Summertime in the woods

Ever since, I don't know, we realized we were about to kill each other indoors, we took it outside as soon as the weather warmed up. I'm talking late March is when we started hiking for the season. We started as soon as we could because our bodies were starved for exercise. Because my pregnancy with Bevin was EXHAUSTING, we didn't hike as much as we should have last summer. Now that it's almost summer again, the woods are a beautiful place to be and we don't even need a reason to go, we just do. 

We've gone on countless hikes mostly at Minnewaska State Park Preserve and Mohonk Preserve, but we are starting to branch out to the Catskills. 

This weekend, for instance, Keith wants to hike Giant's Ledge for Father's Day. 

My only gripe with the Catskills is that there are lots more bears than in the Gunks. I have a crazy fear a bear will smell my breast milk and attack. Either that or all the snacks we keep in a ziplock in our hiking pack.  But my friend, a climbing and hiking guide, assures me they are well fed this year. 

What I like best about our hikes is that they are all such diverse terrain. It's a lot of fun starting out on a gnarly foot path, walking up an old stream bed and walking down a carriage road all in the same hike. 

Last weekend's hike almost turned out to be a bust because it was a little too tough for us. We discovered that there was no longer a footbridge across  a gushing stream that was blocking the trail. We considered briefly trying to cross the water, which was probably a foot or two deep in some areas, but luckily I talked us out of it. Alone would have been one thing. But with two kids? Dumb idea. So we turned back reluctantly and salvaged the afternoon by going back to the parking lot and taking a different trail to show Cole an awesomely powerful waterfall. It's so weird how he's been on most of these hikes with us already, but it's all new to him now because he is starting to forget the distant past. 

 

The part of the day that made me more than a little proud was when I overheard a man on the trail say "That kid's a better hiker than me!"

Cole examines the wet trail. 

Daddy does his share of babywearing too!

The woods are just a magical, peaceful place for me. 

Cole is "blown away" by the sheer velocity of the waterfall. 

Awosting Falls