Cade's First Hike

Two weeks ago we finally made it back up to our place in NH. We hadn't been there since our Storyland trip in September. Yikes! That's a long time! Between moving, holidays, being too pregnant to do much of anything in the outdoors and having a baby we just haven't had the chance to make the quick trip to our mountain getaway. Also, poor Oliver the cat has had so many unresolved health issues that we were waiting for him to be more stable and also needed to find a reliable cat sitter in our new area, which we did. So now, it was definitely time to introduce Cade to the mountains.

We went up on a Tuesday during nap time and all the boys napped in the car while I drove. It was nice to have the peace and quiet with only the radio to keep me company. After unpacking and cleaning up a bit, we had a relaxing afternoon. That night was a particularly bad one for sleeping. Cade was up every 2 seconds it seemed and even though Mike slept on the couch to try and actually sleep, he was up every time he heard Cade and I upstairs. That meant that Wednesday morning was spent taking turns napping. Then it was time for Dylan's nap. During that time, I referenced our hiking book and picked out a place for us to go that afternoon.

Once Dylan was up, we made the 30 minute drive to the base of Mt. Morgan which is on the north side of Squam Lake (where the play\movie On Golden Pond was based). It's a beautiful area. I thought I had picked a relatively short hike for us (2 hours round trip) to have as an experiment. Dylan hadn't been on a hike in about a year with us (since I was about 8 weeks pregnant). We had no idea how much he might want to walk and how much we might be able to carry his ever increasing body weight. It would also be interesting to see how long Cade lasted in the pack while on the move. Time for the adventure to begin.

The hike started out at 3pm. Dylan walked about 30 yards and then was ready to be carried. Oh boy! I was assigned Cade and Mike had Dylan. We stopped and got him in the hiking back pack and continued on.

Upturned Tree

Cute Hikers

After about 45 minutes or so, Dylan started to complain about being uncomfortable. We decided to have him walk for a bit which he wasn't initially happy about at all but after a few minutes of holding my hand, talking and walking, he was enjoying the trip again. This time period where I was holding his hand and helping him up some big rocks and steps did the most damage to my back not carrying Cade.

It became apparent after a while that this was not a one hour 45 minute round trip as I thought the book described but that far one way. Whoops! I never seem to read that darned book right! Well, we just kept on trucking and decided to play it out to see what happened. But, we thought we should turn around by 5 in order to have plenty of time to make it down before the sky started to darken.

Unfortunately at 5 we had not yet made it to the top. One of the reasons I chose this hike was because the book described it as having boulder caves just before the summit. While the boys sat and had a snack, I continue on with Cade just a bit to see if the boulder caves were close. Alas they were not. We went back to Mike and Dylan and started out for the trek down having gotten to just about 1/4 mile from the top. Sigh.

The View From the Highest Point We Made
(Squam Lake Behind the Trees)

Dylan Having a Snack Before the Descent
Me With Baby on the Front and Backpack on the Back

Mike made easy time of the trek back. I, on the other hand, had some trouble. 1) I didn't have the snack time the boys did that gave them some good energy, 2) Seeing the path down over Cade's head was challenging so I was taking sideways steps a lot and 3) I'm just not in great shape yet and my legs were very fatigued.

Mike and Dylan had a fun time down. They spent a good while playing hide and go seek (Dylan putting his hands over his face and Mike being an entertaining father as usual and finding creative ways to "find" him) and then I engaged Dylan in a good game of I Spy (which is tough to make a long game when only surrounded by trees). The most exciting thing I spied was a red squirrel. Dylan also enjoyed listening for the mountain water streams and waiting to see it.

And Cade. Well, that little guy fell asleep soon after we left the car (within 30 minutes) and he snoozed the rest of the way. Other than the difficulties I had carrying him, he was a breeze on his first hike.

All in all the hike lasted about 3 hours. By the end, we were ready for a good dinner. We stopped at the pub down the road from our condo, had a very enjoyable dinner and then headed home. Some day we'll have to do that hike again and we definitely won't turn back until we get rewarded with the view from the top.

Thursday morning, we got up, packed up, cleaned up and at nap time headed home. I drove and the boys all napped the 2 hours home. It was a good first traveling adventure as a family of 4. So successful that we're planning a longer family car trip to happen very soon. We also hope to be getting back to NH again before long. My maternity leave is too quickly passing and we have lots of family bonding fun to enjoy before it's over. Some more sleep would be nice too.