The Hike (Oct 21)

Kaitlyn: A PNG girl

Another post from our village time:

Since yesterday we had almost no rain, whatsoever, day or night, and we woke up to sun this morning, I was inspired to take the kids on a hike. We left the house at about 9am, after I made oatmeal muffins for breakfast and got the laundry hung up. We headed up the trail towards Yalumet, with our goal as (possibly) the big waterfall up that way. I wasn’t entirely sure how far it was, and how the kids would hold up. Kaitlyn and Nathan are great hikers, and for a 3, almost 4 year old, Justin does pretty well. But I had to carry Julianne almost the entire way. Thank goodness she still weighs just 19/20 pounds!

The trail had some fairly muddy spots, but it wasn’t too slippery. However, Justin wanted to hold my hand every time there was even a slight up or down. We made it to the first place the creek crosses the trail and stopped for a drink and a snack and the kids waded a little.


Shortly after we left there we ran into Ilang, an older man in the village. He was headed to his garden and Kaitlyn and Nathan pestered him with questions. It was actually good timing as the trail got a bit steep at that point, and he helped Kaitlyn and Nathan up a few parts. I don’t know if he suggested it, or Kaitlyn told him he needed to, but after a little while he offered to carry Julianne. But this point, we’d probably been hiking at least an hour, so my arm was ready for a break from carrying her! But then I just ended up piggybacking Justin. Oh well. We crossed the bigger river, and again had a little snack and drink. (Ilang left us there to go to his garden, somewhere further up the road.)

The river where we made it to

The clouds were starting to come down fast, and that generally means rain won’t be too far behind, so I hurried the kids along back home. We hadn’t gone far… maybe 20 minutes, past the steepest/most slippery parts when it started to rain! Kaitlyn and Nathan took off running after a little and that was the last we saw of them till we got home. Justin moved a bit slower, so it took us quite a while to get back. His little crocs are definitely not great hiking shoes, but he did pretty well. Just slowly!

About the time the downpour ended Julianne fell asleep. Now my arms were already tired from carrying her all that way, but with her sleepy dead-weight, they were getting exhausted! And all the trail was slick now that it had rained, so Justin wanted to hold my hand constantly. So I think my arms were about to drop off!

Julianne slept for probably a good half hour or so as we finished up the hike and came back home, soggy and covered in mud.

What a great field trip! (seriously… it was hard, and sweaty and muddy, but a lot of fun!!!!) Now I’m trying to get the kid’s school work done this afternoon, in between washing wet, muddy clothes, doing lunch dishes, starting the bread for dinner and folding laundry that got dry this morning!