Our First Stride: The Bog Walk

Early Spring at the Bog Walk

Every big journey starts somewhere. Ours started with a one-mile walk and a Pomeranian in a puffer vest.

We'll explain.

With baseball season officially underway and our weekends suddenly a lot more scheduled than we'd like, we made a decision early on that we weren't going to wait for the perfect morning, the perfect trail, or the perfect amount of time. We were going to start with what we had. And what we had was an hour and the shortest trail in our local land trust repertoire — the Bog Walk, a simple out-and-back that winds through a peaceful stretch of forest before opening onto a wooden boardwalk extending out into the bog.

Mile one

It's not the Cotswold Way. But it's mile one.

After an intense start to the year and a concerning — let's be honest, alarming — lack of physical activity recently, stepping outside into that crisp morning air felt like something my body had been quietly waiting for. The kind of cold that fills your lungs in a way that makes you remember you're alive. My legs found their rhythm almost immediately, and something in me that had been wound pretty tight just... loosened.

This time of year is actually a great time to visit the bog — the vegetation hasn't grown in yet, which makes it easier to spot birds and creatures like turtles emerging from their winter hiding spots. We were hopeful. What we actually spotted was a wayward neighborhood Pomeranian wearing a puffer vest, trotting along like he had somewhere very important to be. We chose to take it as a good omen.

The real highlight of the morning, though, was watching our son take ownership of his role.

Before we even hit the trail, we'd had a laugh about how this family project had essentially become a small family business — with me as CEO, my husband as COO (the one who quietly keeps the whole engine running and gets us where we need to go), and our son appointed as Chief Content Officer. For anyone who doesn't know our boy, he is approximately forty years old in a ten-year-old's body, with a long and proud history of setting up fictional companies before pivoting his professional ambitions toward law and government. He took his new title very seriously. He bounced along ahead of us, narrating everything he saw, recording the journey with the focus of someone who understood that this moment mattered.

2/3 of The Family Stride Team: Chief Content Officer and Chief Operating Officer

And behind him, my husband and I walked hand in hand through the quiet trees, watching him, and felt it — that particular kind of happiness that doesn't announce itself loudly but settles in deep.

One mile. Ninety-nine to go before we're ready for the Cotswold Way. But this is how it starts — not with a grand gesture, but with a crisp morning, good company, and the first muddy step of something we're going to look back on for the rest of our lives.

Next up: more miles, more trails, and hopefully more wildlife than one overdressed Pomeranian.

— The Family Stride