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I figured out why they call it "thru hiking" today; After about 2 hrs of trying to cover 0.5 miles on the Appalachian Trail with a 2 year old and a 4 1/2 year old, we were pretty much through hiking. The last hike we did was a couple miles around Otter Lake only to discover that we needed to cross a river via some widely spaced stones to get back to the parking lot. While I made the jump between stones with Mae in the baby backpack, @advodna_ann opted to bypass the first section by slipping off her shoes and wading in. Halfway across, Mae noticed and decided she wanted her shoes off too. She kicked them off mid-stream. One eddied upstream while the other caught some current and cascaded downstream. I dropped the pack on the far bank and gave chase, grabbing a long stick along the way for my one chance. Instead of just dragging it to the bank, I tried to get fancy and pick it up with the stick. It slipped off at the last second and got sucked into a small rapid. I caught a final glimpse of the tiny Nike just below the whitewater and sighed as it disappeared around a bend. #appalachiantrail #findyourpark #shenandoahnationalpark #thruhiking #threwseveraltantrums #almostthrewthemoffthetrail #hikingwithkids
I figured out why they call it "thru hiking" today; After about 2 hrs of trying to cover 0.5 miles on the Appalachian Trail with a 2 year old and a 4 1/2 year old, we were pretty much through hiking. The last hike we did was a couple miles around Otter Lake only to discover that we needed to cross a river via some widely spaced stones to get back to the parking lot. While I made the jump between stones with Mae in the baby backpack, @advodna_ann opted to bypass the first section by slipping off her shoes and wading in. Halfway across, Mae noticed and decided she wanted her shoes off too. She kicked them off mid-stream. One eddied upstream while the other caught some current and cascaded downstream. I dropped the pack on the far bank and gave chase, grabbing a long stick along the way for my one chance. Instead of just dragging it to the bank, I tried to get fancy and pick it up with the stick. It slipped off at the last second and got sucked into a small rapid. I caught a final glimpse of the tiny Nike just below the whitewater and sighed as it disappeared around a bend. #appalachiantrail #findyourpark #shenandoahnationalpark #thruhiking #threwseveraltantrums #almostthrewthemoffthetrail #hikingwithkids
