I’m looking forward to this weekend. Being that it’s my birthday weekend, I’ve been given the green light to go hiking. I typically try and spend as much time with the family as possible, but it’s not always easy to get outside AND spend time with the wife and kids. This weekend is one of those weekends where I need to test myself a little bit.
The girls aren’t quite old enough to do a five-miler and that’s what I’m aiming to get under my belt this weekend.
This weekend, I’ll be hiking the Stump Pond Loop Trail in Blydenburgh County Park. The trail specs are as follows:
- Difficultly: Easy
- Elevation Gain: 65 ft
- Distance: 4.5 miles
- Estimated Hiking Time: 2 hours
The Stump Pond Loop Trail is not a difficult, long or otherwise challenging trail by any means but it has three things going for it.
- I’ve never done it. While I’ve never hiked this trail, I have been to Blydenburgh County Park. It’s a nice place with a great fenced-in dog park. I’m always excited to explore new trails. Apparently this particular hike is full of beautiful views around the lake it encompasses. Oh, and part of this trail is on the Greenbelt Trail to boot (it’s one of my 2012 Goals if you remember).
- It’s close. It’s always nice to have a nearby hiking area given that I don’t have a ton of time on the weekend to get out. My wife, kids, house and work consume a lot of my time and when I do have time to hike, I usually don’t have time to travel. I’m glad this trail is right down the road.
- Tons of Geocaches! I just looked on Geocaching.com and realized that there are a TON of geocaches along this trail. And they all seem to be placed right along the trail (or not far off of it). I’m always looking to add a new cache or three to my tally, so it will be fun to explore a bit and find some more caches.
The weather is going to be mostly sunny in the mid 50’s. Perfect weather to get out there and enjoy the outdoors. I’ll be taking my Osprey Kode 30 backpack with me on this trip and will most likely pack a lunch to enjoy this trip. I will photo document this trip to the best of my ability as well.
Like I’ve mentioned, this hike is really exciting me. I’m glad to be able to get a few hours away from the world. BUT (you knew there was going to be a but in there), I really wish my kids and wife could join me. I know my wife enjoys these shorter kinds of hikes, but my kids can’t handle this kind of distance yet. They’re just too little and I’m not going to push them above their limit.
They like being outside – they are totally enjoying playing outside when we get home at night, building sandcastles in the sandbox I built last summer and tossing the ball for the dogs (as well as they can anyways). They’re just not ready to be pushed hard on a longer hike. My goal is to find a few 0.5 – 1.0 mile hikes locally that they can handle and grow their love of the outdoors from there.
Keep an eye out for my hike wrap-up coming next week!
Are you getting outside this weekend? Let me know about it in the comments!
photo credit: SheldonPhotography via photopin cc
Big Dan, I’m enjoying your posts. Thanks for the connection on twitter. I’m @CaminoMyWay. By the way, I’m hoping to go on a short hike this weekend. Had two last weekend and it was good to finally get out.
@Randall St Germain Thanks for the comment! What’s your typical hike distance on the weekends? Do you use any software to track your hikes? I’ve started using AllTrails.com iPhone app lately and like it a lot. Thinking about upgrading to the Pro version.
This time of year, I’m not hiking that much and am badly out of shape. Too much time in front of the computer. This year, except for walks, I didn’t get out until last weekend. Last Saturday, we hiked about 1400 meters of elevation gain and about 10 km or 6 miles (sorry about the metric stuff). On Sunday it was a 600 m elevation gain and I think about 12 km of walking. So nothing too difficult right now. I don’t use software. I don’t use iPhone apps because it doesn’t take long in the mountains out of Vancouver until there’s no service. Keep in touch Big Dan. I have a few hiking posts on my blog too with more to come.