School is still in session for another week and a half, thanks to so many snow days this winter, but it's definitely summer. Then again we have had a few weekends in a row of deliciously dry weather. It felt like summer in California feels. Like summer should feel. Not like you're swimming through the air, beads of sweat brimming up within seconds of being outside and mosquitoes zapping towards you with unbeatable force. But oh well. The humidity started for real this week and I'm resigned to it. We'll always have fireflies, so at least there's that.
I have been wondering what hikes would be like this summer, now that Lars is too big for the Ergo, so it was nice to go on our first summer hike with Matt along too. Funnily enough, Lars actually spent about 2/3 of the hike on my back in the Ergo. I think really he's just on the cusp of being physically able to make it through an entire hike, but he was sick last week, then gave up his binky, and I'm guessing that's partly why he has been the clingiest boy in the land for over a week now. He asks for hugs on an average of 20-30 times a day. He wants to be carried anywhere we go. And Matt is an acceptable second if I'm gone, but if I'm home, he wants no one else. So I squished him into the Ergo on my back for most of the hike and it wasn't actually so bad. Maybe we'll be Ergo-ing it more than I thought this summer.
Ida thought this tree's exposed roots were pretty cool.
This group of college kids (on the flat rock by the waterfall) were cracking me up. They were all scantily clad, with awesome '80s flair, and blasting a boombox. Whippersnappers.
If you don't recognize it from the pictures, this was Scotts Run in McLean. I thought this site was sort of helpful in directing us where to go: http://www.hikingupward.com/ovh/scottsrun/ The directions are a little complicated but I thought the pictures were helpful. The maps posted on the actual trail were really enough, though.
Mainly because we tried out Scotts Run last year--on a very humid Fourth of July http://lizer.blogspot.com/2013/07/trail-day-happy-fourth.html--and missed the waterfall, I was determined to find it this time. We parked in a different lot (the bigger lot which is further west on Georgetown Pike) and found it with no problem. It was maybe 2 miles (ish) to the waterfall and back. We will definitely go back.
I have an issue with safety while hiking trails, though. I just don't feel 100% safe in the woods with just my kids and me on a muggy summer weekday when you can walk a mile or more without seeing anyone. (On an amazingly beautiful Saturday like this past one, the trail was full of people and dogs, and I would have felt very safe even without Matt.) So this summer I will be forcing at least one friend to come with us each Trail Day. Look out, local friends. You could be next...
2 comments:
I know what you mean about being "alone in the woods." On some of the Secret Stairs hikes - well, we've been on 3 - you see no one - most of the areas are residential, but some are just like vacant areas. I always worry about wild animals - dogs not on a leash, etc. But at least where these are, you are in yelling distance. Don't read Stephen Kings' "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon" either!!
I'll come!!! Maybe I'll take a jaunt down to VA this summer. If I ever have a day off. Which is unlikely.
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