A Mother's Day Hike

            I had an absolutely spectacular Mother’s Day with my son.  Earlier in the week he asked when we were going to go hiking again because he wanted to see a waterfall.  Since I love being outdoors and hiking, it seemed like the perfect way to spend Mother’s Day afternoon.  So while my son and I were at church in the morning, my spouse did a google search to see what waterfalls might be in our area.  Because we would be getting a later than usual start – due to church – we didn’t want to have to too drive far.  We also couldn’t go on a long hike.  Now that my son is too big for the carrier – in some ways life was easier when I could carry him everywhere – we have to take his short legs and his need to explore every rock and flower into consideration.  If we plan for something longer than two miles, odds are he won’t be smiling by the time we finish, and I want more than anything for hiking to remain a positive experience for him.  Anyway, my spouse settled on Schooley’s Mountain Park since it had a two mile hike that passes a small waterfall.  It seemed ideal for our son.

            He was so excited about going hiking that as soon as we walked in the door from church he grabbed his backpack and started packing all the necessities – camera, binoculars, water and a map.  He then asked me to cut some watermelon since he hadn’t had it in a “really, really, long time.”  Since he is so picky about his food, I’m always happy to give him what he wants when it is actually something healthy and nutritious. 

            This season, my allergies are terrible and yesterday they were the worst they have ever been.  Having not slept the night before, I fell asleep into a relatively deep sleep once the car started to move.  When my spouse pulled into the parking lot, my son spotted a playground in the distance and right away started clamoring to go play.  My spouse explained that we were there to hike and not to play on the playground.  My son accepted this relatively well, so you can imagine how dismayed my spouse was when I woke up, opened my eyes and exclaimed, “Oh look, a playground.  After our hike, I’ll have to stop at the playground to take some pictures.”  (For those of you that don’t know, my latest photography project is a playground series.)  My son, however, was thrilled.  

            Anyway, once we were out of the car, my son charged ahead declaring, as always, that he was going to be the leader.  He is actually very good at this when we go hiking and he has become rather skilled at reading and following the blazes.  In leading, he insists that we step exactly where he steps but he is getting better at accepting the fact that I on occasion will fall out of line to take a picture of something that has caught my attention.  He was really cute when he saw me with my body pressed to the ground taking a picture of a flower.  He decided he had to take a picture too.  Tossing his backpack to the ground, he pulled out his camera and crouched down in virtually the same spot I had been.  After taking the picture he declared, “I’m a photographer too. Right Mama?  Just like you.”  

            His favorite activity while hiking is climbing rocks and the higher the climb, the more he enjoys it.  Every time he climbed a rock he needed his binoculars so that he could check everything out and see if there was anything spectacular to see in the distance.  He was just a little disappointed that he didn’t come across anything extremely amazing.  When we reached a bench he declared that it was time to eat, “I’m hungry and this looks like a good place to eat.”  And hungry he was since he ate his entire sandwich in less time than it took me to eat half of mine.  Then, because he can be very quirky, he refused to eat any of the watermelon until we reached the next bench which was only about a hundred meters further along the trail.  “Thank you, Mama, for the watermelon,” he said with juice dripping down his fingers.  “I really like it.” 

            After eating, we continued our hike to the waterfall, and when we reached it my son, as expected, wanted to get his feet wet.  It was a hot afternoon so we climbed over the rocks to get to the water and let him take his shoes and socks off.  The water was cold but not freezing and he enjoyed wiggling his toes in the river.  Not long after our break by the falls, my son started to get tired.  We had hiked close to a mile and a half and I could see that his feet were starting to drag.  At one point he stood in front of me, held out his arms and commanded, “Carry me.”  But he is getting too big to carry for long so I resorted to bribery which usually works well if it involves food.  I took out the fruit snacks – we usually use M&Ms but I had forgotten to pack them – and told him that I would give him one fruit snack every time counts two blazes but that if I had to carry him he wouldn’t get any.  He begrudgingly continued to walk and started to count.  We were close enough to the car that one small bag lasted to the parking lot and my son completed the hike – nearly two miles – all on his own.  

            The day was perfect.  I could not have asked for a more pleasant and enjoyable way to spend Mother’s Day.