The boys and I spent much of the summer exploring the many parks and trails of the Santa Cruz mountains.I called these hikes "nature walks" to appeal to Peter's affection for science and to conceal the possibility that these walks could turn into "slogs" or "forced marches." It seems to have been a successful strategy, for while we ended some of the walks with the two of them taking turns riding on my shoulders, they never seemed to associate these nature walks with exhaustion, which was my biggest fear.
My other top strategy was to take these walks in places with running water. I stumbled on this principle on our first walk in the lower portion of Big Basin, in the area known as Waddell Creek. It was the first of our nature walks, back in the spring, and I had decided to drag the kids out for a walk because of my concern that neither was getting much exercise or had much stamina. My fears were stoked at the very beginning of the walk when the boys wilted at the trailhead. Somehow I managed to drag them through the park entrance and then winced when they chose the narrow uphill path, rather than the broad, flat path to the creek at our first fork in the road. Indeed, there was much groaning as the path continued to climb. But then we had our first lucky break when a group of three young women caught up with us. The leader of the group had worked in outdoor education and she kindly pointed out a number of interesting plants that caught Peter's attention. We learned about "miner's lettuce," the "refrigerator tree" and, most importantly, poison oak. Without it necessarily turning into a specimen hunt, the boys seemed to begin to perceive the landscape around them differently. The started naming each new stretch of the path and rushing ahead to discover new terrains. Eventually our path intersected with Waddell Creek. The boys played in the stream for about an hour whereupon they pronounced it "the best day ever!"
Since that day, we've managed a nature walk about once every three weeks. We've walked in the Fall Creek Unit of Henry Cowell Redwoods, the Forest of Nisene Marks (this is the trailhead featured in the photo above), Butano State Park, Elkhorn Slough, and the Pogonip (a set of trails skirting the edge of the UCSC campus). We've usually gone just the three of us, but we've gone with the boys' favorite friend Qun-Qun a couple times and even once with Noriko (she'll join us more once she's done writing her book). I've wanted to blog these trips, but haven't done so yet. Perhaps this can be a start.
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