Walk #1: Complete Disaster

So originally I picked a walk that was going to go through Portland Heights and down through PSU and then up to Goose Hollow.  I noticed in the book that there were 179 concrete steps just on the first staircase alone, so I quickly decided that was not a good walk for Trey, his stroller, and me.  I looked at few others and then thought the walk that went through Reed College and around Eastmoreland looked pretty simple.  I noticed the words "wooden staircase" in the first few pages but then also read "after you get to the bottom of the staircase, the ground levels out."  Great! 

Well, let's just say the wooden staircase should have been my first warning.  I got to the bottom of that staircase god knows how but Trey was certainly jostled around quite a bit.  I realized once I got to the bottom that going up would be pretty impossible, so I thought I would just give it a go.  I should have figured out before I even got out of my car that I was not equipped to do a nature walk, but sometimes I am just not very bright. 

This was the first major obstacle we encountered (if you don't count the wooden staircase); however, I was already pretty sweaty from trying to keep Trey's stroller even ON the trail. Those boardwalks that I thought sounded really cute and sweet were not wide enough for the stroller.  I figured this out the hard way on the first one. 

How did I get over this log, you ask?  (Remember, I couldn't turn around because the thought of backtracking made me a little nauseous.)  Well, I had to take Trey OUT of the stroller, climb over the log, put him down on the ground on the other side, hoping beyond hope that he wasn't going to put his new army crawling skills into use on this path and go over the edge, and then rush back to the stroller, LIFT it over the log, put Trey back in the stroller, and continue on our way.  Good god. 

This was our next major obstacle.  I couldn't take Trey out of the stroller this time because I couldn't risk that he would crawl off of the boardwalk into the WATER below.   I ended up lifting the entire stroller with Trey IN it over these logs.  Remember, friends, I am not very strong.  Although after this lift, I realized I could lift the stroller over the other obstacles that we encountered, so that is what I did.  Imagine me, sweaty, out of shape, and a little scared pushing Trey along this narrow path and trying to talk to him about all of the beautiful things we were seeing (mostly trees and the pond).  I figured at least one of us should get some pleasure out of this nightmare. 

When I got to an overpass for walkers, there was another "wooden" staircase that went up and next to it was dirt that I could have pushed  Trey up, but it was pretty steep.  I walked up there on my own because there was no way in hell I was going to push Trey (or carry him) up that hill and then find out that I couldn't go anywhere from there.  Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised to find that at the top of that hill was the beautiful Reed College campus.  Now I just had to figure out how to get up there.  Luckily, as I was standing there desperately trying to decide how to get my sweet boy to the top in one piece (he had been quite jostled at this point), a man came down the steps.  Oh thank god.  He helped me carry the stroller to the top and we were on our merry way on blessed pavement. 

Does he look worn out to you?

You should have seen his mama.

Here we are, back at home, safe and sound, having lunch.  Trey's favorite - watermelon and grilled cheese.  This boy would eat an entire watermelon if I let him.

Lesson learned today:  read about the walk more closely before leaving the house, verify somehow the surface we will be walking on if we are using the stroller, and obtain a backpack pronto so we can do the walks with stairs or dirt trails through nature parks.