Meet Our Family
We didn't plan for a path to change us. But it did.
Two years ago, our family of three stepped into the Cotswolds for the first time, and something shifted. The rolling hills, the honey-stone villages, the way time seemed to slow down the moment we laced up our boots. None of us wanted to leave. We still talk about it. We probably always will.
That trip planted a seed. What if we came back…not just for a visit, but to walk it? All of it. The Cotswold Way. And one day, the Coast to Coast too.
We're not athletes. We're not experts.
We're a busy family of three — a mom, a dad, and a boy who keeps us on our toes — squeezing walks into weekends, figuring it out as we go, and learning that the trail has a way of meeting you exactly where you are.
Life is full. Schedules are packed. Some days the couch wins. But nature has always been the thing that brings us back to ourselves and to each other. There's something about getting outside, even for just an hour, that resets everything.
So we're building toward something. Slowly, intentionally, one local trail at a time.
The Family Stride is our record of that journey.
The short hikes that are conditioning us. The longer walks we're working up to. The planning, the dreaming, and eventually, the doing. We're documenting all of it here, honestly and imperfectly, because we believe that real family life is worth capturing.
We're also planning a future trip through the north of England — from Liverpool through the Lake District, into the Yorkshire Dales (we’ve been hooked by All Creatures Great and Small), through Leeds and York, and up to Edinburgh — where we'll scout the Coast to Coast path in person for the first time. We can't wait to bring you along.
Somewhere down the road, all of this becomes a book.
Every trail. Every muddy boot. Every moment one of us didn't want to keep going but did anyway. We're writing it in real time, one stride at a time.
We're so glad you're here.
— Laura, Steve, and Sam
The Family Stride