Ross Family Hike 2012

A couple weekends ago was our annual “Ross Family Hike”. This hike has been happening since before I married in to the family. Mike’s Mom’s maiden name is Ross, and we are the 7th generation to farm here. (I’ll put a pic of a genealogy paper at the bottom of this post. Our cousin, Ernie Ross, created it for us before he died in 2011.) For me it seems, the older I get, the more interesting history is becoming… Sure wish I would have paid more attention to the stories from my grandparents before they passed…

Every year, the four of us talk about blazing a new trail for the Ross Family Hike during the summer months so we can use it & enjoy it all year. And every year we are scrambling at the last minute to cut one right before the hike, lol. Why spend the time to cut a trail you may ask?? Well, ever since I got a group lost in briars and spider nests five years ago or so, it was decided we needed a defined path for “non-natural hikers”, like myself… 🙂

We all look forward to this hike – and this year was no exception! We begin with a family prayer and share a potluck meal in Mike’s parents’ garage. Then we take a hike through the woods, and the guys usually end with “shooting” – clay pigeons, squirrel targets, etc…

This first pic shows the yellow ribbons that mark this year’s path. I’m happy to report I was “allowed” to be the “ribbon girl” again this year! 🙂

I briefly lost my “title” last year because of using too much ribbon…we ran out before we were done with the trail, lol! I went a little more conservative this year, and won back the approval of all three of my boys… 🙂 ;

Michael is our “extreme adventur-er” – can normally find him doing ANYTHING other than cutting briars, lol…

Found this cool squirrel-table-stump…

Love finding old fenceposts in the woods & trying to imagine how the old pasturefields used to look…

Now the pics change to the actual day of the hike. We went on a “trial run” hike in the morning because there was a steep part we needed to add a rope to. We tied a rope to a tree on the top of the dry creek bed so that we could use it to climb up the bank. Felt like Indiana Jones, lol! 🙂