Back at our weekly hikes with friends.
This is our 19th friend hike for the year, but 30th hike for me and my
boys! I let Isaac pick the hike since it’s his birthday week and he
chose Mushroom Rock. It’s a nice low-key hike for our first week back
home. It was a little cool today but actually turned out to be a perfect
afternoon foe hiking. We ended the hike with donuts to celebrate Isaac.
This was our 34th hike for 2021 (34/52). We walked a total of 3,5 miles. This brings us to 103.5miles hiked this year.
I am so thankful to live in an area with so many great places to hike and so many friends who are willing to hit the trails with us.
Today we met up with some of our friends who go to public school who have been on a mandatory virtual school week the last couple of weeks.
These kids are so familiar with our mountain trails that we let them all run ahead and met them at Mushroom Rock where the moms got in a good visit and the kids made up some kind of fortress game on the rocks.
This was our fourth hike of the week (normal for us is one weekly hike), but it has been such a blessing to get these extra hikes in.
We are at 10/52 hikes for the year, my phone says we did 3 miles (that’s 28 miles YTD).
Mushroom Rock continues to be one of our favorite spots to hike to.
It has been a great trail to keep in our rotation of weekly nature hikes
for our homeschool.
One of the things I love about homeschool is the flexibility of adapting your lessons to what you are doing and also to your child.
On this particular nature day we were supposed to be looking for birds and their nests, but the weather wasn't cooperating.
But were still enjoying our hike. Jack running ahead of me and I
breathing in the fresh air. It was cold, but a beautiful day
nonetheless.
As we neared Mushroom Rock, we passed a large puddle of water. Jack
stopped to observe what was in the water while I walked on by.
"Hey Mommy, it looks like there are brains in the puddle!"
That brought my walk to a halt. I returned to see what he was talking about, and it really did appear to be brains in the water.
He wanted to poke it with a stick, but I wasn't sure what that would
lead to. Instead I joked that we could call this a "Puddle of Brains."
We walked on the Mushroom Rock and I had a moment of inspiration...
on the walk back we would pick out the best landmarks and give them
names. Later we could make a map with all of the names we had created.
Jack loved this idea and we stopped at our favorite spots to think of good names.
At first Jack struggled a bit. He is so literal that his idea of naming was more like a long, specific description like "The Mountain Where Mommy Fell." But I coaxed him to try to be a little more creative, so this turned into "The Falling Mountain of Doom."
So as we walked we talked about what made a good name and how he could move for descriptions to something a bit more creative (that still was descriptive).
By the end of the hike, he had come up with some great names.
The goal was to take the names and draw a map of the hike. It turned out to be a really fun exercise and I love seeing his creative wheels start to turn!
Notes from the hike:
Location: Mushroom Rock in Prentice Cooper Signal Mountain, TN
Date: March 6, 2018
Time: 9:30-11:30
Weather: Sunny but cold, 40F
Observations: Made up creative names for landmarks on the trail including:
Falling Mountain of Doom, The Continuous Creek and the River Island in the Emerald Forest, The Bridge to Endless Creek, The Creek of No Crossing, The Land of Puddles, The Bridge to the Land of Puddles, Troll Hair Stump, and Brain Stew Puddle
We didn't have pen and paper while we hiked, so as we came up with names
for various landmarks, I took video of Jack telling me the names so we
would remember them later when he created his map.
This was such a fun exercise and it was a great way to get Jack
thinking creatively, and it paired really well with a book we have been
reading called, "The Once Upon a Time Map Book."
Check back on Tuesdays to see where our nature studies have taken us... Previous Nature Hikes with Jack:
On this hike we ran into Isaac's preschool teacher.
After our hike, we ran into her again when we went to get pizza at our local pizza parlor. We love living in a small town where this type of thing happens!
Today we decided to take Jack's hammock along with us. There is a really tranquil creek crossing that I wanted to hang out by.
This is one of my favorite spots on the mountain and I enjoyed some quiet in the hammock while my boys explored the creek.
After our time at the creek, we pressed on to Mushroom Rock.
Along the way, there are several downed logs to practice walking across. Jack has really developed his balancing skills on these logs, and Isaac is working on improving his skill as well.
Arriving at Mushroom Rock means a snack break, and Jack and Daniel did a little free climbing. Jack gets a little higher with each visit (but not too high).
Isaac accomplished a first today, he walked all the way to Mushroom Rock without being carried, and part of the way back! He probably covered close to two miles and we are so proud of him!
On the way back to the car, we sometimes make a deal with
Jack that whoever gets back to the car first gets to pick where we eat.
This often turns into a foot race back to the car between Jack and whichever parent is not walking with Isaac. Today that meant we all jogged up the hill together (Daniel did it with Isaac on his back, listening to Slow Ride)... then Jack and I ran the last mile back to the car.
Jack won.
So we went for pizza afterward.
Time in the woods as a family ranks high on my list of things that make me happy and I'm so thankful that we make the time to do this.
