The family had a last minute idea to take a hike, the wind was blowing keeping the hot temperatures from totally killing us and so we thought it was ideal weather for a hike. The question was, where would we go? We didn’t want to go to Mt Ascutney in Vermont for we hiked that when Aj was a baby, we thought about the tall trees in Bradford, NH but again we’ve seen them 100 times already.
Since we wanted somewhere different that wasn’t too expensive, we decided upon Mt Kearsarge. I have never gone to this mountain and there’s a state park in Warner, NH called Rollins State Park that is relatively low cost plus we get to support NH state parks by going this route up the mountain. It was a deal, the game plan was ready and the kids hurried to get all ready so we could set off on our first family hike of the season!
Here are the kids and me at the parking area ready to hike the short .5 miles up to the summit of Mt Kearsarge. We didn’t realize it was such a short distance but come to find out it was the perfect distance for a first hike of the season. Our bodies are out of shape and the little dude (hiding behind me, see his head poking out?) has little legs so he can’t handle walking too far either.
So the hike wasn’t that long but in the heat and apparently lack of wind due to the trees blocking wind, the trail made us sweat and work hard. The trail was mostly rocks and we ran into chipmunks along the way as well. We also took the time to make this an educational trip when we ventured into the fire look out tower to speak with the fire look out dude, park ranger, who sits in the tower looking out for fire in the woods.
We talked with the fire ranger dude about how there has to be more than one person in the look out towers all over the various parks, especially on a high fire danger day to ensure that they can triangulate where the fire is. The fire ranger dude also gave the kids their own smokey the bear sticker. We learned due to budget cuts there are not as many people who can actually tend to the fire look outs and that made me sad. I think preserving our national forests and state parks are so vitally important, which is why when we chose to hike the mountain we went up on the state park side of it!
So fun! Graham would’ve loved talking to the fire ranger!
I’ve never gone “hiking” before. LOL. I’ve rode trails on bikes and horses… but hiking up a mountain sounds fun. .5 miles is just long enough for the first hike of the season.
This looks like fun! My kids like mild (keyword mild) hiking, but they are still little, so that’s ok. My husband and I hiked Bretton Woods a few years back and I thought we were gonna die by the time we got to the top. It was MUCH more challenging than we thought LMAO.
Glad you told me about it, going to add that to my list of things to do this summer.
You got some great pictures from this trip! Sounds like a neat way to incorporate something fun and new into summer plans. I’m glad you had fun.