The trail is a river

Awesome rocks!! and yes, Zach is hiking with no shirt on Sept 23rd!

It's been raining here for a few days.  We knew the trail would be wet.  It was completely covered in sections but mostly not much higher than my ankles.  I was super pleased to have my sandals on this warm late September afternoon.  Unfortunately for hubby, he had leather shoe type hikers, but he didn't complain.  Liam had sandals too, and Zach had old sneakers. 

It was a hot and muggy day to be hiking, almost like summer, but luckily the breeze was decent and we had loads of water.  We intended to keep it short today, and headed off to a look-off that we've now been to a few times at the Birch Cove Blue Mountain Wilderness Area, off of the Kearney Lake Rd. 

We decided to follow the trail a little further after the look-off and ended up doing a loop.  There seems to be someone doing lots of work on the trail.  Beautiful steps. We didn't bring our trail map with us.  Hubby had his GPS, plus we do know the trails fairly well now, so it was unlikely we would get lost, however it does makes sense to bring the great map that we do have.  It brought up the conversation about what to do if you do get lost.  Of course, it's a scary thought about the kids ever getting into that situation by themselves, but it's so important to add the education in so it's ingrained in their heads. 

Do you keep walking around trying to find your way out?
Do you yell? What if you have a whistle? What's better?
How and where can you make shelter?
If you hear a helicopter in the air what do you do?
Can you talk to strangers in the woods if you're lost?
Did you know that police sometimes use dogs to track your scent?
What do you do to not get lost in the first place?

We also had a big talk about "Leave No Trace".  It seems so common sense to me that it seems hard to believe that people don't know it.  Today we found an apple core and peelings at the look-off.  Yes, they are bio-degradeable, but they don't belong in this area.  It attracts animals to the area.  It gives animals food that they would normally not eat.  There are no apples trees in this area of the wilderness.  And, of course, most people do realize not to leave their non-biodegradeble garbage behind.  We did see slushie cups though!

I asked the boys tonight if we had gone on a long walk today.  Liam replied that it had been a medium walk.  Zach said it was long at first, but then said it was just really hot, and maybe not that long.  The boys had already done a lot of concrete walking downtown Halifax with their dad that morning.  Our walk in the wilderness area was just over 2 hours with breaks. 

Liam is amazing and skilled at trail running.  He seems so relaxed and happy when doing it. 
Zachary continues to impress me with his determination.  You can tell when his legs begin to get tired but he keeps going.

It was definitely refreshing to step right in the wet sections of trail, and to try to pretend that summer isn't over, but I'm also looking forward to dry cooler hiking weather. 

East Pennant Point

Technology does have its place.  If it weren't for facebook, I would not have known about this hike.  A friend posted yesterday about the hike and I inquired about it, and knew immediately that we would be trying it soon.  Same friend posted great photos this morning on facebook, and the decision was made to make this our family hike day hike. 

Beautiful late summer day for a hike.  It was about 15 degrees on the way to the hike, though it did get much warmer throughout the day.  It was sunny and a most welcome breeze much of the day. 

I can't say enough about if you want to hike with your kids, simply make it a habit.  We pack up and we go most Sundays (especially during fall, winter, spring), and the kids know what to expect.  They don't generally fuss much about going - I hope it's because they love it, but also, they know it's just what we do. 

This hike starts at the end of East Pennant Rd.  Just park off the road at the cul-de-sac. and walk back the 100 m to Crytalwood Dr. (private gravel rd) which has a beautiful sign asking you to please walk this section rather than driving for the lovely homeowners on this road.  At the end of Crystalwood Dr, there are lots of benches and chairs (where we missed getting onto the trail here at the beginning but ended up coming back this way, there is a little bridge behind some trees right there).  Crystalwood Dr becomes a path, and the path veers to the right, which is the way we went towards the water, then got on a little side trail.  You could walk the rocky shore and I was very surprised that the boys were interested only in taking the trail.  The trail was a little rough going at first (I think because people likely either use the trail by the chairs or they go by the rocky shore).  In any case, it wasn't long before it was in a bit better shape and the boys were actually able to run it...mind you, they are very adept at trail running by now! I would recommend taking the trail at least until you get to the yellow bench (upper duck cove) or the giant buoy (lower duck cove), then I would stay on the shore right from there to Pennant Point (as that section of trail was really rough). 

The boys enjoyed some geocaching along the way, though they would prefer bigger caches for more trading.  Most caches were sign in only and they didn't have pencils/pens.

There was much to find on this trail.  The ocean storms forced a lot of stuff inland.  Some might like to see a clean up and maintenance of the trails.  We found it interesting to find the regular buoys, fishing nets, and rope.  Also, there were buckets, containers, and pieces of what looked like it could have a surfboard, and tires.  Zach was particularly excited to find a rubber band :) The rocks on the beach were beautiful, and remind me that I really should do a study of the rock types we have here.  The boulders at the turn around spot were a lot of fun.  The boys and parents had fun climbing them, posing for the camera, and jumping off them.

The boys did awesome on this trail; hiking and running together sometimes, or pairing off with a parent for some one-on-one time.  I was worried that Zachary was a bit too tired on the way back and maybe we all didn't drink as much water as we should, however the boys and Al played backyard football after supper so we didn't zonk all their energy.  They did go to sleep rather easily tonight, though.  YAY!!!