I know, who want to walk outside in the winter, right? We get that all the time when we share our experience or invite other families to join in the fun. You would be surprised how many people enjoy being outside in the winter time aside from the usual outdoor winter activities such as skiing, sledding, and the like. We enjoy those activities as well but we have yet to have a decent snowfall for those activities in our neck of the woods. So we have found an alternative.
Last year during my search for activities that my “Biggest Loser” group from work could participate in, I discovered that our local Metro Parks sponsored an Annual Winter Hike Series. There was a hike every weekend at a different metro park. Each park offered a short hike (usually about 1 or 2 miles) or a longer one (up to about 6 miles) and also provided hot drinks and soups following the hike. My group loved the idea and many continued to make the hikes even after our scheduled group hike.
My family went on to attend the remaining hikes last year. My husband and I earned a patch for completing 7 hikes. This year we are making it more of a family outing. Now that our girls are older they are participating in more of the hikes with us. They hope to earn a patch this year also. We attended our first hike this past Saturday. Our girls did a great job and completed the two-mile hike on their own. (A far cry from last year where cries of “I’m tired!” and “Will you carry me?” were frequent.) They asked questions about what they saw and were more observant of their surroundings than during our summer trips to the park. We had a great time and are looking forward to our time together in future hikes.