Running out of gas

(A version of this story first appeared on June 21, 2023 on The Heart of The Matter.)

My sons were both excited, my daughter a bit less, but she was being a good sport. They wanted to see the waterfalls. Our kids were all relatively young and we had billed up the falls and our trip to the mountains for weeks. 

We were visiting the Shenandoah National Park in North Central Virginia. We were going to make the short hike down the Dark Hollow Falls, a mile and a half out-and-back hike that was listed in the trail book as a “moderate” hike. What the hike lacks in length, it makes up in steepness. The hike is rocky in spots and the return climb can be very challenging. 

“Now if we hike down, we’re going to have to hike back up,” I warned the kids. “It’s going to be a long walk, I just need to know that you’re all in, that you’re going to be up for walking back up the mountain.”

I knew I would be carrying the youngest. Oh, I knew he’d talk a good game and he would start strong, but his legs were tiny and there was no way he’d walk the entire distance on his own. The other two were the outliers. I didn’t want to have to worry about carrying them. 

When I had mentioned they could use my hiking poles, they assumed that the poles were somehow magic, and, of course, were on board. When they all agreed, I told them, “Okay, we can do this” more to encourage myself than the three of them. 

Heigh-Ho, heigh-Ho, Off the Trail We Go!

On our walk down, the hike seemed to take forever, what supposedly was going to take 75 minutes for the entire hike, took us well over two hours, just to get to the bottom of the trail. Fortunately, the falls were as beautiful as previous visits. The kids were amazed looking at the 70-foot cascading waterfall, spilling out over the rocky ledge and scarfed down snacks and water my wife had remembered to bring. We stuck around for a while, mainly because we knew what came next, but I could see that it was getting late in the afternoon and we needed to start back up. 

Right on cue, the kids started to get tired. I reminded them of our deal, but they didn’t really care about the “stinking deal” now, they were tired. And the magic poles weren’t so magical anymore.

I would walk for twenty yards and then magically spy a deer to keep their interest. “Did you see him? He’s the prettiest deer I’ve ever seen. I think he’s a ten pointer,” I would whisper. “You gotta be real quiet. Let’s walk a little more and see if we can see him again.” That worked for awhile, until they started to catch onto daddy’s trick. 

“Dad, there’s no deer. You’re teasing us.” 

“No, no, I swear I saw a deer. I wonder if it’s related to Bambi?”

Shenandoah National Park

All Aboard, No Stops, Direct Trip To The Top!

Finally I knew we had to be getting close to the top of the mountain. I’m not sure where I got it from, but I collected my last bit of stamina, I had the youngest in my backpack-style carrier and told him to hang on tight, and somehow managed to scoop up the other two, first one on my right arm, and then the other with the left. 

My wife, trailing the three of us, yelled at me to be careful. I couldn’t hear her well over the kids giggling. They couldn’t stop laughing, they were getting a free ride up the hill. My wife was worried about me falling and our crazy kids hurting themselves, but I think she was really yelling at me to wait up and give her a ride too. 

I’m sure we were an odd sight, but somehow we made it to the top of the mountain. My arms and back cried out in glee. Yes, resiliency at its finest. And a bit of craziness too!