We’ve done this small 1.4 mile loop off of Little Si a number of times now, sometimes we add it on when we are coming down Little Si and sometimes when we are short on time this is the one we do. It is also part of the Old Trail for Mount Si – which I’ve done twice and am in no rush to do again!
The day started off dry, warm and sunny-ish however by the time we reached the trail head at the end it was wet, cold and still raining! Despite the main trail parking lot being almost full we saw very few people on the trail. This was partly the reason for choosing this trail other than to take out new pack out for its first hike!
A is old enough and strong enough to be in a hiking backpack now, she can sit unaided and hold her head up strong. I am a huge babywearing lover and love to wear her in a woven wrap she is becoming a little heavier for the longer walks and I need to make sure that my centre of gravity is secure when walking on uneven paths and trails. I can’t see my feet when she’s on my front so was worried that this would become a trip hazard. We opted for the Osprey Poco Plus backpack and picked it up from the Alderwood Mall REI. (Which has some great social distancing and people control, if we need to go back into the store I feel comfortable doing it – which is great as these children’s backpacks are pricey so we wanted to try on before buying!)
Osprey Poco Plus was our first choice – I had trawled the Facebook pages I’m a member of and also checked out Instagram to see reviews and this came up a lot. I like it because it comes with an inbuilt sunshade for baby, it can be fully adapted quickly and easily for different bodies which is a must for us! We aren’t built the same plus I’m taller, and we wanted aka needed to be able to switch A between us. This one has space for a water bladder and a zippered compartment at the bottle which is great for A’s diaper bits, food, blanket/mat, and my jacket and sweater. I saw lots of photos online of children being able to pull up their own toys and water from the side pockets which I hope A will find useful too once she is a little older – Sophie the Giraffe fits!
One additional comment I saw a few times about this carrier was that when the person carrying fell or tripped over, that the child was unharmed. The hard frame and the padding protected them. Now…no one wants to fall over but I have! More than once on a trail, off the trail, down the trail…so this has been on my mind.
So far we love it! A seems comfortable in it, shes’s fallen asleep in it too as you can see in the photo above. She does when I wear her on my front. (I’m writing this in December and we’ve been on 5 more hikes with A in this and we still love it and she still falls to sleep in it.)
Boulder Loop Trail starts off on Little Si Trail, it is relatively wide which is useful as this is a popular hike all year round, and more so when social distancing is required. You don’t need to hike too far until you come across a sign, we opted to take this first left and do the 1.5 mile loop up so we would then come down Little Si once we re-joined it. In hindsight we would do this the other way around due to slippery adn steep trail down once it rained and I slipped whilst wearing A. (She was absolutely fine, I had a bruised and cut up left elbow and left shin to thigh.)
Once we had switched onto the Boulder Garden Trail we noticed that it was not heavily trafficked, the leaves on the ground were such beautiful shades of oranges and reds and there was no sign that they had been recently walked through. In total we came across two other sets of people…both coming from the opposite direction — I’m thinking they knew it was the better way to go. The weather was very unpredictable at times it was overcast and grey, other times it was bright sunshine and we needed to wear sunnies – A had hers we did not have ours.
Then the heavens opened and it rained and rained, and I learnt that I over heat wearing my raincoat whilst carrying A. Thankfully I had a merino wool long sleeved shirt on so even though I was soaked through, I was not uncomfortably cold. The moss on the trees really stood out, I’m not one to notice moss however it looked soft and very green.
We switched to me carrying A once we reached the sign post for the Douglas Fir Trail. One thing I really like about the well maintained trails is that they often have really clear signs as well as decent trails and sometimes there are maps along the way too. I love seeing all the connected trails from Little Si, so many of these are some of my favourites.
Once we had switched the rain began, as I mentioned above I struggled with over heating but also I realised we had not yet brought the rain cover for the child carrier! Thankfully the Osprey one has an in-built sunshade which with the trees and foliage kept the majority of the rain off A, not that she minded as she fell asleep within minutes. As the path climbed uphill slowly and then back down plus the rain and my already great ability of tripping I don’t have many photos of the remainder of the hike. Other than the ones I asked/reminded/requested Hubster take. A woke just as I slipped and fell, she was completely fine and giggled away to the exciting feeling of falling, then proceeded to play with my hair.
With a little bit of embarrassment and general frustrations I refused to switch from carrying, I knew we weren’t far from the end and also knew that I really needed to gain the strength to carry her. She fell asleep again, and this time for a relaly good long nap. We took her off my back in the carpark, made sure she was staying dry and then me and Hubster proceeded to sit in the trunk eating our lunch for about 30 minutes! (Looking back I’ve noticed A sleeps longer and more often when I’m carrying her too…interesting I think!)
- Things we learnt from our first hike with A:
- Bring sunglasses for everyone
- Work out layering for me
- Buy rain cover for A’s carrier
- Bring poles to every hike, even ones I’ve done many times before as my balance is not the same
- A is significantly better dressed and more stylish than we are
The Gordon's Miscellany 