Mount Wachusett

Recently, Katy and I decided it was time to get our hiking boots back on and summit a peak. We hadn't done much hiking lately, but we have extra motivation to get some hikes under our belt this spring. For years now, we've been talking about doing a single day Presidential Traverse. It's kind of a running joke because we've talked about it for so long, but for a variety of reasons, have never been able to coordinate it and pull it off. Well, the time for talk is over. This year, in mid June, we are doing it. In preparation, we are aiming to get some smaller hikes in leading up to the main event.

We had some nice weather over the weekend, and thought it would be a good chance to get a family hike in. Toby is almost 3 now, and can handle longer distances without being carried. Tyler is approaching 1, and loves being in the carrier. We decided Mount Wachusett would be a good choice as it's only an hour away and is a small, relatively simple hike. We decided to do an out and back to the summit via Mountain House Trail. We started off with me carrying Tyler on my back, and Toby walking on his own. Toby did well and made it almost halfway up the mountain before he got too tired. At that point, we put Toby on my back and Katy carried Tyler with the Baby Bjorn front carrier. We went the rest of the way up like this until reaching the summit which was quite crowded.

We had lunch at the summit, and after navigating a few potty-training toddler challenges, we began heading back down. The boys were doing well, but at this point, it was best that they were both carried down as well. This proved probably the most challenging as Tyler is getting a little too big to be carried with the Baby Bjorn but we only have one back carrier which Toby was occupying. Despite this, we made it back down to the trailhead before heading home.

A small hike - but an adventure nonetheless bringing two boys under the age of 3 and Tyler's first real hike!