Hiking Boys

Isaac made one really good friend in school last year. He had other friends, but they all seemed to think that you could only have one friend at a time, and Camden was it for the better part of the year.

As the school year was ending, Camden's mom, Julie, and I talked about our families hiking together.

We finally picked a date and decided to hike around Lake Hodges. The lake is usually more of a forest, with lots of trees and almost no water. But this year we have been blessed with an abundance of rain that has filled the lake and even gotten us out of our drought. I love to see the water levels so high.

Camden's family had done the hike before, but not when the water was so high. And I don't think that they made it the whole way last time.

We met up bright and early to try to beat the sun, the kids all had their camelpaks and smiles on. There wasn't much shade, and we didn't beat the sun, but the kids were great sports. There were 5 boys between us, and it was fun to watch them get excited about birds and animal tracks (dogs). The older boys liked to explain things to the little guys.

We paused underneath the freeway over pass, enjoying the shade, when we noticed hundreds of birds. They were swallows, and as we looked closer, they were flying back and forth bringing food or supplies to their mudnests on the underside of the freeway. I love those opportunities to teach the boys little things about nature.

We finished our short hike at a parking lot across from the North County Fair. It was pretty disappointing, as the only slightly natural thing there was a big old puddle. But then Evan, Camden's little brother, said he saw a fish in the puddle. Yah, yah, whatever. But his dad looked closer, and there were fish, and then he noticed that the "puddle" was overflow from the lake, and it was an entire ecosystem all it's own. We saw giant tadpoles, frogs, tiny fish and crayfish. It was really pretty cool.

I'm thankful for a beautiful world and the opportunity I have to teach my children about all of God's creations.