Mommydew and Crew: Hiking in the rain

Every time, in the past, Kevin and I move we always talk about the local sites we didn't get around to seeing. That is even true of our home state of NC. When Kevin took the job he has now, and I knew we would be moving, I decided to pick something near by that we'd been wanting to do and do it.

The Grayson Highlands state park in VA was on my list and the one I picked. It is one of the most beautiful places to hike and it has wild ponies. I'm a bit of a softy when it comes to the equine family. So one day when the weather said it was going to be clear (no rain) we packed a picnic lunch and headed up to the park. We missed a turn, which made it take longer than it should have to get there, but we got there none the less.

We picked the Rhododendron trail. I tied Desiree to me with a baby wrap, put our lunch in Lathen's backpack and we were off! There was this sign a few yard past the parking lot that said something about hazardous weather and extremely unexpected changes can occur, I wish I would have taken a picture of this foreshadowing sign...

Right at the trail head, about 200 yards past the parking lot, Heath decided to poop. Lathen was kind enough to run back to the car and get a new diaper. After changing Heath's mess we were off again!

It was a lot of fun hiking. The views were amazing, the kids had a blast running around and the fresh air was, well, fresh. We hiked up to the top of a ridge. From there we could see a group of rocks that Lathen really wanted to climb. We hiked over to the rocks and Lathen took off. Of course Kieralee couldn't be out done so she took off up the rocks too. Then Heath wanted to go, and Kieralee got frustrated and before I knew it I was climbing the rocks with Desiree. I'm glad I did, it was gorgeous up on those rocks. We decided to have our lunch up there.

I should interject here that the weather was not exactly what the weather channel website said it would be. It was cooler and the clouds looked more like rain clouds instead of 0% chance of rain clear skies. While enjoying the views from the top of the rocks I couldn't help but notice the intruding clouds.

We also saw the ponies from the top of the rocks. Unfortunately instead of being close like I had hoped they were far off, on another ridge entirely.

Then it happened. It started with just a few rain drops and then the bottom fell out. It poured. And when I say it poured I mean I couldn't see more than a few feet in front of my face. The rain drops were coming so hard and heavy they actually hurt when they hit my arms. I grabbed our stuff and we starting hoofing it for the car. I took less than twenty steps before Heath froze and refused to go any further. To his credit he did hike up a mountain. I threw him onto my shoulders and starting down the mountain again.

There I was. One baby strapped to my chest, one on my shoulders and two more trying to keep up! Heath started to shiver as the rain soaked him to the core and the temperature dropped to the low 50's. The trail had become a creek as water hurried off the mountain. What did I do? I laughed. I mean seriously what else could I do? Lathen and Kieralee thought I was crazy. I simply explained that this was the kind of trip that we would never forget and why not laugh our way off the mountain.

When we got to the car everyone was cold and soaked. (Does anyone know a word that means more than soaked?) I mean my breast pads had completely swollen (think a diaper after being dropped in a pool). Heath's diaper was ready to pop. No one had a piece of dry clothing (well almost no one).

I should note two miracles. First, as I was leaving that house that morning I got a feeling to go back inside a grab a blanket. Second, when I removed Desiree from the baby wrap she was still dry. She actually slept the entire hike off the mountain, rain and all.

I gave shivering Heath and cold Kieralee the blanket. I had a towel in my car that I gave to Lathen. We blasted the heat all the way home. Oh, and in case you were wondering it took us over an hour to hike up the mountain. It took us less than thirty minutes to get back down.

The trail head, after the diaper change.