Muddy Hike

We took a hike up in Tilden Park on Sunday. The weather was nice, and we all wanted to get some exercise while the sun was shining. Olivia confirmed her interest by running to the front door and saying "Ah-shide." We set out for Tilden with the baby backpack, snacks, water and a leash for the dog. Once in the parking lot we suited up and headed down the trail One of the first signs that we were in for a real hike was the stream across the trail. No problem it's just a hop with an extra 26 pounds on your back. Up the hill. More mud. Down the hill. More mud. Olivia was enjoying herself -- Jenny said she had a huge smile on her face as we moved through wood, meadow and near the rushing creek and falls. At one point I needed to walk on the trail berm to avoid sinking knee deep in mud. As I stepped I heard "Ow. Owwwww. Ow." Poor Liv had her faced dragged through a pokey bush. She was good spirited - these were mainly surface scratches, but the tree hurt me, so i know it wasn't pain free. We continued up the trail. Not 15 minutes into it, we saw about 30 feet of deep, muddy mud. Not to have our hike cut short, we saw a cattle trail up the steep hill. We took it. It was STEEP. Livvy was listing to one side as I strained to keep us upright, and myself breathing evenly. Ten minutes later we found ourselves on top of a very tall hill, with no real trails in sight. So we took what looked to be a lightly traveled trail and began our descent. In a few minutes we saw the original trail, but with a steep, muddy slide between us and it. Jenny and I coordinated our way down, with much difficulty. Jenny says the smile never left Olive's face. In mostly one piece, we headed back to the car for about 15 minutes of shoe scraping. I think Olivia will be a good outdoors woman in no time. Now where is the Neosporin for those scratches?

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