1000 Islands

Thousands Islands is a nature reserve in Kaukauna. I've been here before. I visited here with Grandpa Muddy and the path in the lower woods I would say is NOT stroller friendly and parts of it are baby carrier friendly. 

This stairway is the way to the "upper woods" of 1000 Islands. The stairway is probably the most baby friendly part of the path. These pathways would probably be best for kids who listen well and can walk pretty well, like the 8 or 9 range or a very well behaved 6 or 7 year old. The outer loop of the trail is about 2.25 miles with a few trails intersecting back and forth so you could make this quite a good hike. 

Who can resist a selfie in the woods???

This is Baby Muddy and myself. I had just gotten done with an overnight shift and figured a quick walk was the best thing to do before going to bed. We did not see even one bit of wildlife because... ahem... someone... ahem baby boy... was being VERY loud! Baby Muddy was very excited the morning of this walk and squealed all the way to the end of the path and back. He had a great time!

Baby and I walked this path below. It's the Valley Bike Trail and runs 1.25 miles. Because even in the carrier, I couldn't walk the trails of the upper woods with Baby Muddy, we stuck to the bike path. The bike path would have been stroller friendly with the very well packed crushed stone/gravel pathway. Though the bike path ran along some homes, it was still quite a scenic walk in the woods.  

Sunset Park

Sunset is a park in Kimberly with a boat dock and also a swimming beach. I used to do a lot of swimming there as a kid. The beach was closed and water drained when I was there this past weekend, so no pics of that. 

I walked with Baby Muddy and Grandpa Muddy. We ran into an old friend as well! 

Trails, very stroller friendly. It's a nice scenic area, maybe 2 or 3 miles of trail altogether, but not certain on that.  

There are a few smaller trails that go into the wooded area more that are not stroller friendly but still appear to be generally baby carrier friendly. There are a couple hills that can be a little hard to push a stroller up, but Grandpa gave a helping hand there. 

There are two play areas, the one in the photo is the smaller one. The other is at the top of the other hill and near a pavilion and bathrooms. This smaller one is a bit away from bathrooms, but near enough to see the pavilion from this spot. 

The day was a little hotter than anticipated but it was absolutely beautiful out. This is also a good park for professional family photos. Lots of bridges and a nice build up stone area. 

Overall, very stroller friendly for walking, also dog friendly on the pathways, and great for the bigger kids too so they can get a break to play as well. 

Friendship Trestle Trail

There is a nice little park in Menasha WI that had an old train trestle going over the water. The trestle was badly out of shape and frankly dangerous. A few years ago, the trestle was redone to make a beautiful walking path.

Along the trestle there are a few areas for fishing as well as just kicking back and relaxing. It's a beautiful bridge that connects the Town and City of Menasha. The Town side is the side with the park and the Friendship trail continues with a map on either side of the bridge. The bridge is about 3/4 of a mile across if I remember correctly. If not, I'll update when I visit this park again. 

The bridge itself is just fine for strollers and bikes. You often see people walking their dogs here too. Very friendly place to visit and chat with other people using the bridge. 

Once I crossed over to the City side, I tried to follow the "path". You have to go through a few blocks of city before connecting back up to a trail. The city sidewalks are uneven and not well kept. As you get away from the map at the end of the bridge, unless you've written down where to go, you might not find where you're supposed to be. I didn't, but then I didn't have too much time or I might have. I'm not very familiar with Menasha so kept wondering had I gone to far or not far enough. The city on the other side of the bridge appears to be a low middle to low income area with homes that are not kept up very well also. It's not a scenic walk through the city but it is a safe area. Overall though, I'd give a try to going through the town on the path rather than on the uneven bumpy sidewalks of the city. 

UWGB Trail

Google made this picture prettier than my phone did, but it is a good representation of how pretty this trail is! This is about a four mile loop on mostly gravel. It's a walking stroller friendly path. Fairly level and doesn't bind up the stroller wheels. It's also wide enough to walk with two people and the stroller, probably not for two strollers side by side though. It's mostly forest and fields but there is a nice area along the lake as well. 

This area along the water has a nice place to park and set up a picnic and maybe do a body weight exercise or yoga routine. I'm hoping to take Teen Muddy this weekend with the baby. She's awesome with picnics :). If anyone wants to join me, let me know now!!! We'll pack extra food. 

This trail also has a nice patch of clovers growing! I'll save that pic for another post about the wonderful joys of edible flowers/weeds. I have never actually eaten a clover. Baby Muddy ate his first clover this past weekend at the park. He's played with them before and put them in his mouth. This weekend though, he just popped off the flower part and ate it. 

So, this trail is in Wisconsin of course and I haven't ventured far out of Green Bay yet. There are just so many trails and path's near me. This area is just opposite the main entrance to the UWGB campus.