A winter walk

Since the temperature warmed up to a nice 20 today I decided it was time to head to Perry Park. We've been away from Perry Park for a long time, but today was our return. I debated whether to take the sled or wagon along with, but went for the wagon because it's pretty tough and I thought it could withstand both clear trails and snowy ones. So I loaded it in the van as our street is really sloppy right now and we drove to Perry Park. The kids played on the playground a bit first. The swings just barely swung a few inches above the snow, and the bottom of the playground structure, the slides, ladders and other climbing things were covered. Abby took to crawling around because the snow was so deep, but the boys really enjoyed trudging through the snow and sliding and climbing.

Then we headed down the trail to our favorite rock-throwing place. The trail is quite shaded, so it was covered with packed snow despite the past few sunny days, but the wagon handled the trail quite nicely. Most of the time the wagon was empty as all the kids preferred to walk or climb. Sam especially enjoyed climbing up and down the 8-10 foot high drifts on the side of the winding trail. The snow was very packed hard from being windblown and he was quite proud of how tall he was standing on their peaks.

When we arrived at our rock-throwing place, there was only more snow with the reed of cattails poking out from the snow and ice. The boys laughed as they walked out on the snow-covered ice where their rocks usually landed in the summer. Pretty soon that portion of the trail will be covered with water and impassable with the spring thaw.

We continued our walk and headed down the trail toward Lake Johanna. The kids were doing quite fine and Sam was quite a trooper pulling both Abby in the wagon for quite awhile. The walk continued to be mostly snow covered with a few patches of clear pavement and some icy patches too. When we reached the train tunnel there was lots of yelling as there always is of "Echo!" by all the kids.

When we arrived at Lake Johanna we had to cross the sloppy and busy road and I felt rather awkward and out-of-place pulling my wagon filled with winter-attire-decked-out kids. But we crossed the road and made it to the boat launch area where we left the wagon headed out onto the lake. There are trails on the lake where cars have driven for ice-fishing, so we followed one for awhile. The boys enjoyed getting down on their knees and pushing the snow aside to look at the ice and try to see fish. They didn't see any. We also followed some cross country ski tracks and trudged through mid-calf/knee/thigh high (depending on how tall one is) snow to leave the lake and go to the beach playground, a favorite summer destination. The snow at the beach playground was higher than at Perry Park and much more solid and wind-packed from the wind crossing the lake. We didn't stay for too long as the wind was indeed blowing across the lake and it felt much cooler than it did when we were more sheltered.

So we made our way back home, Abby enjoyed quite a long piggy-back ride while we were on the lake and Matthew's energy was waning by that time so he got a piggy-back ride too. However, when we reached the parking lot all the kids found some new energy and had a lot of fun climbing up and sliding down the piles of snow from the parking lot being cleared. Then we crossed the road again and Sam and Abby wanted to walk while Matthew wanted to lay down in the wagon. That lasted for a short while, then all the kids wanted to be in the wagon. That lasted a short while then I had the boys get out and walk and pulled Abby alone. There was no way I was going to pull all three of the up the hill back to Perry Park. That is one tough hill under normal circumstances, but when snow covered it is brutal.

So we made our way back to the playground at Perry Park and Abby was quite distraught when I passed the playground without playing, but we had been out for two hours by that time and I was ready to get home. Matthew did not protest and Sam ran ahead of us and got in a final slide before heading home. Then we got back in the van and went home and the kids are sleeping very well tonight.