D woke up a mess this morning. He had mouth pain and nausea. Wishing the latter would go away wasn't very effective, as he soon found himself puking his guts out in the toilet.
So we found ourselves with a choice. We could cancel the epic hike we had today and just opt to chill and hope he got better.
Or, I could run out to the store to pick up some ginger. Make the boy some ginger tea to help settle his stomach. Then grab a small trash can, name him, 'buckey' and announce that buckey would be joining us on the hour and half car ride to the trail head.
So yeah, we went with option B. Buckey was beloved by all, and by the time I got the tea brewed D was already feeling better.
Today's hike was located an hour and half out side of New York City and was located in Clarence Fahnestock State Park. The hike was a massive 8 miles and would test the adage: is too much of a good thing, still a good thing? Spoiler alert: it is not.
The hike started strong: the kids were happy, the weather was cooperating and the trail was as picturesque as could be. We snagged a geo cache, and the kids took turns using my DSLR. In fact, the vast majority of the DSLR pics were taken by one of the children.
I was psyched that we'd be spending time on the Appalachian Trail, and this may very well have been the first segment in New York I've traveled on. The terrain was typical for North Eastern US hiking: much of it was undulating time spent in the green tunnel.
By mile 2 we realized we'd bitten off (almost) more than we could chew with this hike. We'd arrived later to the trail head than expected, and the kids were moving slower than expected. Miles into the hike, we were getting loud objections from the girls that they had tired feet and were long past enjoying themselves.
In case you're wondering, T-mobile's 5G phone service was reliable enough that Shira was able to stream the end of the Wimbeldon final on her phone. We paused our hike for the final tiebreak, waiting to see if Djokovic would take the win (he did).
I'd brought along trekking poles for Shira, which made for a new conundrum: if we gave the poles to the kids, they were happier hikers. But then the terrain bothered Shira's knees and she wasn't pleased. I certainly learned my lesson: these kids like trekking polls and in the future, I'll be making sure each kid as at least one.
At one point, over 5 miles into the hike, we stopped at a stream crossing to refill water bottles. I sent the kids ahead with Shira while I collected and treated water. When I was done, I assumed I'd quickly catch up to them. What I found instead were at least 3 very steep hills which slowed my pace down, and I couldn't imagine how Shira had coaxed the children to the top thereof. But she did it, and they did it.
Ultimately, we finished the trail and within an hour, C, who'd complained mightily during the hike, was already telling me it was a cool trail. The kids learned a first hand lesson in the Fun Scale, with much of the day spent in Type 2 fun. But hey, Type 2 fun is still fun. Right?
In the evening, we discovered the cause of D's mysterious mouth pain: he had a canker sore. He didn't know the terminology to describe what he had, and it took Shira pointing out the obvious to me before I got it. I made yet another walk to a nearby store to pick up a treatment, and he was on his way to recover in no time.
All told, the kids walked about 28,000 steps today. At least they'll sleep well tonight!
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