In the morning, the sunlight was peeking into the bedroom windows when I woke up. I looked outside and I knew that it was a hiking day.
Warm weather makes my legs itch for the trail, makes my heart yearn for open skies, makes my lungs want to burn. So I gather what we will need and then I wait impatiently for Charlotte to wake up. As soon as she does, I take her to the hills.
When I park the car near the trailhead, my daughter cranes her neck around the car-seat to see where we are. She sees the trees, with their familiar leaves, and shouts HORSE! NAY! Last week when we were here, a woman on horseback passed us on the trail. I’m surprised she remembers that. I can almost hear the gears grinding in her brain.
HIKING!, she barks enthusiastically. HIKING! MAW-MAW, HIKING!
I lift her out of the car and after we’ve reviewed the hiking rules and I’ve double-checked that we’re prepared, we’re on our way. We see rabbits in the brush. BUNNIES! MAW-MAW, BUNNIES! We see nettles on the side of the trail. STINGING! MAW-MAW, STINGING! We see poop at a fork in the trail. YOTE! (coyote) MAW-MAW, YOTE!
It is like this the whole hike. For five hours straight, every imaginable thing is pointed at and exclaimed over. I feel like I might lose my mind. Charlotte wants to walk by herself the entire time. Our hike ends up only about two miles long. It isn’t at all what I had pictured when I thought we’d hike until we dropped.
Then I’m tucking her in her car-seat and she’s sleepily giving me kisses. And then I’m pulling out of the parking lot and from the back-seat, I hear MAW-MAW?
Yes, baby?
HAPPY! MAW-MAW, HAPPY! HIKING HAPPY!
She’s asleep before I hit the freeway, of course, with dreams of bunnies and stinging nettles dancing through her head. I can hear her breaths, deep and measured. The whole way home, I think that this was the perfect sort of hiking day.





By on June 09, 2011
Yes, it was a perfect hike. Wish we were closer and could hike with you and Charlotte.
By on June 09, 2011
It sounds like much more fun than the day you described about a year ago when she had to be bribed with a rock to get into the carrier. She then brained with that rock all the way to the car. Amazing the difference a year can make.