SUNFISH POND TRAIL:

<OVERVIEW OF hiking as a family>

Last weekend we were planning to touch the Sunfish Pond via the Farview trail. Everyone was very excited, but we woke up a little late, had our breakfast, and left home around 9:30 in the morning. We knew that we were late and, mentally, we were ready in case we needed to change our plan for the hiking trail. It was due to limited parking spots. And as expected, we got lots of traffic on the way. We reached the parking around 11:30 and, there were no parking spots left for us, the latecomers. No worries, we thought. We already had a backup plan, went down to the next parking area but could not find any spot anywhere. Many people like us were looking for parking. At last, we drove down to the Worthington State Forest Campground area and parked our car there.
Then, we had to walk towards the Old Mine Road to make our way to the same Sunfish Pond but via a different trail. This time we chose the Rockcores trail. After maybe 10 mins of walk, we reached the start of our chosen spot, which looked very nice. Because it is Autumn these days, there are beautiful, colorful leaves everywhere. Our whole trail was covered with leaves, with hidden rocks under them. Oh MY God, what a bumpy trail it was! That meant we needed to be careful and had to watch our steps. After hiking for a mile, we saw a beautiful path going up to the sunfish pond, a very steep rocky mountain. Alongside it was a beautiful waterfall coming down the rocks. So, we decided to take a thrilling and challenging path. The sound of water falling down the rocks was relaxing, energetic, and very peaceful. The trail up the mountain was difficult for our six-year-old, but we all had fun. My daughter spotted a frog there along the top of the waterfall, hopping from one rock to another. I still remember how excited she was to see it.
After reaching the top, the view of the Sunfish pond was splendid. All covered with trees from all sides, the best part was that due to Fall, the trees were changing their colors, and it was a beautiful view. Many people were sitting there enjoying their food along with bright sunshine and a beautiful windy pond. We went all around the pond and, at last, found a nice spot near the water to have our lunch. The kids ate their Chicken Patti sandwiches while my husband and I had our chicken salad. We also had mango juice, orange juice, and guava juice for the kids, along with homemade tea in our flask for my husband and me. After enjoying our food, we had a photoshoot along the pond (no-one wants to skip that).
By then, it was 4 PM, and we wanted to get back to our car before the sunset. So, we started our journey back to the car where my husband and I had a conflict. He wanted to take a long trail of around 3.5 miles named Douglas Trail via the Appalachian Trail, whereas I wanted to take a shorter version because of our 6-year-old to Rockcores trail via Gravey Springs Trail of around 2 miles. But, in the end, my husband won, and we went through his way. We were still around the pond when we realized that the time for our Prayer was getting late. We found a rocky place near the pond, where we sat and said our prayers. The kids got some time to raise a few towers with the stones, and as we were getting late, everyone had to rush. We didn’t want it to get dark before we reached our car. Our kids were mad at me because they wanted to spend more time on that spot. But with no other option, we had to keep moving.
Another thing that went wrong was my phone. I was tracking the trail via my phone when the battery got all drained. I was happy that my kids were carrying a power bank with them for an emergency. The funny thing, however, was that I forgot to bring my iPhone cable to connect with my phone to get it charged. With no other choice, we had to follow the path. At the end of the Appalachian trail was a backpacker campsite. A few people were camping there, all in the wild and woods without their cars and just their camps. Very scary to me but thrilling. From there, we took the Douglas trail. This trail was very steep, rocky, bumpy, and uneven, and our feet were tired. I twisted my ankle several times, but nothing was serious. Our kids were doing a great job, much better than me. After a long way down, we reached the Old Mine Road, the spot from where we started our journey. Still, we had to walk to get to our car. I was the one walking the most slowly. At last, we reached our car. It was around six PM now. The night was coming over, but thankfully, we got back in time. There were still a few cars parked there, meaning some people had not yet returned. We had sore feet and aching legs, but at the end of the day, we had fun. The hike was a 7-mile round trip but, everyone enjoyed it. Very excited about the next week’s trail. Stay tuned.