Family Vacation Part 3
Part 3 of a 3 part series.
In the last post I left off with a hint of our little family hike, now to give you the details.
We decided to take Emily out on her first real hike on a realitively mild 2.5 mile trail. We figured that it would be about the limit for her but only take about a couple of hours to do. We headed out about 10:30am and we followed the red/yellow trail for a bit. As usual with our child she was asking about snacks within a few minutes. At somewhere between .25 and .5 miles we had to make our first stop for snacks. 
We sat for a little while and enjoyed the beautiful weather. After our little break we hiked along until a little bit past mile marker 1 and we got to a split in the trail. Now we had to make a choice between red or yellow.
Let me just pause here for a second to say that I was in the Army and love land nav, but I've never been on hiking trails before this. I thought I had seen that the trails in this section were either 1.5 miles or 2.5 miles.
We opted for the red trail since Emily's favorite color is red. We hiked along for a bit and I mentioned to Stacy that the trail should be turning back pretty soon as it seemed to be paralleling the lake. It was a nice trail with lots of hills and beautiful views of the lake. Emily was doing great, and having a great time. At one point we found a vine hanging from a tree that would support each of us, so we all took turns sitting on it and bouncing. Emily really enjoyed that.
When we got to mile marker 2.5 we started scratching our heads. HMMM this trail should have ended by now. We decided to keep on, since the trail couldn't be too much further. Off we continued. Pretty soon we decided to start carrying Emily on our shoulders "in case the trail was too long". Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, our provisions for this little hike: 3 energy bars, 2 bags of dried fruit, one small bag of trail mix and 3 small bottles of water. By this time we had exhausted most of our water and the food was mostly gone during our previous break, the terrain had turned a bit uglier and was actually very hilly. Not mountains, but some good hills.
We saw mile marker 3 and then mile marker 3.5 and finally mile marker 4. At this point we decided to sit down for another break. We had been hiking since 10:30 and it was now 2pm. We were really starting to get a little concerned about this trail and Stacy had the WONDERFUL idea to call the park station and ask how long the trail was. Let me just say that I would never have thought of that. I would have just kept on plugging along until I either finished the trail or gotten to a point that I knew I could get back to camp from (without turning around 
). Here is the conversation from when I called the lady at the park station, YAY we had a signal out here!!!,
Me: How long is the red trail?
Her: Oh it is about two and a half miles.
Me: Umm, are you sure cause we're on it and sitting at mile marker 4.
Her: OOOOH, THAT trail. That is the new one. It goes around the lake.
Me: Oh really, and how far is around the lake.
Her: About 15.5 miles.
Me: Oh, I think we'll turn around. Thanks.
Her: Yea, you might want to turn around now.
So there we were with a tired three year old and 4 miles to hike back to the beginning of the trail. WOOO HOOOO!!!! I had been contemplating this for a little bit while we had been walking and I knew that now was the time to give it a try. I took all of the things in my backpack, camera, long sleeve shirt, empty food wrappers and put them in Stacy's backpack then I unzipped the main compartment of the pack, undid two straps and had Emily sit in the backpack. I reclipped the two straps and tightened them around her. I had Stacy stand behind me to catch Emily if there was a problem then I stood up. Hey, this seemed like it would work!!!
So Stacy and I set a really good pace for two out of shape tired people carrying a 30 pound child in a backpack and made it back to the truck in 2 hours. During the hike back Emily absolutely loved being carried and eventually fell asleep.
Once we got back to the trailer it was dinner and shower time for everyone. That night Emily kept saying she wanted to go hiking again tomorrow, in Daddy's backpack. We told her not tomorrow but maybe the next day. Stacy and I were S-O-R-E sore.
The next day was a movie day. We sat around and let Emily watch movies, play games etc. At one point I asked Stacy if it was Thursday or Friday and she said Thursday. Ok, good, lots more time to relax. Later Emily and I went into town to get a couple things from the store and I realized that it was actually friday. That really got me and got Stacy even more. We were both sad for a little bit that we had all of a sudden lost a day of our vacation. 
On Saturday we got up and went for a little "hike" around the camp grounds with Emily in the backpack again and then happened upon a nature hike being run by a park guide. We joined on that and did another couple of miles at a slow relaxed pace. Then back to the trailer and more playing.
We cooked out a couple of times, made lots of fun breakfasts and just generally had a great time during the whole week.
Sunday we packed up and made the trek back home.
I would highly recommend this experience to anyone that likes a little bit of outdoors or even hard core campers that want to take it easy.