Older moms like to go hiking, too. At least mine does when I make her go out with me.

Southern Illinois has so many state park areas that offer outdoor, family entertainment. It had been years since my family had visited most of them. As a young boy, I enjoyed our family outings to many of the parks in our immediately area.

What better way to be outdoors than with mom in some of our favorite state parks. She doesn't hike the more rugged trails in our parks, but the self-interpretive scenic trails and moderately difficult trails fit her physical ability quite well, as long as we stopped occasionally to let her rest.

I forget sometimes that my mom is getting older. She stays very active and tries to keep up with her kids and grandchildren, but she isn't as fast as she used to be. She's quick to tell me that I'm not as fast I used to be either.

I tried to pick hiking trails in parks that were a little easier for her to walk after our first trail involved a steep hill and old wooden steps. Even though it was a beautiful trail, she didn't like its difficulty much. I realized this when she stopped every few feet to rest when we were hiking uphill.

I tried not to notice or seem annoyed that she was lagging behind as I stopped with her to take pictures of the beautiful surroundings. I catalogued away in my mind the difficulty she seemed to be having in order to pick easier trails for us to hike in the future.

The self-interpretive trail we took next seemed more leisurely for her. This trail was flat and had frequent stopping places where signs were erected that explained the natural scenic area surrounding that part of the trail. Mom liked this trail better than the hillier one.

On our last hike before the weather turned cold and wet, we hiked near the bluffs of Giant City State Park. It was a nice day and young people were rappelling down the cliffs.

They were so agile and fearless that mom and I decided to watch them for a while. When they got down to the bottom of the cliff, they scamper back up the rocks to the top to rappel back down again. One wanted to know if we wanted to try it, but we politely, and smartly declined.

We like outdoor adventure, but we have our limits. We've learned that lesson by ourselves.

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