Cascade Falls - A Family Hike

Photo Credit: Sarah Maier

As I said in my last post, we had family visiting last week. Momma Cloudy and Fort Cloudy were both in from out of state. We all had a fantastic week visiting together, and ended it off with a 6 mile family hike. After many late nights and lots of extended family get-togethers, it was nice to have a day out enjoying nature with just us. We loaded up the dogs and headed off to hit the trail.

We hit up our favorite haunt, Cascade Falls and Buzzards Rock trails, and enjoyed the first signs of fall heading our way. The weather was perfect - sunny, with just a touch of cool in the air. Momma Cloudy had hiked Cascade Falls with us before, but Fort Cloudy had not. So we all enjoyed leisurely hiking in the cool weather with the dogs. We stopped often to take pictures or to enjoy a particularly nice view. We laughed, we chatted, we spent time together. That's what made this hike so special to me. I was able to spend time with my favorite people doing my favorite thing - hiking.

Too often, family gets caught up in the hectic pace of every day life and we think "Oh, I can just catch up with her later". But when does "later" really come? If your life is like mine, it never seems to. I find myself continually playing catch up with important things, or making phone calls I've been meaning to make forever. Email overflows your inbox, text messages sit unanswered, and feeling overwhelmed is normal. The reality of life is that we don't know if we'll have a later. Stop putting things off for the future. Have you been meaning to call your brother, but just never seem to have time? Stop reading this. Right now. Seriously! Go call him! Let the people in your life who are important to you know that they're important.

I say all this because I think that hiking is a great way to connect with your family. Not only are you away from the distractions of life (TV, phones, email.. yeah you get the picture), but you're working towards a common goal, which builds camaraderie. You don't even have to be a great hiker to enjoy it. There are a plethora of trails available to us in our local parks. It could be 1 mile, it could be 50 miles. The distance doesn't matter. What matters is that you step out with your family and say to them "The most important thing to me right now is to spend time with you". Well meaning words can't take the place of deliberate actions.

So, are you ready to hit the trail with your favorite people yet?

 

Photo credit: Sarah Maier

My next post is going to be about finding local trails, and what you need to take with you for a day hike. There's so many great resources available, and local parks to explore! Join me, and get outdoors!

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