Adventures in Hiking

Sometimes hiking is relaxing.

Sometimes hiking is exhilarating.

Sometimes hiking is exhausting.

Sometimes hiking makes you wonder if the fates are entirely against you.

Yesterday was the last one.

It started off well.  Lovely weather.  Quick trip to Trader Joe's on the way there.  Ben was anticipating blackberries, so he wasn't complaining.  Josh knew he had to go in order to play on the Wii later, so he wasn't complaining.  And Isaac was so excited to go that he brought me one of my shoes and one of Michael's to help me get out of the door.  (And Michael was at camp, so he wasn't complaining either.)

We got to the trail head and I decided I needed to use the facilities, such as they were.  They were an aromatic set of pit toilets.  As I got off the one, I heard the ominous sound of what I thought was something falling out of my pocket and landing in, well, landing.  And since I knew for sure that both the keys and Isaac's pacifier were in my bag, that left only one horrifying option.  After dragging my kids away from the blackberry bushes in the area, we scooted back to the car where I felt physically relieved when I saw my phone sitting right where I had forgotten it when we got out of the car.  I don't know what that sound was, but now I don't really care.

Ben and Isaac were elated when we discovered several bushes along the trail with enough ripe blackberries satiate their little tummies.  Josh was the hero of the day with a gift to find the ripe ones, and since he doesn't actually like them, to his brothers went the spoils.  I was also fairly adept at picking berries until I discovered that I am allergic to the thorns.  After several run-ins with the pointy parts of the blackberry bushes, welts formed where I got poked.  And they stung.  And they continued to sting for several more hours after the welts disappeared.  I love me some blackberries, but I can buy some at the store that won't cause me any pain.  Josh was generous enough to take up the slack, but we made fewer blackberry stops.

The highlight of our walk occurred as we were leaving a particularly large patch of blackberry bushes.  As I was making sure I had everything with me, I heard Ben yell, "NO! ISAAC, NO!"  It turns out some thoughtful dog owner had left dog poop on the boardwalk and Isaac had taken his hand...and yes I know you are cringing as you read this...had taken his hand and grabbed a handful of the stuff.

Gag.

Ugh.

Seriously, dog owner??? Seriously????

I didn't have a lot of wipes with me, but I had just enough to get it all of off his tiny hand and then I used a copious amount of hand sanitizer to finish the job.  On my hands and his.  So much sanitizer.  So much.

The rest of the hike was blessedly uneventful.  Isaac was very keen on getting his hands on every kind of berry he could find once he figured out what were doing.  We were successful at keeping anything else out of his mouth and the promise of eating their goodies from Trader Joe's once we got home kept his older brothers motivated to finish the hike.

It might be a little while before we go there again.