After 3 years of living in Arkansas we finally did it – we hiked up Pinnacle Mountain! It’s crazy how much I missed hiking. We are able to get outside a lot here and try to take full advantage of it, but taking the time to hits the trails has fallen by the wayside. After finally making it happen this weekend, though, you can bet we’ll be doing it more often!
Nate and W walked the whole thing, and I strapped A on in the Ergo, where he promptly passed out (poor teething little bug!) and off we went. I couldn’t help but remember the last time we did this whole hiking thing on a consistent basis – it was over 4 years ago when we lived in Colorado and had access to a ton of different trails on different mountains at all times.
I remember the first summer we lived there and I hiked so many of them by myself while Nate was at work. I did it during my “off” times from job-hunting, but I loved it. This was, of course, before I’d heard the horror stories of mountain lions and bears – not sure if I would have been so gung-ho about the alone part if I was more in the know! But I remember working hard to get stronger and faster with each hike.
For a really long time after we moved here I looked back at our time in Colorado with a lot of sadness and anger. We lost our church, a lot of friends, and a large part of our identity. We dove headfirst into life here in Arkansas, and we love it – but it just felt like something was missing. That outdoorsy, adventurous spirit we gained while hiking the Front Range dissipated as we figured out how to be a family in a new place. Navigating life took all of our energy, so while we got outside and ran and biked and played we just never took the time to actually go hiking.
Saturday wasn’t just a hike through a beautiful forest. It wasn’t just a quick trip up a small mountain. It was a homecoming, welcoming us back to the pieces of our previous life that we didn’t even know we missed.
Suffice to say I think we’ll be hiking again soon 🙂
Great! Glad to hear you had such fun.
Pinnacle Mountain is a fun hike! My fiance and I took that trek last year during the Summer. Word of warning: you WILL sweat buckets if you attempt to hike that mountain on the hard side (with all of the boulders and rocks). But it was a great workout.
Mount Nebo and Petit Jean are also close by. I think you guys would really enjoy those as well. You can always come visit us when we’re in NWA— tons of opportunities for beautiful hiking there as well. xoxoxo