Paradise Campground, Oregon. Sebastian is hungry, so we stop. As a mother, there are a lot of uncomfortable places and ways to feed your baby, but there are also some moments where it just feels right. In this moment, I felt connected to the outside world, a part of the living cycle in which things are born, things live, things grow and things die. It was a feeling of oneness with nature. We are but animals, although sometimes we forget.
Some other moments where I felt this baby-feeding bliss: sitting on a bench in Brazos Bend State Park, listening to the frogs and birds peeping a night time chorus as the sun began to set. Perched on a rock here along the below lakeside, at another campground in Oregon in Mt Hood National Forest.
A bald eagle flew across the lake, and after I fed the baby, we stopped by the shore to look at him perched at the top of a dead tree across the lake. An osprey hunted for fish above us.
Sit beside a mountain stream, see her waters rise/ Listen to the pretty sound of music as she flies (Lennon/McCartney, “Mother Nature’s Son”
It’s going to be a sad day when my milk is gone, as it is already threatening to do, because I really do enjoy feeding baby in this way, and especially when we are alone in the outdoors.
Close to the time my maternity leave from work was ending, I stumbled upon this group online that seemed congruent with my current lifestyle – Hike It Baby. The Houston branch is part of a national organization dreamed up by founder Shanti Hodges of Portland, Oregon in 2013. There are branches in 100 different cities and two countries, less than two years after she put her idea into action. The purpose of the group is to get families out into nature by offering hikes and urban walks, submitted and lead by local participants. Although kids of any age are welcome, primarily the group seems to attract parents of infants, babies and toddlers using various types of baby gear (carriers, strollers or wraps) to walk with their children through both forests and interesting urban environments.
For me, this organization provides a social opportunity, a chance to meet and interact with other parents who already have something in common with me – the desire to introduce their children to the outdoors. If you have read any of this blog before, you already know I am the “outdoorsy” type and that my kids and I spent a lot of time in nature. I don’t need another motivation, per se. However, what I do need is a group of my peers; other parents of young ones to talk with. Because I have this second family going on, most of my friends with kids have older kids, like my first set, but I want to find friends for Sebastian and other mothers to discuss baby milestones with.
Sebastian sleeps through one of several Hike It Baby “hikes” he has participated in over the past few weeks
I also really needed to get out of the house during my leave and talk to some adults. In the last two weeks of my leave, I participated in four Hike It Baby walks, and then I did another one in the evening when I started back at work (that just happened to be hosted at my favorite local place to take a walk – the Cinco Ranch Nature Trail).
I decided that since I enjoyed this so much, but that most of the walks were scheduled during the week when I was at work, that I would submit some of my own on the weekends to see if there were others for whom that time and day would work as well. Plus, there were no hikes scheduled on National Get Outdoors Day (this past Saturday, June 13).
So I submitted my first hike through the online submission form, and I was excited when it finally posted. I had invited my friend Misti, whom I met online through blogging, and it was a good opportunity to get our babies together (although Sebastian slept through their first meeting, naturally). It was awesome to see her again, since we have only seen each other in person like once a year since we met (but always with intentions for more interactions, because we both really enjoy the outdoors).
Finally, it was the day of the hike, and I wondered if anyone would show up. Besides Misti and her family, we had about seven or eight other families join us on the short hike on the Terry Hershey Hike and Bike that I had planned. It was a bigger crowd than I expected! It made me feel glad that I decided to plan a Saturday hike, and hopeful that this meant that the “Saturday, once a month” hike time that I had decided on would also work for other families, which meant I would have company (and someone to talk to).
Here are some shots from the trail:
A night heron fishes for his lunch near the Highway 6 bridge We basically just walked a mile from the Barker Reservoir towards Eldridge, then turned around and walked back again. I had Jason come with me for support (and to find the geocaches along the way), and although he enjoyed talking to the other dads, his feeling is that he would have wanted a faster pace. I had forgotten to tell him that you set the pace expectations on the online listing, and I had said that this one was casual and that kids could walk. The next one I have organized, at Arthur Storey Park, I set the pace for “fast, adult-paced” walk with a stop for the kids to play at the end.
I have been a little obsessed with the idea of this group lately. I think it is an awesome idea and I am glad there is someone out there like Shanti to dream it up, and like the branch leaders in each of the 100 cities to have the motivation to keep it going with her original vision intact. I am looking forward to more opportunities to interact with other Houston families out on the trails and on walks through interesting places. Be expecting more on this subject this coming year
“Every time…”.
That’s what my husband says when we make the turn from Beltway 8 northbound to head west on the Westpark Tollway.
This is in response to what has been reduced to a simple gesture from me, or the beginning of a statement, something like “Someday, I want to…” or “Have I ever told you…”
This is a habit I developed in response to seeing Mike Driscoll Park there on our right. I’ve apparently been telling him I want to go there someday for years. Finally I had a chance to go last week, when my plans for the day were canceled and I found myself with some time. I loaded up the two youngest kids and we just went.
Basically, the park consists of a small playground and then a paved trail around a retention pond. This picture is after the recent rains (Memorial weekend historic flooding). Usually, there is little to no water in this pond area.
The paved trail is a little over a mile long, and it has one big dip in it at the far end that was still able to be traversed by stroller. Some flowers were blooming at the waters edge, we saw a handful of bird species, and the trail had more shade than I originally thought. We also found a handful of geocaches along our walk, along with a few mosquitos and a couple “rolly pollys”.
I would go again, though next time wearing more bug spray and perhaps when it was a little less wet there. My middle son got his shoes soaking wet in the playground and we were unable to get to some of the geocaches that were hidden here due to water and bugs.
Maybe now, though, I will quit driving my husband crazy whenever we pass it. I think I got the desire to explore it put of my system for a bit
😉
Paradise Campground, Oregon. Sebastian is hungry, so we stop. As a mother, there are a lot of uncomfortable places and ways to feed your baby, but there are also some moments where it just feels right. In this moment, I felt connected to the outside world, a part of the living cycle in which things are born, things live, things grow and things die. It was a feeling of oneness with nature. We are but animals, although sometimes we forget.
A bald eagle flew across the lake, and after I fed the baby, we stopped by the shore to look at him perched at the top of a dead tree across the lake. An osprey hunted for fish above us.
