Summertime Hikes Near McHugh

We didn’t get out hiking nearly as often as we had planned during the summer. Courtney’s landscaping job was busy, selling the house and finalizing the move was busy, keeping up with our hosting duties was busy – we were busy. Though we may always wish we’d hiked more, we were glad for the few little outings we took in the area. Courtney was actually pretty good about taking Tallis out in the back carrier or the stroller for hikes on the trails out of McHugh on weekends and evenings – it was often a good way to lull Tallis into a nap when he was wound up and it gave me a few minutes of alone time, not to mention the father-son benefits. I captured a couple nice photos of them when I accompanied them one day on a hike to the overlook south of McHugh.

One day, when we were particularly stressed about selling the house, we took an evening walk with the stroller along the nice trail system between Indian and Bird Creek several miles down the highway from McHugh. It was a peaceful getaway and a good chance for Courtney and me to reconnect and refocus in the midst of all the busy-ness. Not to mention it was a GLORIOUS day on Turnagain Arm! It must have worked for us, because the next day we finally got our to-be-accepted offer on the house! Yippee!

Another one of our hikes in the McHugh area was intended to be much longer than it was, but we encountered a black bear near the trail and took a different route! That turned out fine, though, because we ended up near our friendly neighborhood owl. We couldn’t see him/her, but the “hoo-hoos” were fantastic to listen to. We eventually stopped and let Tallis out of the carrier for a break and he had a BLAST climbing on the rocks like a little expert. He also turned botanist on us and got down and dirty with the lichen and mosses. So many fascinating things to find when you live so close to the ground!