First Hike of the New Year: Old Stone Fort

The first day of 2017 dawned cold and rainy. Not exactly a great day to be outdoors.

According to the forecast, January 2nd had the potential for sunshine (or at least no rain) and warmer temps, but we already had lunch plans with some of Daniel's family at his Grandmother's house in Manchester, TN.

On a whim, I googled "Manchester Trails" to see if there was anywhere we might be able to take the boys... I probably should have just asked Daniel!

Anyway, I discovered that Old Stone Fort State Archaeological Park, also known as Old Stone Fort, had a dam, and a 3-mile loop that included waterfalls.

So I mentioned to Daniel that I thought we should consider leaving our house early enough in the morning to go roam around this park before lunch with family.

He asked what I had in mind, and then surprised me by saying that he grew up camping at Old Stone Fort! I don't know why we have never visited there.

We arrived in Manchester in time to spend about an hour in the park. With two little kids, this time frame was perfect – they could run around and burn off some energy and not get too exhausted prior to our family visit.

Before heading down the trail, we checked out the exterior of the fort (it is now a museum that was closed for the holiday). It was built by Native Americans between 1,500 and 2,000 years ago and you can read about it on the park's website if you are interested in that sort of thing.

From the roof of the fort, we were able to see the dam and take a quick family photo before heading down the trail. Daniel hung back with Isaac while Jack and I went ahead exploring the trail.

There were many side trails that periodically broke off from the main trail and meandered down to the river with views of the waterfalls that naturally occurred below the dam.

Isaac is insisting on walking more on his own these days. Which is great, but can also make our hikes incredibly slow. Thankfully Jack likes to explore and doesn't mind the slowness.

Toward the end, I put Isaac in our kid carrier (he just wanted to be held and he is heavy!). He was not happy about being strapped down. Sorry kid – it won't be long until you can handle longer walks on your own!

We probably went about half a mile before calling it a morning. After we were back in the car (with snacks to bribe the boys), we drove around the campground and Jack informed us that camper camping would be a lot of fun.

Little does know, we are kicking around the idea of at least renting a camper to see what we think about it. Time will tell what we decide.

It was a lovely way to spend our morning and our first hike of the new year. You can't beat a good waterfall and with the recent rain, the water is definitely flowing.

I have a feeling that our next outdoor excursion might involve snow, if we're lucky!

First Hike of the New Year: Sunset Rock

We spent a quiet New Year's Eve as a family this year. We ate at our favorite pizza place on the mountain and then went home and built a fire and let the boys watch a Netflix countdown (which Jack didn't really understand at all) before putting the boys to bed. 

Daniel and I stayed up watching Blacklist and drinking hot chocolate before watching the ball drop on television. We could hear the city of Chattanooga shooting off fireworks in the distance.

On the first day of the year, I was determined that we would do something outside as a family. It was a bit cold, but I really wanted to get outside to do a first hike of the new year (we have done this a few times since getting married and I hope it becomes a yearly tradition). 

When we discussed our plans, Jack whined and said he wanted to go on a bike ride instead. Since we did a bike ride on Christmas Eve, we stuck with the hiking plan.

With young kids we are at a stage where we have to balance our desires with their abilities. Also we don't want something like weather or poor planning to turn them off of the outdoors.

With that in mind, we decided to head over to Lookout Mountain to hike to Sunset Rock. We were hoping to do the full mile from Point Park to Sunset Rock, but since Point Park is a National Park, it was closed for the New Year.

Instead we drove down to the Sunset Rock trailhead and hiked a quarter mile. So it wasn't big mileage, but it did deliver great views. Daniel was even able to point out the mountain we live on to Jack. 

And in all honesty, with the temps in the upper 30s/lower 40s it was the right thing for our boys. Even bundled the boys had frosty cheeks when we finished.

Even though he started out the day complaining about hiking, Jack had a great time exploring the trail, even wanting to get much closer to the edge than we felt comfortable with once we were out at the view (don't worry, we held on to him!).

It's been awhile since Daniel and I have done any climbing or rapelling, and standing on that high cliff made me a bit dizzy. There is a part of me that wonders if I could really lean back over the edge of a cliff and rapell again...

I guess having kids makes you feel a bit differently about risk taking.

Our thirty minutes on the trail was just right for our little family on this cold first day of the new year. 

When we finished we made a pit stop at Starbucks at Rock City to get coffee and hot chocolate to warm ourselves up a bit.

We are looking forward to many more hikes and adventures outside in the days to come!