another day another hike

Communing with nature.... Being out in the woods. Walking through countless spiderwebs with mosquitos buzzing in my ear.... Not my favorite things. No, most certainly not. But you know what are some of my favorite things? My children. And they need to learn to suck it up and stop being pansies about The Great Outdoors. After our first foray into hiking we learned a few things about our children. They don't like mud. They don't like getting dirty (bless) and they don't get nearly enough exposure to it all.

Enter hike two. One I found on some trail database site based off a search that included: easy, for children, a few hours, good to great scenery, within 75 miles of our location. A handful of hikes came back on the search, one being twenty minutes away. Naturally, this was tried first.

The trail was warned as buggy and muddy. And uhm yes to the buggy. We weren't sure where to park but the trail was supposed to be a loop? No. It wasn't. Matt ended up hoofing it back to the van with David on his shoulders while Letty and Dom and I hung out by a guardrail (which if you are of the Snapchat variety you may have seen? Username: lolsen883, shameless plug.)

The trail was supposed to be two miles and while that sounds about right it was probably slightly too much for the kids. Oh and did I mention that the brochure from Middle Creek said Elder Run (the trail we went on) was "lengthy and rigorous"? We did find the ruins which were pretty cool as far as ruins go. Letty seems to be a natural other than the poison ivy she ran through... and probably her choice of glittery pink footwear? David gave up on saying ew by the time we reached the halfway point so I figure that in and of itself is a victory. Every bridge we crossed he would yell: shakey shakey bridge like his very favorite YouTuber which was a welcome respite from him singing Blaze and the Monster Machines song. Dom said not a word, and I even nursed him in the wrap whilst hiking so I mean. Where is my super suit!?