Hiking with kids: Napf

Since on Saturday should have been nice weather, I have urged my husband already during the week to help me figure out where to set off for our next trip. And why I insisted that we should decide at least one day in advance?

As you may already know, I am not one of those people who thrive on last-minute decisions. I like everything thought-out in advance, scheduled and ready (even though they are of course some rare occasions when I can surprise myself  by a sudden sense of improvisation :))

Probably you know it too – you wake up on the weekend, the sun shines through the window and you just at this moment start thinking about what you are about to do. You spend a great amount of time googling (weather, possible eventualities, if the terrain is suitable for stroller, etc.), followed by arguing mutual discussion of pros and cons of that certain location, in addition, children demand what they should put on and you actually have no idea, because you have not yet agreed on the final destination. When the last point is resolved, you can start packing: spare clothing, snacks and other necessities (such things for a picnic, etc.) And maybe at noon you set off and pray for managing everything you have so quickly planned before it gets dark.

So to prevent this (for me, for who else?) stressful situation, on Friday evening we agreed on taking a hike on the Napf, which is with its height of 1,406m.a.s.l. the highest peak between the Emmental and Entlebuch regions and is situated on the border of Bern and Luzern cantons.

There is no road or railroad that leads to the top – it can be reached only on foot or by bike (and believe me, we met a lot of these bike-trail enthusiasts who were cycling up to the top!) Funny was the comment of our younger son: “Mom, that man is such an idiot! Does not have  any mudguards and  is dirty as a pig!” 🙂

It was the first time I bore our girl in the carrier on my back and although I was a little worried at the beginning of our trip (the first 15 minutes the baby was still fidgeting with discomfort and I thought that perhaps we would have to return). But finally it was ok, our little accustomed herself and even fell asleep twice 🙂 I think because I had a very good “adjustment” of the Manduca, I could barely feel the eight-kilo burden on my backs and I was hiking very easily. I did not even have any back pain the next day! So for the time being absolute satisfaction with our Manduca carrier!

At the top you can find a restaurant with a hotel, that was in Saturday’s beautiful weather occupied by hikers like us. There we ordered a well-deserved reward 🙂

When we had enough of fantastic views of the Alps peaks and on the opposite side of the Jura Mountains and hills of the Emmental, we went down on the descent.

The return trip was a bit steep and for short children’s legs a bit difficult because we had to climb about 300-meter vertical drop. It was written on the internet, that the hike takes about 2 hours and 15 minutes, which we probably did. Overall, our trip took four hours because we paused for snacks, taking photos of beautiful views and resting on top.