Kaitoke Regional Park

The girls and I, along with our very wonderful friend Nadine, headed up to Kaitoke Regional Park for a little half day trip. The drive was beautiful and took only about an hour from our door to the park entrance. They had a great website advertising the many hikes they offer and I was pleased to see that more than half of them were graded suitable for children.

I never planned on taking the girls on the swing bridge portion of the hike that crosses one of the rivers in the park, however, once we started down the trail, it was only a few yards before they saw it and wanted to go. I surveyed it for safety and it seemed very sturdy. A slatted, wooden deck covered with mesh to keep you from slipping on the moss that has formed on the wood. The sides were high with chain link fencing wrapping a u-shape from one hand rail, under the deck and back up to the other hand rail. The bridge itself is probably around 150 feet long (I am totally guessing here) but to me, it felt like 3 miles. This was the first time I really had to face a phobia while dealing with my children. I obviously didn't want to let them know that I was scared but I had to stay in control of them and my fear at the same time which was a true task. Both girls were in front of me with Nadine following behind. The girls were fearless and darted about, leaning from side to side to look down at the ducks swimming in the river. I barely held it together when they discovered that they could swing the bridge by leaning from side to side and started giggling like, well, little girls. I drove them forward in an attempt to stop the madness as quickly as possible.

Finally on solid ground we continued with our hike through the amazing rain forest. There were so many beautiful trees that when trying to take their picture there was just no way to capture the scale of these creatures.There were gigantic ferns and palm trees, vines so tangled they looked like a spiders web, and trees housing other plants that seemed like they could house us.  I've seen the redwood forest and some of these monster trees made the redwoods look like saplings. Although we could hear it raining, we hiked under the cover of the forest for the first half of our loop.

Once out of the forest Nadine and I each picked up a child (did I mention how wonderful Nadine is?) and carried them the rest of the way through the rain. It was a great ladies bonding morning and I was so grateful to have children who enjoy being outdoors and hiking and haven't yet learned to love talking on their cell phones, hanging out at malls or otherwise being too cool.