A Hike on Friday

Yesterday was a beautiful day! We decided to take Fi on a little hike, so we headed to Thousand Oaks to Wildwood Park to Paradise Falls. Our hiking book describes Paradise Falls as “plunging 70 feet down a wall of volcanic rock into a large pool.” A photo of the falls is on the back cover of the book. The hike is supposed to be short, only three miles round trip. It is mostly flat, with a little bit of up and down, but nothing very strenuous. We set out a little late and underestimated just how slow we move when Fi is walking because she likes to make frequent stops to look at rocks, pick up sticks, and explore plants, not unlike a certain friend of mine. In fact, at one point, John commented that “hiking with Fi is like hiking with Jen.” All in all the hike lasted about two and a half hours instead of the one and a half promised by the book.

We began by waiting for John to finish some phone calls related to the flood at my parents’ house two weeks ago. The surrounding area is very pretty and everything was colored vibrant green from the recent rains, so Fi and I sat on a rock and posed for photos:

 

My goal to make sure that there are lots of photos of me with Fi. So often I am the one behind the camera and so when Fiona looks at photos, she asks “Where’s Mommy?” and it makes me very sad. Years from now I want her to look at photos and know I was there.

First thing on the trail, Fiona requested carrots:

The hike was really uneventful. Fi fell once while running with carrots in her hand, and I showed her how to squat to pee in the wilderness. When I asked her what her favorite part of the day was, she insisted it was when Mommy went to the bathroom. Speaking of that, we have been potty training Fi and she goes without a diaper during the day. Even on the hike, she had no accidents and successfully squatted twice. She talked about it a lot yesterday evening.

Here we are at Paradise Falls:

 

 

 

There is a very good reason for the “no swimming” sign. The pool is not deep, the creek is not fast moving, or even deep enough to swim in, however, the water that feeds the creek and the waterfall is run-off from yards above the park. When I asked a ranger if the falls were running, he told me that they run year-round. As long as people water their lawns and wash their cars, there will be a creek with a waterfall. It explains why the area around the falls and close to the creek smelled bad, sort of sewery (because it is essentially a sewer). EW!

Fiona climbing up stairs:

Stopping to throw rocks through the fence:

Running and yelling like a crazy person, and giggling hysterically:

 

 

This is the “I desperate need a nap” a face:

We checked this bridge for trolls, but none were found:

  

There is a neat cave, called “Indian Cave” that we climbed into and out of:

 

It had two entrances and Fiona called it the Condor Cave because it was a little like the Condor cave at the zoo.

She was pretty tired and we wanted to get back to the car because we were running out of snacks and water and missed lunchtime, so we put her in the Ergo for most of the walk back (from the cave, we only had about half a mile left anyway):

She really wanted to walk back, especially when we were going uphill, but I carried her a lot of the way anyway, letting her out when we came to stairs.

She napped in the car and we had a nice little evening at home, where I cuddled her and she made a sour face:

 

Today, when asked what she wants to do, she keeps suggesting going for a hike, but it rained most of the morning, so we did not go. I can’t wait to take her again, though, I know she loves it and so do we!