DAY 5-- What? A Zoo!?!

Sat March 30-- DAY 5 of hiking-- (day 8 overall)

We needed to finish the connecting route. The wind was 18 miles an hour today. But we did have quite a few surprises built in for the girls.

We moved the cars to our next surprise of the weekend. Surprise 1 - beach! Surprise 2 - playground! Surprise 3 - A zoo on the trail! Well, the 2nd hiking segment began alright, but turned into a wind-tunnel about 3.5 miles in. There was nowhere to hide on the open connecting route. These were the parts that I was concerned about for the girls.

I chose to leave both hiking poles in the car, and hold Bristol on my left, and Piper on my right. We began at a clip of 2.5 - 2.75 mph. But after a few jagged turns as we neared the waiting playground and imagined, plotted, and dreamed of the fun we would have….. The wind picked up and it was soon directly in our faces. The girls were wearing yellow road-safe vests. We wrapped their personal blankets around their heads and necks and secured them with the velcro on the vests. It was their only reprieve from the wind as I adjusted them to cover as much of their skin with this unexpected 13+ mph wind. As we neared the playground, it began to snow directly sideways in our faces. We decided we wouldn t play, we would just go directly to the car. However, when we finally emerged from the curve and saw the metal poles and slides…. They went to play anyway for a few minutes.

The three of us walked this entire route holding hands, and it was definitely the most efficient time of all of our hikes. I negotiated all of the fun things that we could do when we go to the hotel later that night. Orange push pops (popsicles), Honey Heart C on you tube, we could watch 3 days of the door opening on the advent calendars of the Schleich horses. Of course, swimming, McDonald´s Happy Meal, and we imagined what the toy could be.

We headed to The Grove for delicious hot burgers, since Skallywags didn´t open until 4:30pm. We just couldn´t wait that long. While we sat at the Grove, we told the girls, the 3rd surprise, next stop….. Zoo! They were ecstatic!

We moved the vehicles and left one at the Bruemmer County Zoo. We hiked the next section on an old railroad line - turned trail and got to see the zoo, and play at the playground. Can it get more fun for a 4 and 6 year old? Okay, sure. Getting a balloon, Piper informed me.

The Zoo had 2 bobcats, a pheasant, some white-tail deer, goats, and an arctic fox. Very simple, and totally rewarding. Bristol and I found a set of stairs that led up to the deer and the top of the bobcat cage. We called Piper to join us. She was busy eating the ¨best trail mix ever!¨ It was actually the worst-grossest mix I ever made: reeses peanut butter cups, peanuts, reeses pieces, chocolate chips, and marshmallows! Ewww! But the girls loved it as they finished this last section….. Like I knew they would. Well, when I went to see what was taking Piper so long to join us, the stairwell was empty. I looked left to see her scaling the limestone rocks, trail mix plastic bin in hand, next to the bobcat enclosure. I quickly scooted over to the top of the rocks that ran alongside the bars, and reached down to get her arm that was reaching for the next rock. She had managed to climb a gently sloping set of rocks that outlined the zoo cage. She never dropped a marshmallow. She was quite pleased with herself.

Then we safely climbed down the steps, and proceeded to check out the other animals. Piper, now on flat ground, proceeded to walk directly into the blue wooden, Welcome to Bruemmer County Zoo picture frame, picture-posing, sign. She dropped 4 marshmallows and banged her knee and hands pretty hard. She cried, poor Piper! A big hug helped after about 6 minutes of rubbing her icy fingers. She had left her gloves off, cuz she was snitching the mix.

We talked the girls into doing just 1.5 miles. This could have been the worst wind of the entire trip for this section. The temps were dropping as the sun was setting, and we walked directly into the wind. Piper was miserable, and only the thought of hot food, swimming, and cuddling with her blanket later motivated her to finish quickly.

We finally went back to the Hotel - Lighthouse Inn. We swam, after they ate their McDonald Happy Meals.

The toy you ask? They got the most amazing toy! Piper got a unicorn beanie baby thing, and Bristol got a Koala. These, of course, made all of the wind earlier that day worth it!

#IceAgeTrail #Adventure #Hiking #Outdoors #FamilyGoals