stewart falls hike

i wouldn't say amber and i are outdoorsy people, but we do like the outdoors in small quantities. we decided that we wanted to do a nice, family friendly hike before amber got too pregnant. so we went looking online for a good little hike. one of the top recommended local hikes was the stewart falls hike, a hike we did together back in our single days. from what we remembered, it was a short and easy little hike. time has a way of blurring memories. that, or seven years, thirty extra pounds, and two and a half kids might actually have done something to hurt our physical prowess.

we saw that the hike was actually four miles, a little farther than we remembered or wanted to hike, but we decided we needed the exercise. we brought one of those little hiking backpacks, hopefully just as a last resort if one of our kids just couldn't make it any farther and needed a quick break. we quickly discovered claire liked being carried much more than she liked walking. everett was amazing. he preferred walking himself, but he kept tripping and his poor little legs got pretty beat up, so there was times i was forced to carry both little kids as we pushed along. hiking is one thing. hiking four miles is one thing. but hiking four miles while carrying seventy extra pounds on your back is one too many things. i was pooped. and my poor, seven-months along pregnant wife! we definitely got our exercise that day.

we finally made it to the waterfall and had a quick snack and jumped on a few rocks before contemplating how to call in search & rescue to take us back to our car.

the return trip wasn't too bad. we thought up some games to play to pass the time. it was a little bit more than the small quantities of the outdoors we like, but it was a good memory we could make with our children.