Saturday, May 13, 2006
Hiking with a Pregnant Woman
My wife and I are expecting the arrival of our child in November. This has awakened in me a sense that I need to live adventurously now since my life after the birth will be quite tame where most of time is occupied by work, diaper changes, or other miscellaneous chores that somehow revolve around the baby. So, to that end, I find myself making suggestions about our weekend plans that involve some level of adventure.
The last 2 weekends my wife has been in training for volunteer financial counseling that she has been doing. So, I found myself having to adventure out alone. This has meant finding a bike routes and seeing how fast I could complete them. But today, she was free and I suggested hiking.
Today we headed to Catoctin Mountain Park, the National Park outside of Thurmont, MD that houses Camp David. Our previous attempt to find an outlook there was thwarted by a lack of information on my part as we found ourselves about 6 miles from where we wanted to be with a formidable climb before us. But today, I was smarter and decided to suck it up and ask for directions from the kind men in pointy hats known as park rangers.
While my wife continues to hold the same adventurous spirit that I do, the flesh is weak (that is, weaker than is normally the case). The hike started from the visitor center and climbed steeply. This presented major troubles to her, but she perservered over the course of the 4 or 5 mile hike. We made it to Wolf Rock, a large rock formation which afforded much scrambling and climbing. We then headed down to Chimney Rock, which offered commanding views of the mountain range and the valley below. Unfortuantely, as we neared the rock, the rain came and forced us to shorten our stay at the rock. We continued back down towards the road. We lost a lot of elevation coming from Chimney Rock, only to find that we had to climb back to the top along the path to our car.
My wife struggled, but somehow made it. There were times when I thought our pace would have been faster had I carried her piggy-back. We made it back to the car and drove home. It was quite an ordeal to see what I was putting her through. If asked, she will say she had a wonderful time and she still enjoys hiking. If pressed, she will say that the only part that bothers her is the uphill. To me, that is hiking. You climb to the top of the mountain and then head back down.
Given what happened today, the only hiking we'll be doing for a while will have to be flat - maybe we'll make a trip to Kansas.
The last 2 weekends my wife has been in training for volunteer financial counseling that she has been doing. So, I found myself having to adventure out alone. This has meant finding a bike routes and seeing how fast I could complete them. But today, she was free and I suggested hiking.
Today we headed to Catoctin Mountain Park, the National Park outside of Thurmont, MD that houses Camp David. Our previous attempt to find an outlook there was thwarted by a lack of information on my part as we found ourselves about 6 miles from where we wanted to be with a formidable climb before us. But today, I was smarter and decided to suck it up and ask for directions from the kind men in pointy hats known as park rangers.
While my wife continues to hold the same adventurous spirit that I do, the flesh is weak (that is, weaker than is normally the case). The hike started from the visitor center and climbed steeply. This presented major troubles to her, but she perservered over the course of the 4 or 5 mile hike. We made it to Wolf Rock, a large rock formation which afforded much scrambling and climbing. We then headed down to Chimney Rock, which offered commanding views of the mountain range and the valley below. Unfortuantely, as we neared the rock, the rain came and forced us to shorten our stay at the rock. We continued back down towards the road. We lost a lot of elevation coming from Chimney Rock, only to find that we had to climb back to the top along the path to our car.
My wife struggled, but somehow made it. There were times when I thought our pace would have been faster had I carried her piggy-back. We made it back to the car and drove home. It was quite an ordeal to see what I was putting her through. If asked, she will say she had a wonderful time and she still enjoys hiking. If pressed, she will say that the only part that bothers her is the uphill. To me, that is hiking. You climb to the top of the mountain and then head back down.
Given what happened today, the only hiking we'll be doing for a while will have to be flat - maybe we'll make a trip to Kansas.
