Hiking With Mom & the Boys

On Saturday of our visit to Enchanted Rock, Mom and I took the boys for a hike on the "scenic loop" that was described as a light hike by one of the park rangers. Well, the distance wasn't daunting but the terrain proved otherwise.

There were lots of puddles and streams for the boys to cool off in which they appreciated greatly! I carried water for them in a hand held dog dish but they weren't very interesetd in the water bowl...they wanted their agua au natural.

AJ was the adventuresome hiker. You can't really tell from this shot but this must have been a 20 foot drop that AJ and I peeked over. Some of the trail was "developed" but much of the trail was granite gravel that eventually tore up the pads of the dogs' paws. We had to scramble over boulders and through streams on the "scenic loop" and the dogs were so excited to be out on their adventure for the day that they didn't even complain about their feet.

We were pretty close to the end of the hike at this point. The dogs were obviously pooped so we rested for a while. I couldn't get a signal on my phone so I couldn't let Dan know where we were. He had gone out for a ride earlier in the day and Mom and I anticipated being back at camp long before the 4 hours that expired while we were out for the day.

We both got too much sun on our necks in spite of the reapplications of sunblock. When I was loading the backpacks with bottled water I felt a little silly packing so much H2O but we used it all! It was exhilariating! Mom is the one who taught me to camp as a child. We always had so much fun camping as a family when I was little. It was a joy to me to take mom out for the weekend and show her how much I can do!

Leave it to Reese to smile for the camera. Mom and I felt awful about having to push the dogs further but there wasn't much we could do to complete the hike. The boys didn't move once we got them back to camp but by Monday afternoon they were both back up on their feet and I got a warm welcome home from school for the day.

Dan and I have promised ourselves and each other to walk the boys more often so they don't have such delicate feet.