I Love You Because...

Coppermine Creek

Oh how I love you Red Rock Canyon. Serious love. 

This evening we took the kids up red rock for a picnic. While driving to our picnic spot (about 4km total)  we saw 4 bears, Owen was EXTATIC. One of them was without a doubt the biggest bear I'd ever seen in my life and it was only 4 feet off the road. When I say big, I mean MASSIVE. He waseasily the size of a car. Unfortunately I was too thrilled watching the kids to get any pictures of any of them. This time we ended up at Coppermine Creek and the first thing the kids did was run down to the water.

Which of course meant moments later Ethan fell in. It was adorable and amazingly he was still happy even with soaking wet clothes... like I said before, WATERTON IS SOO GOOD FOR THIS BOY'S AUTISM! He was absolutely able to just shrug it off and run onto the next adventure.

Doug (and the boys) hiked up the mountain side while we were waiting for the the stove to heat up. Then Grandpa taught the kids how to build a fire, use a cowboy hat to make it bigger and roast hot dogs on a stick. Yep. It was a perfect evening! 

 

Blue Lake (aka Crandell)

We've been in Waterton a couple days and our feet were begging to be on the trail, any trail. Since we are now completey out numbered by the kids we figured we needed them on our side. We picked the simplest hike we could think of so we didn't wipe them out before we got through our 'hiking list'. 

Crandell Lake as it's officially called, (for some reason everyone in my family has called it 'Blue' longer then I've been alive) is only 2 km from the lower parking lot. I've gone there straight from the backdoor of the cabin/townsite (7.1km one way) but again, I wanted to keep it simple for the kids. I promise anyone can do it! We even saw a friend of my grandmother's on the trail, Sister Spackman, who had just celebrated her 92nd birthday! It was the perfect juxtaposition to my little Cam on his first Waterton hike. 

It's also the perfect hike to remind the kids of hiking etiquette and rules and teach them a few new ones. Even though it's short you really do get a lot of reward for little effort on this hike. There are always amazing views, wildlife, tons of wildflowers and there is usually great fishing. 

It's a perfect hike to do in the late afternoon, pack a dinner up and enjoy the solitude of the lake. In past years if we get into Waterton early in the day we'll pack up a lunch and come straight up here in the afternoon just to welcome us into the park! The kids favorite part had to be the wildlife that well... got extremely friendly. (they may or may not have invited it to our picnic with a few leftover trail mix that 'fell' in the dirt)

We loved just sitting on the banks and teaching the kids how to skip rocks, we loved the picnic and watching Bampa fish and even though Ethan had an autistic meltdown when things didn't go his way, it was actually short lived and he was able to calm down super quick in the beautiful setting. (Frankly, Ethan's amazing resilience and change made me wish we could live here.)

Cam even loved it!

So... who's coming up to Canada with us next year?! 

Joanna 

 

 

Welcome Home

Seriously, after a long day hiking this is the best sight in the entire world!! 

LOVE.
J 

Hiking w/ Grandma

After being cooped up in a hospital room all week we're enjoying the beautiful Springtime weather with a Sunday afternoon mini-hike with Grandma... and it's making me excited for Waterton this summer! 

 

Bear Hollow

I think I've been consumed a little too much this spring. Consumed with the move, worried about the transition, consumed with my own loneliness and my own depression and consumed with unanswered questions. This past week I've been trying to force myself out of it. No more self destruction, no more negativity and no more staying stagnant.... both emotionally and physically. 

In an effort to do just that, last Sunday afternoon we decided to take the kids on a little hike. The weather was perfect and we know that our weekends are going to get crazy in May/June so we thought we better take advantage of it while we still had time. Not only that this location is close to us now- once we move it will be too far for a quick Sunday afternoon nature walk. If you live in the Athens area and haven visited Bear Hollow Park then you are missing out. We've taken the kids here a bunch before but it had been a couple years and Owen hadn't seen THE BEARS yet so we knew he'd be in heaven. 

What we didn't anticipate was that he wouldn't want to leave the bear viewing area and go on the rest of the hike (note to self; next time the animals need to be at the end.) Nor did we anticipate Lorali bringing her 'field journal' so that she could take notes while we were out. Even after she brought said journal we didn't think she'd drop the notebook accidentally.... in the bear enclosure... nor did we annticipate the bear clawing its way through it, tearing it to threads and seeing Loralis' little 'secrets' (Abel ast me to be his gurl frend at skul toda.) One thing is for sure, it was certainly a memorable day!

Once we pulled away from the bears, had a potty break, discovered caterpillars... it was FINALLY time to start the hike. Doug and I couldn't find any maps but we figured the park was small enough that we could just pick a trail and trust ourselves not to get lost. We picked the trail that we couldn't see anyone and we were on our way. WE ALL LOVED IT! Overall it was a wonderful afternoon and something we need to do way more of. I'm not sure there is anything in this world that makes me as happy as hiking with my family. 

Enjoying the Outdoors.

  In preparation for this summer's trip to Canada, this last weekend Doug planned a great day hike for us. We drove just over an hour to the North Georgia Mountains, Helen and Andrew's Cove. Of course, I got car sick but the weather was perfect and once we met up with the Hall Family we were on our way! The trail was awesome. It starts off at one of the best campgrounds I have ever seen. It was beautiful, well maintained, small and quaint. I really can't wait until we can go up again and actually camp! The trail is in the back of the campsite right next to Andrew's Creek. The trail up to the Appalachian Trail is quite steep even though it's only 2 miles up, (I think you gain around 600 feet in just those 2 miles) esp. considering how little our hiking buddies were! Over all we ended up hiking Southwest on the Appalachian Trail up Indian Grave Gap and Unicoi Gap for another mile, making the entire hike 6 miles! We were SOO proud of our little mountain goats. (It certainly gave me hope for Waterton this summer.) I was terrified about how Ethan would handle the dirt or the noise or anything getting wet. Can you imagine and Autism Fit on the side of a mountain?! Yeah, I was terrified but, he really did great. He was happy and patient and even when he stepped in a stream and his foot got soaked, he accepted the fact that it was just apart of it and it would dry. We were all pretty shocked. Lorali said her favorite parts were the little tiny springs for fairies. Doug said his favorite part was how well the kids did. Ethan said his favorite part was climbing the giant rock with Bryson and My favorite part was witnessing Ethan learn how to pee in the woods. It was hilarious how much of a kick he got out of that! We started the hike just after 10am and of course we let the kids set the pace. We were back at our cars by 4pm and we had stopped of a while for our picnic so it's a great one day adventure and it leaves enough time to hang out in Helen if you aren't too sore! I grew up hiking all the time but rarely was it anywhere but Canada. While that is certainly my favorite place in the world to hike, I love exploring the beautiful wilderness everywhere else too! Happy Hiking!

Silent Saturday