While we adjust to life as a family of 5, a few local bloggers kindly agreed to keep MiniBury readers entertained with tales and adventures from their own lives. Today Julie Barry shares the sixth installment of her series”Little Explorers,” reports on her hiking adventures with her husband and her two and four-year old. Take it away Julie!

Trail: Sunset Ledge
Distance: 2.2 miles round trip
Level of Difficulty: moderate
Baby Jogger Access: no
Bikes Permitted: no
Of Interest to the Kids: lots of bedrock along the trail for scampering up
How to get there: Driving east on 116 from Bristol, turn right onto Lincoln Road to get to the trailhead at Lincoln Gap; head south on the Long Trail
More Info: look here
Our Experience:
Although this one is short we did it as a family hike and I’m glad I didn’t attempt it with the kids by myself. The trail was rocky and root-y enough to result in several spills and I wouldn’t have been up for carrying two kids out! The trail itself is (I’m told) typical of the Long Trail – lots of bedrock and roots. We hiked after several days of rain and while the rock (granite?) wasn’t too slippery the roots definitely were. Since we hiked on the weekend it was also a relatively busy trail: there were probably 10 other hiking parties we passed along the way.

From the trail head it was about a 45-minute hike to Sunset Ledge and while most of it was uphill my 4 year-old ran nearly of the way. The rock-hopping was ideal and amazingly enough there was no whining at all. Hooray! I’m slowly figuring out that whining is much more frequent on smoother, easily-walked trails. Trails with lots of climbing, scrambling and jumping opportunities, even though more difficult, keep my little hiker happy.

The ledge has great views to the west. I’ll look forward to continuing along the trail and hiking Mount Grant with its views to the south. Another day!

After this hike we stopped in Bristol at Lulu for ice cream – a total treat. Afterwards I stepped off the curb wrong and sprained my ankle. (Yep. I didn’t sprain it while hiking but while getting ice cream. Yeesh.) Looks like hikes will have to wait a few weeks…