us as they could given that the kids were going to be the slowest.
We dropped the other vehicle off and then made it back to the trailhead. Jacqueline had actually made it down to the first bridge with the kids, so we got a bit of a head start on the day. The rest of the day was following the trail that went along the creek. Most of the time it was in good shape, easy to follow, and fairly flat. Sometimes though we would get to a point where we had to cross a side creek or crawl over a log which made it more challenging with Zyla doing all the walking and me carrying Conrad on my back. Zyla was doing great and Popo was urging her along. Still we were moving slow as would be expected with small children.
Eventually it got to the point where I think Jacqueline wanted the hike to be over. Zyla was getting tired of hiking and there is only so much you can do to motivate a 4 year old to continue moving through the forest. So Popo carried her on his shoulders for a while. This is always dangerous because once it starts it is hard to take that away. He was able to do that for quite some time while also taking some breaks and having Zyla walk. The hike was over after only a couple of hours with Jacqueline a little frustrated by the length. Still, it was a worth while trip through an excellent forest right near the house.
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