Hiking's lessons in planning

Don and I have taken the opportunity on two weekends of March to go hiking in some beautiful areas around Sydney. We didn't plan very well, and even though we'll be able to look back and laugh at some of the difficulties that arose from our lack of planning, it was not so funny in the moment.
The first weekend we went to the Blue Mountains. They aren't really blue, but they are beautiful. There were some beautiful lookout points, a great waterfall, a cool rainforest to walk through where they used to do some coal mining. To get there, we took a cable car across a deep gorge, then we took the steepest railway in the world to get to the bottom of the mountain. It was crazy. The benches were angled backwards otherwise you would fall out of your seat. IT was probably only a 2 or 3 minute ride, but very fun. Then after we were done with walking around the rainforest we took another cable car up the mountain, a cable car across the gorge, and then hiked back to the car. It was probably a 3 hour hike (we'd done another short 1/2 hour hike earlier in the day). The problem was that a worker at the store near the head of the trail said the trail was okay for strollers. It was, for the first 20 minutes. The rest of the trip was me carrying Soren and Don carrying the stroller. But we made it. We also ate at a great small-town restaurant and had some delicious "toasties" which were just gourmet toasted sandwiches, for example, chicken, brie and tomato. Delicious.
On the drive home, which is about an hour, Soren was having some real troubles breathing. He sounded very croupy and since I know that croup tends to get worse at night and it was 7 pm or so, I decided to have Don drop me off at the ER to have him looked at. I sent Don to get dinner for him and the boys and figured he could wait a bit for me to get the meds I needed for Soren and we'd all drive home together. But they were concerned with Soren's breathing and wanted to monitor him all night, giving him steroids and adrenalin every four hours(that was a kick to watch Soren's increased energy level at 9 pm after having the adrenalin...he was going from toy to toy so fast he hardly had time to hold one before he picked up another). So Don went home only to realize I had the keys to the house in my diaper bag. He couldn't get into the house and Burke really needed to go to the bathroom. So, he took Burke to a public toilet on the beachfront, and then drove all the way back to the hospital. Soren was supposed to be done at midnight, so he and I were going to take a taxi home so that Don didn't have to wake up both kids and drive out to get us. In that regard, I was kind of glad when they said they wanted to keep him until morning. They sent us up to the regular pediatric unit, had a crib for Soren and a fold out bed for me. He was doing much better, not struggling to breathe, but still just a touch wheezy, so they just wanted ot keep an eye on him. Don came in the morning with the boys and stayed until they discharged us around 11 am. I was grateful Soren was better, and very excited to be able to go home and shower after all the hiking we'd done the day before.

This is another of Soren's latest things. He constantly sticks his hand up mine or Don's sleeves, usually when we are singing a good night song, but also at other random times of the day.

The Three Sisters.

Hike #2

The very next weekend, we decided last minute to go on a famous 9km hiking trail (9 km one way) that starts just near our house. We saw somewhere that it is one of the top things to do in Sydney, so we tried it. It is actually called Manly Scenic Walkway--that is walkway, not trail or hiking trail, so we weren't prepared for it to be as strenuous as it was. I had been a couple of times on the trail on my morning runs, so I had just gone a couple of miles into it. The whole way I had run, there was a great paved trail. So we decided to bring the stroller, and also brought the baby carrying pack in case Burke wanted to take a turn in the stroller, and we could carry Soren in the pack. We left at 10:30 am. We got home at 6:30 pm. And eight hour hike. It was a whole lot more than we had bargained for. Seriously meters after the furthest point in the hike where I had run, the trail changed into a dirt trail, rocks, uneven ground and lots of stairs. This hike was just around the edge of the peninsula, meaning there were many breathtaking views. If only we'd had our camera for this one. I think there are some drive up spots to the lookout points, so maybe we'll go get some pics sometime. Anyway, the trail continuously went up and down, up and down, so there were lots of stairs. Once again, Don carried the stroller (which is really kind of awkward to hold) and at least this time even though I was carrying Soren, he was in a pack. William and Burke were such troopers both weeks on such long hiking trails. Can't be easy on those little bodies. I was amazed by them and so happy they were holding out so well. They even had great attitudes. About halfway through the trail we debated about turning around, figuring those paved trails weren't coming back any time soon (and they didn't for the rest of the trail), but we had come this far and it was one of the top things to do in Sydney, so we stuck with it. We got to the end of the trail, and there was a little restaurant where we got some food. Then we realized neither of us had cash to take the bus home. That was a blow. The lady at the restaurant told us the nearest ATM machine was a couple of miles away, so off we went. At least for the remainder of this ordeal the boys didn't have to walk. We put the older two boys in the stroller, and switched Soren over to Don. By the time we got to the ATM, we figured we were close enough to home, might just as well walk back. This was ok until it started pouring rain about a mile away from home. William was covered in the stroller, and we found something to cover Soren's head, but Don, Burke and I were just getting soaked. We arrived home, took baths, and settled down for a movie together. So, by my calculations our hike that day was about 10 miles...6 miles on the trail, and 4 miles to get home after the trail. Add that to the 3 1/4 mile run I had done earlier that morning, that is 13 1/4 miles. I figured I can count that as doing a half marathon that day. :)

All in all I learned: always take cash with you, don't ever ever bring strollers on a hike, my boys are amazing, Don is really strong, and Sydney is beautiful.