Apollo Trifan hiked more than 275 miles last year, but this year it might be hard to top that, as he’s currently learning to walk.
Apollo is 20 months old and hiked all those miles last year with his parents as part of Hike It Baby, a group where moms and dads hit the trails with their newborns. The international group was started in Portland in 2013 by Shanti Hodges, and a Vancouver branch was born Sept. 15 with a hike at Salmon Creek Greenway.
Anka Trifan, Apollo’s mother, is one of three leaders of the Vancouver branch, along with Jessica Bell Becker, who has an 8-month-old daughter, and Jamie Bourcier, who has a 15-month-old daughter. Trifan found out about the group through a friend and started attending hikes with the Portland-based branch. Bourcier also found out about the group through a friend, but couldn’t attend hikes because they were on weekdays and she had already returned to work and graduate school. She asked Hodges about the possibility of some weekend hikes, and eventually Hodges asked if she would like to start a Vancouver branch.
“Of course I said no,” she said. “It sounded like a crazy commitment, but Shanti has a way, and I led the first hike as an official branch leader.”
It was on that hike where she met Trifan, who Hodges also asked to lead the Vancouver group. Hodges soon introduced them to Becker, who found the group by searching on the Internet for information about hiking and babies.
“I thought it was too good to be true,” she said of finding the group. “It combined my love of hiking and my love of spending time with my baby, so it was a perfect fit.”
The three women lead hikes throughout Clark County, and the group offers multiple hikes of varying degrees each week. They offer trail hikes and neighborhood strolls, and Becker said they offer hikes that are stroller-accessible. The different degrees of difficulty are also helpful as children grow, which Trifan is finding out.
“Now that (Apollo’s) older, much heavier and has a preference for walking instead, I’ve transitioned into leading more of the easy, slower than molasses hikes to accommodate his needs, as well include parents (who) are with their kids in the same stage as we are now,” she said.
The group isn’t just a way to get out and hike with your child, all three women said. It’s also a way to meet new people — Trifan, Becker and Bourcier did not know one another before the Vancouver group formed — and pick up some parenting tips.
“I’ve had moms who didn’t know how to nurse on the trail,” Becker said. “I’ve learned a ton from moms with older babies on the trail. It is like a mommy-and-me group.”
The Vancouver branch varies in size depending on the hike, sometimes with just a couple of families attending and sometimes with as many as 14 families. While most parents bring newborns, they’ve had children as old as 10 join the group on hikes.
On Saturday, the group will host a walk at the Waterfront Renaissance Trail in Vancouver. More information about the group, including upcoming hikes, can be found at www.hikeitbaby.com/hike-it-baby-vancouver-wa.
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