Join the club: These mamas hike with babies on board

As small as babies are, they have a surprising knack for weighing parents down.

Formerly fast-moving, adventurous adults can suddenly feel anchored to the house after the birth of a child, unable to enjoy the outdoors like they used to.

Maybe it’s the bottles, burp cloths, diaper bags and other baby bobbles that can make little ones feel so imposing. Maybe it’s their tendency to cry or fall asleep or demand to eat just when parents are about to do something.

“Sometimes a whole day will go by and I had planned to get out of the house but I never do,” said Theresa Fletcher, whose son, Lochlan, is 13 months old.

When she told other mothers about her predicament, their response was usually a knowing, “join the club.”

So she did. The baby hiking club. Now she gets out a few times a week with a group of like-minded parents who call themselves the Colorado Mountain Mamas.

The Mamas, which includes a few dads, get together several times a week to explore local trails with babies and toddlers. For the 40 or so members, hiking with other parents offers a number of advantages.

“If we have someone to meet, it is much easier to actually get out,” Fletcher said on a recent afternoon as she hoisted Lochlan onto her shoulders for a hike in Red Rock Canyon Open Space.

Of course, parents have been carrying their children through the hills since at least the days of Homo habilis strolling the African savannah. But how modern humans hike with their babies is not always instinctual. That’s why the club was a welcome find for a lot of local mothers.

“Some of our members are concerned they won’t know what to do with a young baby on the trail,” said Kelly Church, one of the club’s organizers. “What if they get lost? What if the baby starts crying?”

The group is a repository of trail-tested parenting tips.

“It feels like a little bit of normalcy in your life. You get to interact with adults, not just look at your child all day,” said Sara Lund, who carried her 18-month-old, Iris, on the hike. “Plus there is the fitness aspect, and you get the kids out in nature.”

Then there is the always-present concern, especially among transplants, of meeting a bear or mountain lion on the trail.

Colorado Mountain Mamas, which started in Denver eight years ago and has had a group in Colorado Springs for almost a year, hikes mostly on weekdays and, consequently, is made up primarily of stay-at-home moms. But even parents who hit the trails evenings or weekends can learn from the Mamas’ experience.

“The most important thing is to plan ahead,” said Suzanne Hoag, who joined the group with her 16-month-old son, Blake, this spring.

Always take food and water for you and your child. Be conscious of temperature. Babies can layer up and go hiking on chilly days, but watch out for freezing wind. Get a carrier with a good sun shade because sun hats tend to fall off.

And always have a trick up your sleeve in case your child gets grumpy.

That’s what Megan May needed on the recent group hike with 10-month-old daughter Olive. After bobbing contentedly for an hour on her mother’s back as the group wound through Red Rock Canyon, Olive started to grow cranky. Her mother offered her water, but she still fussed and whined.

“OK, I’m breaking out the big guns,” May said. And she handed Olive a fool-proof baby mood-enhancer, whether on or off the trail: car keys.