Poor Arlo’s stomach hasn’t been right since returning from our air travels – both a function of flying in and of itself and likely all of the foods void of moisture that I plied him with to keep him content on the plane. Puffs, freeze-dried pears, teething crackers. Then, there were all the novel germs introduced to his immune system during his crawling tours of the Denver and Charlotte airports. Note: the airport is not the place to let a crawling baby ditch his socks. Not only were the little man’s hands and feet black, he had carpet burn on the top of his feet and his knees as well. He was a trooper, though. He may have required our full attention to prevent any meltdown on the plane rides. But, honestly, he was a delight to travel with. Now, the people sitting in front of us on any given plane whose seat he kept kicking might disagree. Other than that, A+ traveler.
However, as I mentioned – dude has been having a rough time since returning home. The past two nights, I’ve spent most of my time in the room with a screaming baby. As such, today’s agenda involved spending as much time outside as possible to tire out this little baby. Unfortunately, he was kind of a handful leading up to our departure from the house. That, coupled with the lack of sleep, left me all of about six minutes to try to search for a hiking trail that was easy enough for a mom with no energy and adequate distance to achieve a good car nap on the drive. In the end, I only hit one of those criteria in the time allotted to me by Arlo. But while I hoped to find a trail a little bit further from the house to maximize our sleep time, it worked out for the best. Rather than sleeping in the car, Arlo slept in the stroller. So, I suppose I need to rethink my “adequate distance” criteria.
While tiring him out was a goal, perhaps a more important goal on the agenda for the day was attempting to resupply our Vitamin D. I’ve been thinking a lot about that lately. I will be doing a deep dive on the topic shortly.
But as for the hike – well, it wasn’t really a hike. It was a stroller walk/occasional jog. And it sucked. Kind of. I mean, it was a nice afternoon, but I don’t know that I will be going back. The trail is not so much a trail, however. It’s a road. A road with houses and people driving down an extremely narrow one-lane road with absolutely no shoulder. It’s not a busy road. But you certainly wouldn’t want to wear headphones and impede your ability to hear any vehicles coming behind you – especially along one of the many curves and blind spots.
There’s a very obvious parking lot, so that’s something. The Doe River runs along the entirety of the road. On the other side is the very busy and noisy Hwy. 19E, between Elizabethton and Roan Mountain. And though there wasn’t a cloud in the sky today, I spent most of the walk marveling at the road grader’s handiwork that surely directs all water off the road in expert fashion. However, this mastery makes it not a kind place for strollers. Or runners, for that matter. I spent most of the time fussing with the stroller, trying to keep it on the road as it was trying to veer off to a sharp, steep dropoff into the river. As I mentioned, while you can hear the pleasant rush of the river the whole time, you can also hear all the 18-wheelers Jake braking as they head down the mountain. But it could be worse.
Maybe the most confusing part is that the parking area is referred to in several online locations as “Happy Trails Park.” One: that infers there are multiple trails. Two: that infers there is some kind of park. But for all I could tell, there was technically only a parking area. I did notice a sign on my walk back to my car for “Doe River Fishing Trail.” Though, if I were searching for the noted fishing access points along the Old Railroad Grade Road, I’d have to search pretty hard. Anyway, it’s something.
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