Embracing Weekly Hikes in January

Green Gorge on Signal Mountain

My word for the year is Embrace and I am working to embrace this period of my life, as well as the things that make me me. Right after Christmas we took our kids camping in Gatlinburg (camping equals embracing being us, Gatlinburg crowds is borderline us). Anyway, Dollywood was offering free season passes to pre-k kids for this year. I thought that might be fun. Can I just say going to Dollywood was a complete bust, as far as our family was concerned, and definitely NOT embracing who we are. We hope to go back later this year and redeem our experience, but I'm also letting myself be okay with not always loving what everyone else loves.

Middle Creek on Signal Mountain

Another thing I'm embracing this year is my love of hiking. I've been hiking for a really long time. I will turn 40 later this year and I fell in love with hiking when I was twelve. Thankfully I married a guy who loves the outdoors as much as I do. And we are working to transfer that love to our kids.

New Year's Day Hike with friends, Middle Creek on Signal Mountain

A few years ago I made it my goal to get outside with Jack EVERY SINGLE DAY. And we did. We #optedoutside365 and it was totally doable. When Jack was in kindergarten I made it my goal to hike with him every week. And we basically did. But last year, I let the pressure of making sure our homeschool was legit enough sway me to do less hiking with my boy (plus it was a hard year weather wise). But no more! I just finished reading Call of the Wild + Free and I committing to going back to doing the things that our family loves. Embracing the things that make us us.

We kicked off the year with our annual New Year's Day Hike with friends. It was a short and sweet hike next to Middle Creek, here on our mountain. It was with friends we love. And it was so good.

Then instead of doing a one-on-one hike with Jack, I waited for a time I could let Isaac tag along. We visited one of our favorite haunts: Green Gorge (which is practically in our back yard) and I knew we had to keep it up. Nature does something to us. It calms us. It brings peace. It prompts wonder and curiosity. We need a healthy dose of it at least once a week.

Green Gorge on Signal Mountain

After posting about our hike, I had two friends ask if they could tag along. Um yes! Please join us in the things we love most. It makes it even better!

Since then we have completed three hikes with a group of friends. There has been some variation in who shows up, but it has always been a great experience.

Greenway Farms in Hixson, TN

Our second weekly hike was to Greenway Farms. I wanted to keep it simple so I could gauge what the group was capable of. We did a lap through the woods. We walked past a wetland area where we saw ducks and heard bull frogs.

Then we came to a huge swampy area. Instead of turning around, the kids figured out how to navigate past it (I think everyone made it across mostly dry).

Everyone was in good spirits so I suggested we walk up and over the quarry to the bottom. I thought the kids would want to throw rocks and sticks in the water. It was a cold day but we had all warmed up for the hike. It turned out the kids were more interested in climbing the cliffs and taking an alternate (more dangerous) route back to the car. We completed almost four miles and everyone was so excited about their accomplishments.

Blood Mountain, North Georgia Mountains

The following weekend, Daniel and I snuck away for a quick trip, just the two of us, to Blue Ridge, Georgia. Choosing to do the things we know we love, including driving down a rutted out dirt road in the dark on our way to dinner. We embraced the fact that we felt better being within two hours of home for our FIRST WEEKEND away from our kids (EVER!). We rented a beautiful cabin in the mountains and ended up doing an almost 5-mile hike to the top of Blood Mountain. Temps dropped from 38 to 29 while we hiked. But it was perfect. It felt like getting back to the us, before we had kids.

Glen Falls on side of Lookout Mountain

For our third weekly hike, I had our friends meet us at the Glen Falls Trailhead on the side of Lookout Mountain.

The two-mile hike involved large boulders to climb on, a passage through a rock that led us on top of a waterfall.

It was cold and there were icicles hanging in the creek, but the kids had such a good time exploring the creek, pushing their limits, putting up with the moms telling them not to fall in the icy waters!

Snoopers Rock in Prentice Cooper on Suck Mountain

Then today we had our fourth hike of the month. Five other families braved driving down gravel roads to an out-of-the-way spot in Prentice Cooper State Forest. The hike was a quick 0.5 mile walk out to the spectacular view from Snooper's Rock. With an oxbow of the Tennessee River spread below us. This is such a gorgeous spot (a favorite of Daniel's to ride dirt bikes to, let him know if this is your jam! Jack and I have done it on dirt bikes and it's a lot of fun).

Mamas were pushed up against their comfort zones as we were on an exposed rock with big drops down into the river gorge. After some quick pictures, we headed back into the woods where the kids delighted in finding creeks to rock hop across and small waterfalls to climb up. It is the end of January, but with temps in the 50s it was a perfect day to explore like this.

We are looking forward to more hikes with various friends in the weeks and months to come. I joked with my boys that we could go somewhere new every week for the rest of the semester and never hit the same trail twice. I'm pretty sure that could be done. We will probably circle back to some favorites. I am just thankful to be back on the trail, with my boys, and I am loving that our friends are wanting to join us every week.

New Year's Eve Hike: Snooper's Rock (Outside 365 | December 2016)

We ended 2016 much like we started it: with a cold-weather hike. To celebrate the last day of the year we knew we wanted to be outside together, but we weren't sure if the weather would cooperate with us. 

With rain in the forecast, we knew we might have a small window. Add in a morning nap for Isaac and things weren't looking too promising.

Then instead of rain, we suddenly had unexpected snow. They were just little flurries and they were more like sleet, but we would take snow-like precipitation over rain any day. Rainy hikes when it is cold can be miserable, but snow/sleet has the possibility of being magical.

So our hike was a go. We got the boys dressed in warm layers and hustled them out the door with Sophie and snacks in tow as well. 

With rain still looming, we wanted something relatively short and I wanted views. So we headed to Snooper's Rock in a section of Prentice Cooper State Forest that is farther from our house. We have been to this view once before and I knew it would be easy, even if it was chilly.

And I was right. Isaac hiked the whole 0.3 miles to the bluffs before being put in the Kid Carrier and Jack had no problem navigating the trails and listening to us on the cliffs. It never did rain on us, but we could hear the sleet gently falling in the trees around us. 

With lots of layers, hats and gloves for the kids, we were in good shape for the quick out-and-back hike.

I'm so grateful that we were able to end the year spending some time together on the trail... even if it was under a mile round trip, and less than an hour outside. It still counts!

We have worked hard to be outside with our kids this year. From that first New Years Day Hike to hours and hours spent on playgrounds with friends. We have been outside rain or shine. The colder months found us inside more (the month of December fell into that category), but we still tried. And I think that is what matters.

I hope that our kids remember great adventures with us every year. From this year, I hope they can look back at this blog and see that we hiked and paddled and camped and swam and biked our hearts out. 

They will hopefully look back and see that we made friends who were willing to play with us, even if the weather wasn't perfect. And that mostly, we had lots of fun with nature as our playground.

Goodbye 2016 and our Project Outside 365. We will continue to strive to spend as many moments outside as we can.

A Look Back at Project Outside 365: 

January 2016 ⎮ February 2016 ⎮ March 2016 ⎮ April 2016 ⎮ May 2016 ⎮ June 2016 ⎮ July 2016 ⎮ August 2016 ⎮ September 2016 ⎮ October 2016 ⎮ November 2016

 

Summer Kickoff: Snooper's Rock and Our Almost Backpacking Trip

When Daniel and I were first married, one of the very first things we invested in was our backpacking gear. We spent many weekends hiking and sleeping under the stars those first years of marriage. When we moved to Charlotte, our backpacking trips became much less frequent – maybe a couple of times of year, if we were lucky. When we moved to Alabama, I think we made one backpacking trip. Then Jack came along and the whole idea of backpacking seemed like a lot of work. So we have had a 3 year hiatus. 

To kickoff summer this year, we had this wild idea that Jack was big enough for a (really short) backpacking trip. We took him car camping a year ago and he did great, so we figured it was time. 

Daniel requested two things: 1) a short hike and 2) a trail that was close to our house. He didn't want to drive a long way and have to ditch the trip because of a fussy toddler.

I did a little research and found that there was a backcountry camp site on the Cumberland Trail that could be accessed from a remote parking lot in Prentice Cooper. As an added bonus, the trail to the campsite also went to Snooper's Rock.

The plan was to do a very short section of the Mullins Cove Loop – we would take a picnic up to Snooper's Rock and then hike to the Hemlock Branch campsite to spend the night.

Not surprisingly, our plans did not mesh with our toddler. We should have known to call off our trip the minute Jack fell asleep on the couch before lunch. He didn't sleep that long and then refused to take an afternoon nap. We pushed through anyways.

We asked Jack if he wanted to go camping and he was very excited about this. We all went downstairs to pack our stuff. Jack even found a backpack he could carry. Since this was a short hike, we figured Daniel could carry most of the gear and I would carry the Deuter Kid Comfort Carrier. That way I could carry Jack if he didn't want to hike. I was also able to fill the extra compartments with a few things.

As we were getting ready to leave the house, Jack had an absolute meltdown. I convinced him to calm down or there would be no camping. He calmed down and we naively loaded our gear.

We drove to McAlisters to grab sandwiches for our picnic at Snooper's Rock before heading to our campsite. Of course on the drive to the trailhead Jack fell asleep. Not to be deterred, we drove down an ATV road to a parking lot that was practically at Snooper's Rock. Sleepy toddler equaled no pre-dinner hike for us.

Jack was not very excited to be woken up, but perked up a bit after we got out to the view and ate our sandwiches. It happened to be almost dusk, so while we ate we were all nibbled by mosquitoes. Jack was still in a bit of a mood and Daniel and I decided, maybe this wasn't the best night to backpack... so we ditched our plans, walked back to the car and drove home. 

Snooper's Rock had an amazing view and we had it all to ourselves. Not a bad way to kick off our summer, even if we didn't get to go backpacking. 

The rest of the weekend, thunderstorms kept popping up in the evening, so we still didn't get to go backpacking. Our bags are still packed and we hope to make a backpacking trip soon.