Life's little lessons #5047

I recently took my 4 year old son on a hike, deliberately using his enthusiasm to get "all the way to the top of Tablerock!" as an excuse for me to get some exercise in cold crisp winter air. We left the car in the parking lot early (10:30am ;-)) on a sub-freezing morning, with a sandwich to share, a variety of snacks, a thermos full of hot chocolate in my fanny pack, and my camera equipped with the long lens (70-300mm).

As we're starting up the trail, I recall thinking to myself: "it looks kinda muddy, but we're not making any tracks in it, so let's continue up and see how it goes. " (if you've already figured out the mystery, keep it to yourself and don't spoil the ending for everyone else)


A 4 year old boy, no matter how enthusiastic about reaching the top, is not particularly focused on the climb, so we stopped at every bush, icy puddle, interesting rock, deer track, dog track, elk(!) track on the trail on the way up. We didn't set any land speed records on the ascent. In fact, by the time we got up close to the top, the sun had been shining long enough that the trail which "looked kinda muddy" was, in fact, muddy enough that you couldn't really climb it and keep your feet. He ended up developing some outdoor skills like "dad -- help me up!" to make it the last 30 feet of the climb and avoid the muddy trail.

Elk Track!

After 3 hours, 800 vertical feet and 1.6 miles from the car (thank you google maps for adding topographic information!), we sat at the cliff edge of the plateau, ate the sandwich and drank hot chocolate from mickey mouse dixie cups, while enjoying the view. *ahhhhh*

Then it came time to go back down.

Funny thing about water -- when it gets cold, it freezes to become a solid, but once heated it will melt and return to liquid form. This fact should have been "frozen" into my memory from childhood years of dealing with mud, snow and cold. What was a firm grippy surface for most of the hike up had become a sticky gooey quagmire that makes almond butter seem like a lubricant.

Those of you in winter climes understand that there is good snow for making snowmen, and there is bad snow for making snowmen. If there were such a thing as mudmen, this would have been the perfect mud to use! The last 20 yards of the trail, I had 4" tall mud-block platforms attached to the bottom of my boots, and Nicolas had 2-3" of mud on his shoes. I'm not particularly mess-averse, but we were muddy enough when we got back to the car, I stripped him down to his long johns for the ride home.

I am amazed that Nicolas made it all the way up and back, and in good spirits too! He was my "little truck" for the rest of the weekend.

rootie