An adventure in the woods

So yesterday I decided to go for another hike. Yes, yes, I seem to be making a habit of this. The hiking guide I have listed Huckleberry Botanical Regional Park as "easy" and "good for children."

Now, you might recall that Sibley, the last hike I went on, was similarly listed. Somehow I had imagined, especially since this one didn't have an elevation measurement, that this would be fairly similar, if not easier. I had actually envisioned it as a nice stroll through a fairly flat landscape. Why? I don't know, maybe because the accompanying picture in the guidebook seemed to suggest it?

My question after all of this is who would torture their children in such a manner as this? Granted I'm getting myself into better shape and a child could probably run circles around me, but this trail just sucked in terms of a place you might hike with a child. Children like to wander and much of this trail was fairly narrow with a substantially steep hill off the side. Children like variety and, although the manzanitas and the lichen fascinated me, there really wasn't much in terms of variety. And then there were the steep ascents. It was physically difficult.

I guess that for older children who have been hiking and camping with their parents often, this might be a good hike. It was certainly fairly short. But I would far prefer to bring my inner child back to Sibley (where there is a cool labrynth in the middle of the hike) then to send her skipping through Huckleberry.

The rest of the day was spent at home recovering. I did do some laundry, but I'd had much more extensive cleaning plans. I was simply too exhausted to carry through with them.

S comes home this week. *sigh*