A Beautiful Hike, But No Zebra

For some family time on the long weekend we decided to take the kids out for a hike. Tom had me choose the hike. I wanted something different and a little fun so I picked a 4-miler that ran by a river and some waterfalls up in the Shenandoah. We've still got both backpacks for the kids so we figured we were set. While I got everyone ready (meaning me dressed, Erin in socks and sneakers instead of sandals, Jeffrey into a Pull-up and sneakers) Tom got some bottles of water ready for the hike.

We headed out the door about 10 AM. It was simply gorgeous. High 70s at that time, puffy clouds and a slight breeze. We piled into the Sentra and headed on up the mountain. We had the windows totally rolled down and the kids thought that was the best thing ever. Jeffrey giggled the whole way. We had to drive about 15 miles along Skyline Drive before we got to the parking area for the hike. It was a little hazy down in the valley but still the views were gorgeous.

Once we parked we got the kids out of the car and into the packs. I was a little worried about Jeffrey. We haven't packed with him yet this year and he's in a very "mobile" stage right now. I figured he'd throw a fit about getting into the pack, but nope. We crossed over the drive and headed down the Fire Road towards the river and falls. Not 100 feet down trail we had the first exciting event of the day. A smallish black bear went sauntering across the trail about 30 feet ahead of us. He was gorgeous. Erin missed him at first, but we were able to point it out to her off the side of the trail. He sat about 35 feet off the trail for a few minutes and we just stood and watched him. Then he gave us one last look as if saying "See you later" and rumbled down the hill through the woods. Erin was sooo excited. As we continued down the trail she asked daddy what we'd see next, Tom replied we'd have to wait and see. Erin decided she wanted to see a zebra next. So....she spent the next 2.5 hours on the hike looking for a zebra. Sadly for her we never stumbled across one. About a mile down the fire road were the first set of waterfalls. These falls were really cool. Fairly narrow but they were relatively tall. The kids thought they were amazing.

This provided a good chance for Tom to mess with my backpack...again. Lemme tell you Jeffrey had no problems with being in the pack except the he weighs almost 30 pounds fully dressed. I had to keep adjusting the pack so the weight was on my waist and not shoulders. This was probably the most frustrating part of the whole trip. We had to unload him at least 3 times to make adjustments.

At that point we veered off the Fire road and onto a trail that followed the river. This was simply beautiful. The river bubbled and cascaded down rocks. There were lots of pools where you could fish for brook trout (we saw one group of hikers with fly fishing poles). We stopped and took a water break along the stream at one point. The kids loved walking around and throwing stones into the water. Jeffrey wanted to get a big splash. Tom took this picture right as Jeffrey had thrown a whopper into the stream...look at the second splash on the right of the photo. Erin liked the sounds the different sized stones made as she threw them into the water. There were a few close calls where Jeffrey almost fell face first into the water leaning for the perfect stone. Wouldn't have bothered him, but would have made for a long walk back. At one point Erin found a great little perch by the river just to sit and look at it. She reminded me very much of her Uncle Jonathan at that point as he loved to do the same thing.



The hike followed the river for about 1.5 miles. Erin provided entertainment by singing. She sang Over the Rainbow several times. Jeffrey wanted to sing Eensy Weensy Spider. We passed lots of other hikers who thought the kids were just the cutest things around. On the way back up the mountain (we had about 1000 ft of elevation change down....then back up) we passed one last waterfall. This was the best of all. If we hadn't had the kids, and I hadn't had another mile of mountain to climb up I would've loved to jump right into the water at the base. As we turned away from the falls, Jeffrey turned around and shouted "Bye Bye Waterfall!".

The climb up was difficult but not too horrible. We took lots of little rests. About 1/2 mile from the top the path leveled a bit and widened. We decided we could let the kids out of the packs to finish the hike. They took off running up the mountain, jumping and tripping over little rocks in the path. By the time we were done we were all exhausted but it was completely and totally worth it. If you ask Erin what we saw on the hike she'll tell you, "A Bear, A Monkey (chipmunks), Water and Waterfalls -- but No Zebra."