After two beautiful lakeside picnics, we decided its time we challenged ourselves and decided to hike the mission peak this past weekend.

We got ourselves a baby backpack carrier and started our journey at about 10 in the morning. Daddy carried him uphill and mommy downhill. The hike was beeeeeautiful, well actually the locale was beautiful the hike not so much. The hike was exhausting to say the least. I realized I had the stamina of an 8 year old. The distance from the start to the summit is apparently marked by 4 equally spaced benches or so I heard from other hikers. I wouldn’t know coz we never did make it to the summit. By the time we reached the first bench huffing and panting, I was ready to go back. Baby was fast asleep. We stopped for a bit, took a gulp of water from our bottles, made a quick backpack transfer from the husband’s back to mine and headed back. Going downhill was at least 5 times easier than going uphill.
The trail in itself is beautiful. Its just acres and acres of grass covered terrain splattered with trees and a silent creek flowing nearby. Its a pretty steep hike so even from our first check point (the bench), we got a pretty good view of the city and the bay. The path is mostly unshaded so unless the weather’s really good only morning or midmorning hikes are recommended. Carry your own water and snacks and please wear shoes with good traction coz the trail does get slippery at times especially when you’re going downhill. I still have a long way to go before I can call myself fit but my goal is to be able to hike to the summit one of these days. As they say ‘baby steps’, our next week’s target is to try and hike upto the second bench.
Lesson learnt: maybe the baby backpack carrier is not such a great idea, especially since the baby is only going to get heavier. Would an all terrain stroller be a better investment? With the added benefit of using the stroller storage to carry water bottles and snack packs, an all terrain stroller is definitely worth thinking about!