Family Hike

Here in Portland we were all giddy to check the 10 day forecast and see SUNSHINE! NO RAIN! NICE TEMPERATURES!! YAY! So Saturday we went for a family hike!

When it was just Michael and me, hiking was no big thing. Throw some stuff in a backpack and head out. Then we got a dog. It started taking a little bit longer. Pack her stuff…get snacks and water for Bella. Load her in the car. Then listen to her whine and whimper in the backseat for the last 5 miles of the drive to the hike (it’s like she knows we’re getting close to the hike and she’s so impatient!).

Then we had a baby. It takes like an hour to get ready to go, pack everything, pack the dog, pack the baby…! Good lord. Our neighbor saw us as we were heading out and commented that it used to take them 2 hours to get out of the house when they had kids. 😉

Since it takes so much longer to get going and we have to coordinate around Logan’s nap schedule, we chose a closer hike–Milo McIver Park. We’ve done it a few times and it’s a nice one.

We got there just at noon and started the hike. We did a trail that we’ve done in the past. It kind of starts out a little steep but for the most part it’s not too strenuous.

There are a few sets of stairs in the woods. Those got my heart pumping! The plan was to take the trail to this open field we’ve stopped at before and have lunch there and let Logan run around and maybe let Bella off leash if there was no one else around. But for whatever reason we couldn’t find that field!

The trail was SUPER muddy. I should have taken a photo of my boots because they were covered! There were also tons of snails out:

We took a new-to-us trail:

And it was too muddy so we looped around and went back to the Maple Ridge Trail. We thought it would take us to the field but we ended up looping back to the parking lot. So we decided to have our picnic lunch there. (Turkey and chicken and cheese in low carb wraps with cucumbers and hummus.)

Then we back-tracked on the trail where we started and took a different fork in the road, still looking for that field! Spoiler alert: we never found it. I have no idea how we lost it.

Family photo!

The trail was really muddy, overgrown in some spots, but for the most part pretty good. There were a few creeks we crossed over and a few mini waterfalls.

Logan did a GREAT job and did not fuss at all. He also didn’t fall asleep in the backpack like he did last time.

We stopped at a picnic bench by the river for a diaper change, bottle for Logan and to let him run around a little bit.

After a little while we headed back to the car.

Stats:

3.92 miles and I burned 532 calories! I was happy with my number, especially since the hike wasn’t that strenuous.

Logan fell asleep in the car immediately. Bella most definitely got a bath when we got home. And Michael made cauliflower crust pizza again for dinner!

It was a good day!