Forest Park Hike

Monday our family went on a nice long hike into Forest Park. There are lots of different hikes you can do in Forest Park since it's such a big area. We chose to do a "moderate" level hike up off of Saltzman Road off of HWY 30. When you first get there it's kind of creepy because it's pretty desolate but it was a beautiful day and in the shade of the trees it was the perfect temperature. Gus rode on my back in the ergo on the way up and he rode back with daddy (and fell asleep on the way to the car). It was a really good hike, but it did almost kill me. We had to go up a detour trail because part of the Maple loop trail was shut down and the detour trail is an old fire trail and it was STRAIGHT uphill. Joel and Rob were fine going up but I had to stop a few times. It was also in direct sun, which didn't help, but once we got to the top the view was gorgeous. We hiked down Leif Erikson road and saw quite a few bikers along the way. Once we got to the other closed off section of the Maple Loop trail, we sat and had a picnic with some healthy homemade potato salad, some watermelon, nectarines, oatmeal cookies and a baguette with herbed chevre (very French!). It was a great day and it is always good for me to get out in the fresh air since I am usually stuck in the house during the week.