Winter Hike at Shaker Village

Yesterday we took a long hike at Shaker Village, on the Tanyard Trail (6 miles).  The end of the semester has us feeling a bit of cabin fever (so much grading and writing time . . .), so it was lovely to get out.  We started out needing most of our winter gear, but by the afternoon we were wearing our coats around our waists, with hats and mittens in my bag.  I’d packed granola bars and trail mix, and we definitely needed it before we were done, but we were kept reasonably entertained by the change in scenery: lots of rolling hills, some fields, some forests, and, to Sydney’s delight, lots of birds.  He had also brought along a bingo sheet for each kid, so they spent a lot of time asking “Where would I find an acorn?” and “Is that a song sparrow?”  We saw deer several times, which was nice.  And we pretty much had the place to ourselves.

Erin