On Wednesday of spring break, we headed out to the Eno River to go for a hike with another family. I was a little wary of the ratio (2 adults, 6 kids, lots of nature) but it ended up just fine. While the weather was sunny, the temperature was drastically different than it had been just the day before - we had to pull out the warm clothes that I had actually made an attempt to put away! We followed the same path that Eliza and her class had taken back in November (also a freezing cold day!) It was probably lucky the weather was so chilly - it had rained all day the day before and the river was high. The cold weather helped keep the kids safe from the raging river!
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| raging rapids for the Eno thanks to recent rain |
We headed out down the trail towards the foot bridge. The kids were in good spirits and all headed out with great energy on the trails. There were a few trip-ups along the way, but they actually did pretty well navigating the bumpy terrain.
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| down by the river, racing to the bridge |
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| 4 of 6 kids, posing in front of the steps up to the bridge |
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| starting to cross before putting the camera down to grab hands. the kids all did just fine on the bridge! |
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| big kids headed out with no hesitation |
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| view up the river from the bridge |
After crossing the bridge, we headed up towards the group camp area. The kids thought the fire pit area was fun for pretending. Hayden tried to organize the group to put on a show with the tent flats as the stage. She had a lot of volume but her minions didn't want to cooperate.
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| all alone after her minions ran away from her ministrations |
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| Six kids, all looking at the camera! |
After
explorinng the camp, we headed down to the river to walk back to the
log cabin. The kids had a BLAST running around the cabin. In and out of
the rooms, circling the cabin, climbing in and out the windows. I don't
know why the phrase is "pitter patter" of little feet because they
sounded more like a herd of elephants!
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| sparkly river, even in the chilly spring weather |
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| cabin! cabin! cabin! |
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| peeking out a window |
After rampaging around the cabin for a while, we headed back to the foot bridge and back up to the picnic area by the parking lot. Even Molly wanted to cross the bridge on her own. And everyone walked back up the trail without much complaining. Lunch was especially delicious after all that fresh air. Much food was gobbled up!
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| Molly heads across on her own |
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| view down river from the bridge |
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| Lunch! |
Lunch was pretty early (the kids were asking to eat at 11 am, but we managed to push them till after 11:30!) so we decided to do some more exploring. We headed down to the next parking area to the Few's Ford access. We walked the short trail down the the ford and discovered that it was a good thing we didn't need to ford the river - it was full! Even though we couldn't wade into the ford, the kids found that throwing rocks into the river was just as much fun. The pictures barely capture the glee with which every kid chucked rocks into the river!
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| Hayden helps lead the way |
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| all 6 in one frame again, checking out the unfordable ford |
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| pure delight at chucking rocks |
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| heave ho! |
After a sufficient number of rocks had been tossed, we did a little more exploring up to a nearby bluff to check out the view. Then we walked back to the car and headed home for quiet time. Despite worries of rainy weather and rowdy kids, we had a wonderful time. One of the highlights of our stay-cation!
