The Blanch Herd: May Hiking

At last! Even with all the rain, we have enough hikes in one month to warrant a separate hiking post! We didn't get out a ton, but the few we had were excellent anyway. Man, I love hiking (and I love that my family loves hiking, too)!

2 May 2019: North Arm Trailhead Nature Trail

We hiked this in early winter in the snow (and made it all the way around, the loop, I think). We came back again another time in the snow with Gregg and couldn't get too far due to lots of downed trees and branches. We tried again this spring on a random Thursday morning and found it was pretty gnarly. The kids and I had to crawl on our hands and knees to get through some brambly branches. And then we had to turn around and go back through them again! We couldn't finish the loop because the last bit of the trail was covered in water! That was probably the last time we attempt the nature trail loop - at least until we can bring some loppers and chain saws along with us.

The trail was in BAD shape. this was just one of
many obstacles we had to maneuver to get by
(and this was an easy one!)

Cal named it the "tangler trip" - and
the worst part was that once we got through
this mass, we came to a dead end of another
tangled trap with water running over the trail
underneath it. Impassible. Had to turn
around and do this mess again.

Back out the way we came.

I had to take this to show just how
close we got to completing that loop -
but then we had to backtrack all the way
back around through the briars and
brambles.

16 May 2019: Old Highway Beach Trails

Cal had morning kindergarten on the 16th so she could go to the fire station on a field trip. After Sam and I dropped her off, we decided to stop by "our beach" to check out the water level of the reservoir. While we were there, we explored a couple of the little trails nearby. It was a magnificent morning with my favorite little dude.

The water is rising!

Hard to see, but we enjoyed watching pelicans
gliding over the lake.

Exploring on the steepest trail near the beach.

He was up for all my trail suggestions.

I sure do love this boy and our Mom and Sam time.

It was fun to watch him run and try to jump over dyers woad
and sagebrush along our little hike.

This is where we live!!

25 May 2019: North Fork River Trail

Saturday was sunny and I was dying to get outside in the mountains. I also needed to scout out trails in preparation for our first Tyke Hike of the season, scheduled for the upcoming Wednesday. It has been so wet I didn't know what shape any of the trails would be in, so we drove to North Fork to see how things looked. We drove right past the Mule Ear trail since it was pretty much a river of mud. (We'll definitely have to come back to that one once things dry out - it was one of my favorites from last year.) We ended up at the river trail, which I hoped would be drier since it's more of a dirt road, and started hiking. The day was beautiful! And I was hopeful as we started out because the one spot that is always a puddle was not bad at all. It turned out to be a fluke (or some extra useful drainage ditches that had been dug nearby) but we had many a stream running down the middle of the road that we had to maneuver around all the way up the 0.9 miles we hiked along the road. We went further than I've ever been on this trail and it was absolutely beautiful. We even saw a waterfall! After we got back to the car (with a little rainstorm to get us sufficiently moist midway) we explored the little reservoir that we spotted from the trail that was just below where we parked. We've been up here plenty of times, but have never seen this body of water! New discoveries every day, I guess.

Attempting some rock skipping at the first little pond we come
to along the road. Isn't that so picturesque?

bonus video!

"trail runners"

There's TONS of snow still up there in the high
elevations!

The reservoir that we didn't know existed.

Muddy and wet - I nixed this trail as a potential
tyke hike spot because of so much water, but we
kept on hiking anyway.

Really wet.

Burn area. Not sure if this was last year's Durfee Creek fire
or not?

Isn't that amazing?!

Snacks with a view.

Some arrowleaf balsam root looking mighty fine.

Look closely to see the squiggle of waterfall coming down
through those trees.

Happy hikers.

Oooh la la!
(These are the parking lot views!)

Down by the reservoir.

He was playing "fishing" and making me nervous that he'd
fall in head first. Gregg said he kind of hoped he would fall in
and maybe he'd learn to a) listen to his parents when they told
him to be careful and b) actually be careful around the water.

Gregg got his wish the minute I turned my back
on my poor, soggy, cold baby boy. Time will tell
if the lesson sinks in...

29 May 2019: Pineview West Trail from Windsurfer Beach

Our first Tyke Hike of the season! I have had so much interest in this "little" group this winter and spring - so many moms have asked when we'll be starting, "are we hiking this week?", "can you add me/my friend to your text list?" I'm now up to 41 people who get texts from me about our hikes! It's insane! But it's definitely my kind of group to be the leader of. I just pick a hike on Monday, send out 41 texts (but not individually - it goes out in 4-5 group texts) with a short description or selling point of the trail and directions on where to meet, and then I show up on Wednesday and send the moms and kids loose. My kids love hiking with friends and it's fun to chat with moms and see them and their kiddos get so excited about discovering a new trail. I'm happy to pass along the info, and everyone always seems to have a great hour or two in nature. We had a record turnout for this first hike (last year's first hike was the previous record and now when I look back at it, it seems teeny!) - you could tell people were SO ready to be outside and luckily the weather was absolutely perfect for us.

I count 14 moms (Alicia, Chrissy, Ashley, Sariah, Me, Heather,
Sadie, Jennica, Lara, Cassie, Megan, Holly, Lupita and Missy)
and 28 kids (I won't name them all because I don't even know
all their names)!! (And Brenley and her 6 kids, who came after
our pic, bring the total up to 15 moms and 34 kids!! Record
smashed!)

Clouds!

We hiked to the marina, splashed a few rocks and then hiked back.

(Not all) the kids on a hill. They were great sports to sit
still so long while all the moms took pics.

Funny faces!

30 May 2019: Old Highway Beach Trails (again - this time with Callie)

We needed a walk on a Thursday morning, and Sam begged to ride his bike somewhere, so we combined the two with a walk/ride to the Old Highway Beach area and then a quick hike on the trail above. The lake is full! Max capacity as far as I can tell, since the spillways are flowing free at the dam. I didn't think it would fill up after being so so low last fall, but all that snow and rain have done their job and we're ready for a summer full of lake fun!