Hiking...or something like that.

Our first little adventure this month (technically at the end of last month) was pretty spontaneous, and by that I mean that it was not planned well at all. It was a nice relaxing Saturday morning when one of my friends suggested that we take the kids and go on a little hike. At first I was not too keen on the idea. We live in Nevada, and there really aren’t a lot of places to really hike around here, not to mention it was still getting up into the early 90’s during the day. I finally agreed and she looked up some places to go “hiking”. We found one that was around a lake and it said that it had a walking trail around it. That was good enough for me.

We packed some snacks, water, diaper bag, and various other “just in case” items. I thought about bringing the baby backpack or Moby wrap but by the time I got out the door I had forgotten about it. There wasn’t enough room for her whole family and me and the kids all in one vehicle so they lead the way and I tried to keep up. I’ll skip the part where I almost ran out of gas.

We were almost there and ended up on this sand road leading out into who knows where. Imagine nothing but brush and sand and a small vehicle path that just keeps going and going. Eventually we got to a point where we could see a lake, but there wasn’t anywhere to actually pull off and park. After we drove part way around the lake we just decided that we would make our own parking spots.

We got out and I decided to strap the baby in the stroller. We couldn’t find a place to get down to the trail. The only way down really was to climb down the sand dunes. We tried to find the least steep place to go down and ended up carrying the stroller down to the trail. It was at this point that I really wished that I had brought the Moby wrap.

When we got down to the trail we were thoroughly disappointed. It was a trail made of sand. Those who have tried to take a stroller on sand will know that this is less than ideal. I guess it’s better than giant rocks.

We only got less than an eighth of a mile when we decided to sit down and eat our lunch and snacks. We found a slightly shaded, semi flat spot and opened up a blanket to have our picnic on.  Eating was probably the best part of our little trip. Once lunch was done we just didn’t have it in us to keep going on the trail. I was relieved that my friend didn’t want to continue either.

We headed back to where our cars were, except this time we had to climb up the sand dunes. Not an easy feat with a baby stroller. I could barely walk up it without the extra weight. My friend and I picked the stroller up, baby and all and climbed this sand dune. There were a couple times I didn’t think I would make it, but I did, even if I did have about a pound of sand in each shoe.

We got back to the car, loaded up and got the heck out of there. I almost got stuck in the sand trying to back out of our makeshift parking spot. Thank goodness for our SUV.

It was definitely an experience that will never be forgotten. Even though it didn’t turn out the way we had planned it will always be something that when I think about that day it will put a smile on my face and a chuckle in my throat.