I love to hike. I always have. Sometimes the opportunity to actually go hiking isn’t as available as I would like. Even if I only live a short drive from the mountains. However I’m working at putting the hiking back in my life. Being a mom of little ones I’m realizing my hiking 10-12 miles is not necessarily something I can do, so I’m learning to settle for shorter distances, but honestly the little guys are making up for it in their excitement and fun on the shorter distances.
After getting a chance to go to Korea Heritage Camp (which will be a future post), we had the chance to stay at a friend’s condo and spend a few extra days in the mountains. I had heard about Monarch Lake, just outside of Lake Granby and it totally looked like something we could do with the little guys. It was 4 miles, relatively flat, and beautiful.
We went on a Monday morning which was perfect. I had read that the trail can get crowded, but honestly when we pulled in there was only one other car in the parking lot which was perfect. The trail took us all around the lake. It was a warm day, as much of June has been this year, but being over 8000 feet at altitude it wasn’t too warm. We had water with us and plenty of snacks and lunches packed. I’ve learned with hiking with little ones sometimes the snacks are the only motivation that you have to keep everyone going.
It was actually Edric’s first hike. We walk the trail behind our house all the time, but since he came home at the end of September this was really our first trip to the mountains to explore with him. I’ve learned you can’t tell little ones “we’re going to go on a 4 mile hike” but instead let them know you are going to go on an adventure and just go with it. I knew that this wasn’t going to be a fast hike or super intense, but rather we were just going to take our time and explore and have fun.
Which is exactly what we did. The boys found logs to climb on and pretend they were “American Ninja Warriors”, they threw rocks in the lake, ran up the trail, jumped over (and usually in) the little streams that ran over the path, and giggled and had a blast. Edric struggled a little right before we stopped for lunch, and so I pulled out the ergo backpack and he rode in that happily. After a good lunch about ½ way around the lake they were all ready to go again.
Edric didn’t last real long after lunch, he was soon saying “backpack please”, and so back on my back he went and before long he snuggled in and was sound asleep. He was sleeping so well for a bit he was actually snoring. He woke up in time though for the last little bit of the hike. It was a great hike and we all had fun. Far too beautiful for words and sweet memories were made, which is exactly how this hiking mommy likes to hike!
Hiking Mommy 