It's Just Not Summer Without It

Every year since we've moved here we've gone to Bad Sobernheim to do the Barefoot Hike at least once.  We went last month with John and had a pretty good time.  The weather was a bit overcast, but I'd rather have cloudy weather than hot, sweaty, sunny weather almost any day.

The hike started with everyone's favorite, the long slog through a trough of muddy water.  Next to the river crossing it's the best part of the hike.  It was cold, slimy, muddy and fun all at the same time.  

The hike is really more of a walk it's not at all strenuous and takes about an hour or so from start to finish.  What makes it fun is all the different textures and obstacles you get to walk through and over during the hike.  
Besides muddy water, there's sand, pebbles, mulch, grass, corks, and bricks.  We also walked over wobbly, shaky, bridges and along balance beams and tightropes.  

There's a spot in the river near the end of the hike that is just right for wading and playing.  John tried to teach us how to skip rocks, but we weren't very good students.  Abigail and Samantha went out the furthest because they really wanted to climb on an old tree stump in the water.  

Crossing a rope bridge over the river is the very last part of the hike.  There's a huge thick rope to walk on and then ropes on the side to hold on to as you go.  It was fun to bounce up and down and make the bridge shake as we went along.  At least, it was fun until we got to the middle and saw that the big rope we were walking on was held together with duct tape!  Yeah, that didn't inspire too much confidence in the strength of the bridge.  

Even though we've been to the Barefoot Hike at least three times now (some of us have gone more time because of school field trips) it's still a fun day for the family and I'm sure we'll be going back at least one more time this summer and probably next summer as well.