Let me tell you about hike #2… #SOL21

Last night, Marc and I were thinking about where we’d go for our second family hike. I specified three non-negotiable on the Lancaster Conservancy website:

• Scenic overlook
• ADA accessible (This was for two reasons. First, my in-laws are in town and one of them had a hip replacement late last year. Second, we were going to bring a stroller for Ari in case he got tired/whiny, like he did last week.)
• Parking

One of three options was Welsh Mountain Nature Preserve, which was listed as about 35 minutes from our house. Why not?!!?

Isabelle and I were the first ones out of the minivan. When she arrived at the trail head, she opened the box and said, “It’s empty. There aren’t any more maps left.”

I groaned, audibly. I had lectured her about the importance of always having a map last week since she lost her grasp on it last week and it blew away. Now, we had nothing.

“There’s another big board on the other side of the parking lot,” she said taking off in that direction. “Let’s see if there are more maps there.”

I followed, Unfortunately, there weren’t.

Ultimately, all of the adults took a photo of the trails map with each of our phones. Not the same, but it would have to do.

On the steep part of the blue trail — waiting for the rest of the crew.

Marc loaded Ari into the stroller, which hadn’t been used in about a year. My in-laws joined us at the large map. Despite the gravel-covered ADA trail being to our right, Marc thought we should try the blue trail, to our left. It was a true trail. My foot, thankfully, could handle it, but I wasn’t so sure a third of our group (of six) could hack it. But they insisted so we went on the blue trail.

After a few minutes, Isabelle and I — who were quite a bit ahead of everyone else — discovered the trail getting tighter, rockier, and steeper. I called out to the others to implore them to turn around, but they kept moving forward. As they neared, I insisted that the stroller wouldn’t make it up the hill any better than a person with a four-month-old titanium hip.

“I picked this place because there’s an ADA accessible trail,” I said with a level of snippiness in my voice. “That’s the trail we need to take.”

We turned around and walked back to the flat trail. We splintered into two separate groups. Eventually, my father-in-law went back to the car. Isabelle, my mother-in-law, and I eventually found Ari jogging towards us with Marc pushing the empty stroller. As pleased as I was to see him walking, I noticed he had a granola bar in his hand. Apparently, food was a motivator to keep him moving!

Ari in front; Marc in back.

Next hike, we have to keep Ari moving, sans snacks, on level ground. 🤣🙄🤪

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