Written by: Caroline Ludwig
At the beginning of 2022, I set a goal of walking at least 12 hikes. I since we are halfway through the year, it is time for me to check in.
Before we had kids, we hiked a lot. We hiked so often that it wouldn’t be unusual if we hiked on Saturday and Sunday of the same weekend. Even the dogs noticed. They would throw hissy fits on days that we were home from work but didn’t go hiking. Now, I’m not going to pretend that we were super fit (we weren’t) or we did these extreme hikes up mountains (nope). But we did enjoy our time in nature with our dogs and our friends.
Now that our two kids are walking, the goal is to get back into nature and start hiking again. We obviously can’t do hikes that are too long, steep, or extreme in any way, but at least it would make us active. Fortunately, our kids seem to like walking in nature plus Elliot makes for some good resistance workouts when I wear or push him in a stroller.
So this is where I currently stand, as of July 11, 2022.
1. A Chilly Hike in January
We were dressed for the weather but the hike was way more uphill than we thought it would be so we didn’t make it too far before we turned around.
2. A Walk through the Family Property
Joe’s family has a bit of land in Indiana that I explored with his dad, brother, sister, and Lilly. It was a bit difficult to get to the trail from the road, but we look forward to go back and go creeking when the kids are a little older. Lilly walked a bit on her own when the trail widened out. Joe stayed behind with Elliot because we didn’t know the condition of the trail.
3. A Hike on Memorial Day Weekend
While the trail/road was still pretty much all uphill we continued exploring a nearby closed road to find out why it was closed. Turns out quite a bit of the road has taken severe damage due to erosion and while we can still walk on the road it’s impassable for cars and questionable for bikes.
4. Mitchell Memorial Forest with the Kids
Joe made his first Instagram reel, Lilly walked the whole way, Elliot walked about halfway, and the kids enjoyed splashing in the creek. I’m hoping the next time we go back there’s more water in the creek, but the shade was great since this year has been warm.
5. An Impromptu Fourth of July Weekend Hike With the Kids
The kids had fun walking inside the local park, exploring collecting sticks and rocks. We said goodbye to our stick and rock friends before we left the park so we could at least attempt to leave no trace. Joe slightly wondered where we were because we were only supposed to be gone for like five minutes. Whoops.
6. An Evening Walk With just Elliot and I
Lilly had too much fun and fell asleep before 6:30 so we didn’t know what to do with ourselves. I strapped Elliot to my back and we decided to see how far the closed road went since there was still plenty of daylight. Elliot enjoyed watching and listening to nature as we went about 0.75 miles uphill before reaching the other road-closed barrier. Fortunately, the way back was pretty much all downhill and we both went to bed pretty easily that night.
7. The Nature Trail at the William Henry Harrison’s Tomb
Joe sent us out of the house to get coffee and I decided we could swing by the William Henry Harrison’s tomb since it is on the way home from Java Jackets. We kind of looked at the information signs (Lilly isn’t super into reading signs yet) and noticed there was a nature trail that didn’t look too long. I didn’t realize that it was a very narrow trail until we were already on it and decided that muddy feet and shoes would be fine. Lilly walked the whole thing herself and was mildly interested in the tomb and monument at the end, but I think she was really looking for the swings or slide. There’s a cemetery across the street that we’ll have to explore if we go again.
For a while, I was very behind on my goal of 12 hikes for the year, but I’m happy to report that I caught up in July. I’m the only one that has been on all the hikes, but I’m sure we’ll get some more in for everyone during the fall when Elliot is a little more stable, the weather is a little cooler, and motivation doesn’t get crushed by the humidity as quickly.
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