Our Favorite Trail

We haven't been to our favorite trail since late summer last year.

Moments before we all left the house, I realized we have never been there in the winter or spring so our kids have never seen the woods with leaf-less trees.


It was very different, very open.  I can only imagine they would love this place with snow everywhere, but let's not spoil it with that thought... on to our beautiful spring outing.

Evan still likes to cruise way out of sight and way ahead of Chloe, but she (and we) try our darndest to keep up and not to think that he has gone careening over a cliff....

See, there he is... no worries.

Evan was a bit nervous when we got here.  He hasn't ridden his new bike very much yet (only a few days) and the hand brake has been an adjustment for him.  He's not entirely comfortable with it and really doesn't like to fall off his bike.

But he did fine.  Great, in fact.



Around every bend there is something new to see or do or explore.  Occasionally there is a big hole or a dip in the path or tree roots or pile of dirt.  All these obstacles just add to the intrigue.

Every hill or bump is an opportunity for wheelies and ramping. You knew that, right?

There are several ravines and trails that lead down towards the water.  One ravine has a huge and very old tree acting as a bridge.  We can only explore there when Todd is with us, so of course we made time to find it and let the kids show how brave they are with Dad right there to hold hands or rescue them from the 10 foot drop.  I decided to stand this one out watch the woodpeckers instead.

Chloe wasn't too sure at first about crossing but after a few passes back and forth it wasn't so scary.  

The cliff at the other side was steeper than where they had originally gone down, but that wasn't a problem for these climbers.  We always joke that Evan is part mountain goat.  He is so sure-footed, it's unreal.  Chloe was keeping up with her big brother better than we thought.  She has really gained confidence and strength since last year.

Back on the trails, Evan discovered a built-in bike ramp.  In his excitement he just took off downhill and popped up on the other side with huge eyes and an announcement:  "That was kind of scary."

And then four hundred times later, we moved on.

While Evan ramped, Chloe cleaned up all the broken glass on the trail.  It's ridiculous how much glass there is.  Eventually we had to put a stop to the clean-up effort before she really got hurt on something. 


We left the woods with the sun streaming through the branches and birds singing everywhere.  Magical.

(We wrapped up our time here at the little playground nearby, but I'll post pictures of that later on.)