Hiking

Blue Dasher

The Mom of No frequently participates in something called "Field Notes Friday", which is an informal social media effort by naturalists to share observations and thoughs about nature.  This is my Field Notes Friday- with the blog I can write more, so I will. And, you get a cool dragonfly picture at the top!

When I tell people I like to hike around in the woods with or without the offspring (sometimes the Mom of No just needs quiet space in nature's beauty, and not adolescents giving her a hard time about her trying to get a decent picture of some really great observation, or asking when they can leave to go get snow cones) they often say "Aren't you afraid of snakes? What about alligators? Aren't you worried about alligators?"  Well, no, not really- what the Mom of No fears is poison ivy.  If you have ever had a poison ivy rash, you know what I speak of- and poison ivy is almost everywhere. If I were a character in a Stephen King novel, he would kill me off by using poison ivy somehow.  If you are worried about dying on your nature experience, you probably are taking a greater risk driving to the trailhead in a car than actually getting bitten by a snake or eaten by an alligator. *  I don't go looking to get bitten by snakes and since I have actually seen an alligator exactly once (and it was far away), I don't worry about gators. 

Something I have noticed about hiking with teenagers is that they are more likely to share things when on a hike with their mom than they are at home.  I've had some really interesting and thought provoking conversations while trying to navigate around patches of poison ivy.  At home when you ask "How was school?", they roll their eyes and say things like "I dunno" and "Huh?", or they completely ignore you because they have earbuds in and apparently your mouth is moving but nothing is coming out.  On the trail, the situation is reversed- the Mom of No will be looking through the binocs at a gorgeous great blue heron catching a fish in a pond and the teenager will choose that exact moment to something like "So, Mom (great pause) what do you think about (insert controversial subject of intense current social debate here)?  It is a great opportunity to impart maternal wisdom on young minds before they become adults and have endless opportunities to make Bad Life Choices. 



*I did not look that up. I'm making an assumption.  Please don't go around posting that statement on Facebook or anywhere else as an authoritative source.  Just because I  have a blog does not make me an authority on...well, really, anything.  I'm the mother of teenagers.  I know nothing.