On Friday the boys were off from school for a regularly scheduled teacher word day and the start of our spring break. Max goes to gymnastics classes on Friday mornings, so we loaded up the car with our camelbacks and snacks and headed off to class. He's adorable and this is a good activity for him to move his little body. Since it was a beautiful day (mid-forties, partly sunny) I knew we were hiking! I told the boys to prepare for a spring break of hiking when we can. It was a great relief to spend the day out in nature, where we saw three people, and there was little stress, anxiety, or panic from talk of CLOVID-19.
We had to be back home by 4:00 for an appointment and then Pinewood Derby car weigh-in that evening, but I knew we'd have plenty of time to head to Hitchcock Nature Center in Iowa. It's about a 40 minute drive from our house, but offers some nice views, quiet (during the week), and a variety of trail difficulties. Since they have pretty nice trails, and run programming they are often pretty "crowded" on the weekends. The trails aren't bad, but the parking lots can fill quickly.
I grabbed nuggets and fries for the kids to chomp on during the drive and grabbed a sandwich for myself for later in the hike. It's nice to be at a stage where they older boys can carry their own camelbacks and snacks, and I can use my new birthday present camelback for me and Max. I may be getting one for him soon...we'll see. The biggest trouble we've been encountering on the trails lately is the mud.
We started off with a quick pit-stop at the Nature Center for a bathroom break and for the kids to play a few minutes with the toys. Then we started our hike on the Boardwalk on Hawk Ridge. This is a nice spot that's accessible for wheelchairs, and we'd walked part of it before but didn't go past the boardwalk. This time we followed the Boardwalk to Hawk Ridge, and to the border of the park to see the ponds. The boys had fun running along at their own paces, playing with some bottlecaps they'd collected from the parking area, and turning found hiking sticks into guns.
We backtracked to the Hohneke Trail and followed the Fox Run Ridge to a camping site where the boys picked up some goodies in the camp area that had been left behind. This trail we followed all the way back to the nature center. We talked about going down some more trails, but I decided we should call it quits while we were ahead.
The weather was so nice. I brought our wintercoats, but we found that our sweatshirts and light fleeces were perfect. There were several areas that had been control-burned recently and an area that had been done earlier was starting to sprout new grass. The boys were all exclaiming, "wow, look at that green grass." I guess we're ready for spring to stick around.
We hiked about 3 miles total and had lots of fun. There was no rush, we could take our time. The boys were exerting their imaginations to the fullest, which I just love! And they all had a nice time. On the way home we saw an eagle in a tree, that eventually took off but was flying with two other eagles around the cornfields next to the road. Always a favorite to see around this area.
Theo and Max passed out on the drive home and got in a nice nap while I got some audiobook time. It was a really nice time and I just enjoy being out with all three of my boys so much. This marked hike 7/25 for 2020!
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