Recently, my mom, my sister, my grandpa, and my grandmother and I went hiking in the woods and got caught in a thunderstorm. So, here’s how it all went down: My mom decided she wanted to hike all day and have a picnic in the middle of our hike. I really was not into this idea, but anyway, we were almost to the place where we would hike and my grandpa said the weather isn’t going to be great while we’re hiking. Inside I’m thinking “We are all totally dead.”

When we finally get to where we’re hiking I’m really not in the mood because I’ve been stuck in the car for an hour and I’m cramping all over, but once we get hiking I feel so much better. The trail was beautiful. We were walking along and on one side there was the highway and on the other side was the river. It was a little too shallow for fish, but was perfect for rock picking. I wanted to stick my feet in sooo badly. About half way though the hike it starts sprinkling and my mom said it was just a little spray and we’ll be fine! Well, she was wrong. It sprinkled a little bit for about 20 minutes and we’re kind of damp from that, but then, all of a sudden, I hear a huge clap of thunder and I almost jumped into the river. My grandma is freaking out, she literally kept saying, “I hope we’re on the right trail. Are you sure we’re on the right trail?” And on top of that, there were a lot of stairs my grandpa (who has heart problems and knee problems) had to climb. I felt weird because I was marching up those stairs with my stick like there was no tomorrow (and frankly if we didn’t get out of there, there might not have been) and I look back at my grandpa and he looks so tired and seemed to be having a really hard time, so I offered him my stick but instead of taking it he replied, “Do I look like I need a stick?” We had about another half-mile to go.

The trail overall was about a mile long. We were about half way done. We spent about another 15 minutes trying to get out of that place. Finally, we reached the road and we realized we had to go to another trail to get back to the car, or we could walk the road and be back a lot quicker. We decided to hustle down the road and we got back to the car just in time. We were so happy when my mom started the car and we could warm up with the heat on.

Unfortunately, my mom wanted to keep hiking once it stopped raining. So, somehow, she managed to talk us into hiking some more. We got to the other place, which I don’t know the name of, and had a little picnic. We had tuna sandwiches and Coke for lunch and after our stomachs had settled and the picnic table was cleaned up we went hiking. We were hiking up to a rock lookout that was yet again beautiful. That hike was really short, but totally worth it.

We were yet again in the car off to another trail to hike. This one was really fun, but it was a little bit longer with lots of stairs. It was easy for my grandpa because we took lots of breaks and there were really short flights of stairs, unlike the other trail that was just one long staircase and nothing to hold on to. This one had a handrail on both sides and the stairs looked new. Once we got to the end of that trail we found ourselves in a lookout tower over a lake and a magnificent field.

Yet again we found ourselves in the car headed to another destination. We were looking for a place to have dinner. Eventually we found somewhere that wasn’t a bar and didn’t look like it was closed. I got a grilled turkey wrap while the three grownups shared a pizza and my sister had a hotdog.

We were so happy when we got into bed that night. I was exhausted and sore. Well, now you know about my hiking adventure that was supposed to be a lazy Saturday.

Toodles!

EDITOR’S NOTE: Ivy Pomeroy is 10 years old and in the fifth grade at Sandy Knoll Elementary School.