Take a Hike

Sometimes it's a good idea to just take a hike.

In an effort to get us out of the house doing fun things, The Wife planned for us to take a hike this week. (If not for her planning, we would probably revert to our natural state of sitting around asking, "What do you wanna do?" "I dunno, what do you wanna do?" "Umm..., I dunno. You wanna do something?")

My main concern with the hike was that for the past several months I have been fighting a battle with gout which has resulted in me finding new and exciting ways to limp. (The gout has, at various times, caused pain to my toes, feet, ankles and knee.) So, as much as I like hiking, and I really do like hiking, I was worried that the limping would get in the way of the hiking.

Thankfully, the day of the hike my feet felt fine, and I was actually able to walk without a limp!

The hike The Wife chose was a fairly short (1.8 mile round trip), family-friendly hike just out of Pleasant Grove, Utah to the Battle Creek Waterfall. (She knows that I really like waterfalls.)

We got to the parking lot at the trailhead and got our packs ready. There were a lot of other cars in the parking lot. It's a popular family hike because of the ease of the trail and the beauty of the waterfall at the end. We saw a lot of families on the trail, and a couple of cub scout groups, too.

Our group consisted of seven people, me, The Wife, The Girl (age 7), The Boy (age 5), The Baby (age 7 months), and The Wife's parents, Grammy and PopPop (ages older than me, but young enough to still be up for an adventure.)

As the Daddy, it was my job to carry The Baby. (The thinking is since The Wife carried her around for nine months, I ought to be able to carry her for 1.8 miles.) We have a special kid-packing backpack (a gift from PopPop years ago), so we loaded The Baby in the backpack, and the backpack on my back.

There's a baby on my back! 

I'm not sure how it is in other places, but in Utah when you meet or pass other people on the trail, there is often an exchange of hellos. Since I had The Baby on my back, whenever I passed someone else carrying a baby, I would give them a special nod. I would point to my baby and say, "Next time, she's going to be carrying me." It would usually get a mild chuckle. (Mild chuckles are one of my specialties.)

Some people had dogs with them on the trail.  And if there are dogs on the trail, that means there is dog poop on the trail. The kids (ours and everyone else's) were absolutely fascinated with the dog poop on the trail. Groups of boys would gather around it, pointing and laughing. I'm not sure why kids think poop is so funny, I just know that I wrote a blog about it once (see: I'm NOT Obsessed With Poop) and ever since then whenever The Baby has a poopy diaper The Wife says, "Daddy would love to change that. He likes poop. He thinks poop is funny. He wrote a blog about it once."

We made it to the waterfall, took some pictures and rested for a minute.

Another "thumb's up." Apparently if you put a baby on my back I think I'm Fonzie.

PopPop handed out beef jerky and licorice, much to the delight of the kids (and me.) And then we went back down the trail to the trailhead, where we had a picnic lunch at the park.

The whole adventure lasted just a couple of hours, but it was quite worthwhile. We got out of the house. The kids got to enjoy nature. They got to see a nice waterfall. And, they got to look at some dog poop.

So, if you find yourself sitting around the house saying, "What do you wanna do?" "I dunno, what do you wanna do?" I have some advice for you: go take a hike!

So, go take a hike!