Woohoo – first hike of 2015 is in the books!  If you were reading here last year, you may remember that hubby, Peanut and I took on a project of hiking at Tifft Nature Preserve in south Buffalo at least once each season.  (If you missed them I recapped all of our Tifft seasonal hikes: winter, spring, summer and fall).  We had so much fun hiking Tifft in each season (and by the fall hike we even knew our way around, winning) that we decided to carry the seasonal hiking project forward for 2015 and find a new place to explore.  After scouting around a bit, I decided that we should conduct our seasonal explorations at Reinstein Woods Nature Preserve in Depew.  We’d never been there and I’d heard such great things about the scenery and the wildlife that I was itching to check it out.

I also made a resolution this year that we would take a family hike in a different place each month.  The hikes didn’t have to be in places we’d never been (so I’m sure you will see Tifft again, as well as Knox Farm) but we couldn’t repeat.  That also meant that we could use Reinstein Woods toward that goal one time, and one time only.  I was hoping that we’d make it out for another hike this January, but circumstances (weekend work for both hubby and me most of the month, plus a week of illness when Peanut brought a bad stomach virus home from daycare) have prevented us getting out more than once.  Oh, well, c’est la vie – we’ll be counting this January walk in Reinstein Woods toward our 12 months hiking project too.

Enough with the preamble!  Let’s get boots on the trail!

Peanut was somewhat less than thrilled to find herself back in the backpack.  We’d actually tried to go for a walk the weekend before, at Como Lake Park in Lancaster, without the backpack, and all she wanted to do was play.  So she’s back in the carrier until she’s a little more malleable.  We do make sure to let her out at the end of each hike and give her plenty of time to stretch her legs and explore, though.

I spent a little time checking out the information sign and getting a preview for what we can expect to see come spring, summer and fall.  I can’t wait to check out the birds!

And we were off on our hike.  Hubby brought along his snowshoes but decided to leave them in the car.  In retrospect, he wished he’d worn them, because the snow on the trails was deep enough that it was tough going with just our boots.  We definitely got a workout!  There were a number of other families out enjoying the beautiful afternoon and most of them had on either snowshoes or cross-country skis.  We were one of the few groups that hit the trails in just our boots and we were feeling it almost immediately.

We headed down one of the broad paths to start.  Having never been to Reinstein Woods before, we had no plan in mind – just followed the paths wherever they took us.

After one or two turns we found ourselves approaching a large pond.  The sun was starting to go down (we had decided on a post-nap hike for warmth purposes) and we enjoyed a beautiful sunset view.

There was a fork in the trail allowing us to choose to either walk around the pond or head deeper into the nature preserve.  As we stood debating what to do, both kids made their preferences known.  Peanut announced “All done riding in my chariot!” (yes, she really said that) and Nugget put in his vote with some mild cramping (or maybe Braxton Hicks contractions? I got them a few times during my last pregnancy and these were much less intense, so I’m not sure) so we decided to loop around the pond and back toward the car.

We had one more stop to make before we left the preserve, though:

I’d noted this little “nature play area” on our way into the preserve and thought it would be a great place for Peanut to play this spring and summer.  But it also worked out well as a spot for her to stretch her legs after this relatively brief ramble.  We headed into the play area and released her from her “chariot.”  She immediately fell on her face in the snow and rolled around like a dog.  Whatever works for ya, kid.

She also did some sweeping, of course.

And started to dismantle the “shelter” in an attempt to find the perfect stick for waving around.

I think it’s safe to say that our little snow bunny is a BIG fan of winter!

Gear:

Hubby – I have no idea what his winter boots are, he’s had them since before we started dating; Black Diamond men’s hiking poles; Deuter KidComfort III child carrier backpack.
Me – Oboz Bridgewater BDry hiking boots (thanks, Santa!); Black Diamond women’s hiking poles.

Thanks for a great walk, Reinstein Woods!  See you again soon!