Family Backpack in the Southwest Desert

Fall Break! So I talked the family into going backpacking for a night with me as long as it was warm and dry. We delayed one day to go on Friday to let the wet weather clear. It turned out to be a good plan as we had perfect weather with highs in the mid 70s. The Southwest Desert with its sweeping views and petrified forest was our choice. We stopped by the Wilderness Permit desk where I got to catch up with Derrick a bit before securing campsite #2. We decided to leave from the Chinle Trailhead. I dropped Jacqueline and the kids off at the bridge and I ran back to the actual trailhead and took off from there. It actually took a good chunk of time before I caught up with Jacqueline and the kids as they were moving pretty well.

As soon as I caught up to them, they wanted a snack, of course, and thus began the back and forth on the snack attacks. We got them going, though, and Conrad had to lead the group the whole way. He did a pretty good job of keeping a good pace for the rest of us.
October is so great in the desert because the flowers and cacti are coming back alive. We were both surprised at home many flowers that we saw blooming. It didn't feel as empty and vacant as the Southwest Desert can feel.
The kids were doing fairly well, but there were always goals put in place and questions about how far away we were. The first goal was to make it to campsite #1. It took a couple of snack and water breaks to make it there, but eventually we did make it. That is where everyone seemed to hit a wall. Conrad had a couple of trips to the woods to dig some holes. Zyla's belly hurt and Jacqueline thought the trail was too steep. I kept everyone on an even keel by taking care of Conrad, pleading with Zyla to drink more than a sip of water, and to let Jacqueline know how hard a child would have to work to fall off the trail. We continued past campsite 1 and into Scoggins Wash before we were climbing up to campsite 2. Everyone was happy to see it as it took us a good 4 hours to make it to the campsite. When we got to it, Jacqueline was immediately freaked out because campsite 2 has this incredible view because there is a large drop off down into Scoggins Wash right after it.

We set up some ground rules for the kids and it was definitely enjoyable to get this huge sweeping view of the backside of the Towers and Temples of the Virgin. I guess here they would be the Towers and Temples of Scoggins Wash. Does not quite have the same ring to it. The other awesome thing about this site is the amount of agates and petrified would around. It seemed that every rock was this pretty colorful agate or a large piece of a very, very old tree. The kids got right to work on creating little play areas for the ants and they seemed to really enjoy their time in camp. We still had to plead with Zyla to drink some water and eat some food, but eventually the energy and joy returned.

We really enjoyed the pretty sunset as this may be the best spot in the entire park to appreciate the sunset. It is the same view that we get to see of the park from our house in Washington, Utah, but so very much more in your face. We stayed outside until the sun finally set about 7:30 pm and then it was time to read books in the tent. Everyone had a different book to enjoy. We were all asleep before 9 and it was a very quiet night. It was almost like sleeping in a cave it was so quiet. At about 6:30 AM, I began stirring to get everyone going when the sun was up. It was still pretty cold out, but not too bad. I quickly got some breakfast going and by the time the water boiled and the meal was made, all were up and shivering away.

It wasn't actually that cold out being somewhere in the low 50s, but it was moister than usual. The tent when I packed it up was just covered with moisture so that it necessitated a drying process once we made it home. Strangely enough, though, the water hole that we had used the previous night to get 3 quarts of water, had dried up overnight so that I was glad I had acted on the filtering of water early. It took Jacqueline some time to get going, but by 9 AM, we were hitting the trail. I decided that walking back to the Chinle Trailhead was just too uninteresting, so instead we continued on to Scoggins Wash. This was going to be better on the kids as it was mostly downhill and fairly easy going. Zyla seemed the least motivated to move quickly of all of us as Conrad was leading the way again and moving good. We left the plateau above Scoggins and started to lose elevation until we finally got to drop into the Wash. Jacqueline was not a fan of the trail down into Scoggins from the Chinle, but everyone made it fine. We continued down Scoggins appreciating just how lush this usually dry canyon appeared.

Eventually we hit Coalpits Wash where we had our last of many snack breaks. I walked with the family for about half a mile after that and then took off ahead. This change in our itinerary was putting us out on a trailhead quite a ways away from where our car was parked. I hustled to the Coalpits Wash trailhead, dropped my pack and started my run up the road. Luckily, I had been running a lot lately so I was able to move rather well. I stopped once along the way when I found a wallet by the side of the road and once again when I saw a police officer in Rockville who I handed the wallet off to. All in all, it was a 4 mile run back to the other trailhead where I grabbed the car and picked up the rest of the family. I was proud of everyone on our second family backpack. Mileage was only about 8 miles total, but it was through some rough terrain carrying some heavy packs. It was a great way to spend a couple of days of fall break. 

Long Day in the Barracks

 Tim is a good friend of mine who shows up at our house often before he flies off to one of his amazing trips around the world. This past year, it was Peru, Taiwan, and India. Soon he will be off to Bali. In the meantime, he works at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. My summer time fun was coming to an end, but on the last day before Jacqueline had to go back to work, I got one last chance to go for a long hike. I took advantage given that Tim is a stronger hiker than me and in better shape. So I picked something that would challenge our endurance a little bit. We were going to start out in Meadow Creek connecting to Mineral Gulch which would put us in the Barracks before an ascent out through Checkerboard Mesa. Given that this hike was nearly a halfway meeting point for the two of us, we both left our houses early in the morning. I left about 6:30 a.m. after a rough night's sleep. I met up with Tim at about 7:40. We left one car at the takeout across from Checkerboard Mesa and the other we drove about 10 miles away to the head of Meadow Creek.

The descent into Meadow Creek is interesting. It is really chunky mud stone that when it rains turns into just mud. It had rained recently so we spent the beginning of the hike trying to avoid the quicksand, but soon gave up and just tried to avoid the really soupy stuff. There is a rappel not too far down into Meadow Creek, but I had been there once before, so I thought there was a way to get around. I was right. There was one more pour off, but this one was easy to get around also. The rest of Meadow Creek was a rather open, uninteresting canyon that seems to just get deeper and deeper. It is amazing to view from above, but from below it is wide open. We saw some sort of hawk, but other than that we just waited for the beautiful narrows of Mineral Gulch. They were worth waiting for. Mineral Gulch has exactly what the non-technical canyoneer is looking for with great narrows with no obstacles.
Time was beginning to be an issue. I assumed the entire hike was about 15 miles from my mapping software, but the twists and turns of the canyons were looking like my estimate was way short. When we found the pictographs of Mineral Gulch, it was already pushing noon as we had been in that canyon for 4 hours. It was looking like this was going to be a 20+ mile day. 
We finally popped out into the narrows of Parunuweap known locally as the Barracks. I had been here a couple of times before, but only in this section once on another long day with Jacqueline and Eric. There were a couple of things that we noticed. One was that the canyon didn't smell so good. There were definitely some cows around. Another was that the water was really muddy, like chocolate milk muddy. This was going to slow us down considerably as each step we took into the creek was like a guessing game. Am I going to sink to my ankle or am I going to sink to my waist? We found a spot for lunch and knew that we had our work cut out for us. After eating it was following the river course, sometimes in the water, sometimes along the banks. We found the debris from a recent flash flood, but the water did not get any clearer after that. 
Tim and I were both really interested in all of the side canyons coming in. Once again, every hike leads to newer more interesting hikes off that hike and we both thought it would be a good idea to backpack in here someday and just take lots of time to explore side canyons. We went into a few without finding any turn around points, but we just knew as the time ticked off, that we were going to have to just commit to the canyon on this day. There was also a small threat of thunderstorms and as we got later into the afternoon, we knew our chances of getting into a flash flood increased exponentially. Looking at the amount of sky that we could see, though, we tell that we were probably clear of any storms at this point. 
The canyon seemed long and endless until we finally reached the narrowest section. I could tell we were near the waterfall when we had to wade above our waist for the first time. 

Sure enough, we came upon it and it looked so different than what I had seen in the past. We knew that there was one way down this canyon and that this waterfall was the way down, but both of us looked at it and doubted whether we should attempt descending it. There was a lot of water rushing through a very narrow opening and what used to be a logjam was now just a rocky, rough cascading fall. There were three options. The first was going off the rock and that was a long way down. The second was the other wall, but that look very tight. The third, which we knew we were going to have to take was down the fall itself. Tim and I both looked nervous. We tried a few things and I lowered myself down into the waterfall. There was a lot of push from the weight of the water. With the noise and the lack of footholds, I just worried about being taken by the water, hitting my head and ending up in the pool below. I climbed back up. We had to find a better way. Tim suggested grabbing a log upstream. Great idea! We found one not far away, floated it down, and tried to jam it in between the rock and the ground. We failed and lost it downstream. Okay, let's try again. We went back upstream and found another 10 foot log that we floated down until we were at the falls. This time we put it over the falls. It was only halfway down, but we were afraid to lose it. It looked like it would work, but was it stable. Tim sat on one end while I slid down the log. Soon I was right in the waterfall, but as I descended the log began to move. I was essentially riding a log down a waterfall. After it jammed into place, I was able find a good foot hold, get myself off the log and out of the waterfall. I helped Tim find a foot placement as he descended a now stationary log and we were past the waterfall obstacle.
After that it was less than a half an hour before we made it to Misery Canyon. The canyon was so amazing here, but on this day, we were ready to get out. It was already 4pm and we still had a couple thousand feet in elevation to climb on a 100+ degree day with 5-6 miles left to go. We found the John Wesley Powell plaque and then it was up the steep walls. Having done this exit route a few times, it was easy to find, but I can only imagine talking yourself into this if you had never been there before. We got a little off route, but I knew how to find the exit from many times past, so we just trended west until we topped out. It was brutally hot, but at least the sun was not pounding on us given the haze from the fires in California. 
Still there was a lot of sand slogging and with Checkerboard Mesa always in full view, the route seemed to go up and up for an indefinite amount of time. We finally topped out in the canyon next to Checkerboard and it felt good to descend. Along the way, we ran into a group of bighorn sheep who seemed not very concerned by our presence. We finally made it out about 6:30 p.m. which was a bit later than I was anticipating, but still with a significant amount of daylight left. I was pretty spent by the end, I have to admit, but it was well worth it for the scenery and the good company along the way. When I made it home, though, it was unfortunate to find out that our air conditioning had broken and we were now stuck for the evening until morning dealing with the hot Southern Utah heat.

Keyhole with the Meisters

I wanted to show off some of Zion's amazing slot canyons to the Meisters, so we chose to take a run through Keyhole. Given that the weather had been highly unpredictable, it was the right choice given that the canyon was short and thunderstorms were a definite possibility. We got an early start and our first stop was Zion Adventure Company. My old neighbor Jon worked there and he helped us find some gear before we set out. We were able to get a permit from the Wilderness Desk and then it was through the tunnel to the east side of the park. It was already warm out as we packed up our stuff. We had a good crew as Brent, Laurel, and Will were all coming with me.

The hardest part of this whole hike is just getting to the canyon. First, we have to pack up all our gear and haul it up some steep slick rock. Then we had to descend a very steep gully to just get to the canyon. From there, we started putting on some gear. Laurel and Will had decided to rent wetsuits. I was a bit disappointed to see when we got to the canyon that it was basically bone dry. Some of the simpler down climbs were made more challenging by the lack of water to climb down into. It took us a bit of extra time to get everyone down these drops. Luckily, I remembered most of them and led most of the time. I just wanted to make sure everyone was safe. Brent and Laurel figured it out really quickly and if they were nervous about it, I couldn't tell. Will was nervous about some drops, but that made me happy to because it meant that he had a real fear for the danger potential. He had plenty of adults around to help him out and I was really proud of just how well he did on his first time at a young age. We made it through the middle section without any injuries and now it was time to harness up.
I was a bit concerned about how my elbow would do given that it was still coming back to normal from my inflammation, but so far, so good. The first rappel in Keyhole is the most fun. It took Will a bit of time to figure it out as when you are a newcomer, the hardest thing is putting enough weight on the rope. Soon we were all down into the smelliness of the very dry canyon. We did get a bit of a dip after the first downclimb into the pothole, but still no big issues. We continued down the next two rappels trying to show a few techniques about bottom belays and how to descend the rope. Our first set of other people came by. We were going to let them use our rope, but they were having as many issues as us, so we just moved on.
There is always the 100 foot swim to take care of at the end. This became more like the 100 foot wade though. It was so low. I think everyone with wetsuits was happy because they avoided the canyon rash of rubbing against sandstone, but warmth wise it was not entirely necessary. Soon we were popping out of the canyon. I usually sneak out behind people, but now at the sneaking out point, there was a large tree lodged there to make for an easy exit. I think everyone was pleased with the canyoneering trip and they got to have a bit of an adventure. It was fun for me to as it had been a number of years since I had done any canyoneering. We spent the rest of the day preparing for our mini road trip that would start the following day. 

Hot hike

The girls had been up really late the night before attending Matilda out at Tuacahn, so we didn't get an early start. This can be a mistake in the desert, especially when you are hiking with young kids. We were going to take it easy on everyone and just take a trip up the Kolob Terrace Road to hike the Northgate Peaks trail. When we got to the trailhead, I reminded a couple of people getting their bikes ready, that this was not a trail that you were allowed to mountain bike on. They seemed kind of disgruntled about it, but they did not seem to complain much. This hike was not quite as enjoyable as the day before. It was hot and dry. In fact, I took the Meisters over to the "big spring" which is usually a large pond. It was virtually dry. Disappointing, but we kept on trucking.
I got to see some of my work along the way, so I felt good about that. The kids took a bit more prodding to keep going today. They were a bit worn out from all of the traveling and hiking. We had been kind of go-go-go. The trail took us for a mile along the Wildcat Canyon Trail, then over to the Northgate Peak trail. All and all it was enjoyable as we were all kind of spread out along the trail. When we got to the point, we took a bunch of pictures and ate some lunch. I decided to go check some things out. No one else was really interested, so I went around the corner from the Northgate Peaks to see what was out there. Just more open space and frankly I was going to have to come back and do some more exploring eventually. It did not take me long to meet up with the rest of the group.
The way back was just keeping the kids going. Everyone looked and felt so hot. We were all happy to get out of there. July is not the best time to visit Zion, even if you are going to the high country. We kept them motivated with the thought of the pool later. Other than a few stops along the road for pictures, we were in that pool as quick as we could get there. Enjoyable hike with great views it just would be much more enjoyable outside of the month of July. 

Back to the Narrows

We had a couple of leisurely days with the Meisters that included a trip to Costco, some pickleball, and an attempted trip to Quail Reservoir for some paddle boarding that quickly materialized into a chance to escape a passing thunderstorm. We got ourselves all ready and then it rolled and we rolled out. The next day we were trying our luck with the Narrows. We made all our plans and were able to get up early. We made it out of the house before 6 AM with a bunch of kids which was an accomplishment in itself. We drove the hour up to Zion and were able to find a parking place. Then it was time to get on the shuttle. We walked over to do that and the line was enormous.

I knew it was going to be bad because this was 4th of July weekend, but still waiting in line an hour to take a shuttle is crazy. We saw a bunch of park people that we knew just waiting in line. I was glad that we were doing this with the Meisters so that they had a good perspective as to why we decided to stop being park rangers. I was also glad that they gave me a good excuse to do this as it was good to experience it and realize why I don't spend a lot of time there outside of the fall, winter, and spring. Eventually by about 8 AM we made it on the shuttle and it took us up to the Temple of Sinawava. The crowds on the trail were not nearly as bad as I thought they would be because the shuttles limited them to only the people who could get on the bus.

The hike up the Riverside Walk was easy enough and the kids were not complaining yet. They enjoyed the massive amounts of squirrels everywhere but were hesitant of them after the signs that show them biting people. That was good because these squirrels were living the good life, fat and lazy spread out on the trail in some cases. When we got to the water, the kids took to walking in the water right away. This was such a great hike because it is so hot in Southern Utah. We had all been melting. In the Narrows, right away we were cool and comfortable. The water was crazy low being only about 25 cfs. That was perfect for the kids as it never got above my knees, so even Conrad never got above his waist. Will chose to jump in even though it was slightly chilly. We got a lot of miles out of them and I was most impressed with Conrad. Even with his 5 year old legs, he was trying his best to lead the whole pack.
I was really anxious to see how all my social trail work had done over the past 4 years. Fortunately, I felt that it had done pretty well. Some places that I had blocked had completely returned to their natural state and people were using the paths that I had created. Some of the signs needed some TLC and I did relocate a few. All and all I felt like I actually accomplished something in the years of work I put into the Narrows.
There were so many photographs taken on this hike that making quick progress was not really in the cards. Still, we slowly plodded away until the entire crew made it up to Orderville Canyon. We went a short ways up Orderville to check it out and also sat down to have some lunch. I got the opportunity to get upset with another hiker for putting graffiti on the rock, so that made me feel good. We were all impressed at how well the kids were doing and I really think that everyone was enjoying the hike. The biggest complaint was that some people were cold, which in July in Southern Utah was a luxury.

The trip back down was going to be quicker because we knew the kids would move faster downstream than up. Even with only 25 cfs, it still makes an impact going with the current than against. Conrad was leading the whole pack, though, at many of the crossings I would still hold his hand so he felt more stable. At some point on the way down, Conrad decided he had to go to the bathroom. I decided to just take off with him and try to make it to the toilets at Temple of Sinawava. There was no way that I was going to find a way for him to use the bathroom in the Narrows as now that afternoon was here, the amount of people in the Narrows was truly staggering. We got ahead of the rest of the group and he was really impressive. I could really push Conrad hard and it did not bother him to walk faster.

Near Mystery Falls, I had to stop to take the "oh my gosh, look at how many people are in this picture" shot. It was overwhelming and not enjoyable at many times. I think my mental state was important, though because I was prepared for this. Everyone enjoyed themselves. I got to yell at one more group for feeding squirrels. Conrad made the bathroom which who knows how much human waste went through that thing every day. Eventually the rest of the group made it back and we were able to take a shuttle back. The hike went really well and I was very pleased that we were able to show our friends this amazing place. All the kids were worn out that night which I guess is an accomplishment of a goal.

Great Basin "Glacier"

We resumed our journey once we were able to get the car packed. The Meisters left much earlier to try to find a Mercedes Benz dealer to fix their RV's air conditioning. We got the pleasure of driving down some of the quietest mountain roads. We were often the only car for miles until we pulled into Susanville to refill our gas. We hit Reno a little before noon where we met up with the Meisters at the Patagonia outlet. I worked really hard to finally buy something there and we left them after that to have a very suburban lunch at the Olive Garden given that we had a gift certificate to there. Then it was hours and hours across Highway 50. We were hoping to stay in Austin, NV because of the community swimming pool. When we got there, the pool was closed and the rooms were few. We continued on to Eureka, where we were able to find a room, but we weren't able to find one for the Meisters.
The best we could do was a parking lot near the hotel and a restaurant with comfort food. They enjoyed a not so restful night with all sorts of characters coming in, but I was jealous that they saved $100 where we got a cramped hotel room. Still, the showers were nice and we got a more leisurely start in the morning. They were out of there to the destination of the day, which was Great Basin National Park. Luckily, they were ahead of us because they found an excellent campsite up at Wheeler Peak Campground. It was large and had a creek going right through it. Now this is what I would be looking for on a vacation.

We set up the tents, had some lunch, and then were off on our hike. This would be pretty similar to other trips to Great Basin. Our plan today was to go on the Alpine Lake Loop. Everyone was enjoying the cooler air, the greenery, and the abundance of plant and animal life. Everyone enjoyed skipping some rocks at Stella Lake. The wildflowers around Teresa Lake were out and Will was even brave enough to take a dip in the lake. This loop took us a better part of a couple of hours to complete with the kids. We took it at a relaxed pace enjoying the fact that there was actually water. The rest of the day was spent lazily around camp with a high dose of the Homeless Game for the kids.

We were able to enjoy one of those amazing Great Basin sunsets which included about 100 pictures of the kids in the large open field near the bathroom. The night was cool, but comfortable, though the wind was pretty active. I had considered getting up really early and hiking Wheeler Peak, but when the wind was whipping us at camp, I could only imagine what it would do to me once I was on the ridge. Instead, I enjoyed the camping life and once again had a relaxing start to the day. Eventually, though, we were all up and ready to go. A trip to the glacier was in order today. I had been many times but only for a view. Today, I intended to go farther.

This included a visit to the Bristlecone Pine forest. I think everyone was excited to see these ancient trees. Laurel is an ecologist at the University of Oregon and she brought great depth to our visit with these trees. They are rather amazing in their ability to look barely alive at times, but still hang on for hundreds of years afterwards. The cones were out and so were some blossoming parts of the trees which was fun to see.
We continued up the trail until we could finally see the glacier. There was not much snow left from our vantage point. Still, it was a pretty spot filled with a bunch of rock debris. We continued on for a little further than usual until the girls and Conrad decided to drop out and hang back. Will, Brent, and I continued on ahead and we made it quite a long ways before Will said that was enough for him. I continued on to see what was ahead. You could hear the stream running from the melt right under the glacier, but for the most part, all it took from me was a little bit of effort to pick my way up the boulder field and get to the base of the glacier that was actually more like a permanent snowfield.

I had a wonderful view down the valley and you could really tell that at one point this was probably a pretty formidable glacier. Now the only formidable aspect was the large amount of loose rock that looked as if it was going to tumble down upon me at any second. I got a good view of the permanent snowfield and it looked like the surface of the moon with all the craters made into it from the rockfall. Still, this was a highlight of the trip for me as with kids around it is tough to get away and see something new. We had visited Great Basin so many times and the goal of this trip was to show our friends just how awesome it actually was. They were appreciating it which was great, but it was awesome for me to do something new. I took a circuitous route back and just was able to catch up to Will and Brent around the end of the trail. Brent picked himself up some pure glacial water and we continued down to the rest of the group. While we were up there, they saw a rockfall, so they were happy to see us when we returned. From there, it was back down to camp to hang out. The highlight of this night was that we allowed the kids to stay overnight in a tent by themselves. This was no issue for them, but Jacqueline felt the need to check on them frequently. When we awoke in the morning, our only goal was to make it to our house in Utah to show the Meisters around Southern Utah in the broiling heat. 

Lava Beds

Well, our journey home was beginning. It had been so much fun so far. The Northwest was great but it really had been a lot of time in the car by this point already. We had to drive from my mom's house to the Meister's home. That was a 5-6 hour trip made a little bit longer by the stops we made. We got to their house in the evening and immediately had to repack the car. We had been enjoying the luxury of leaving some of our stuff at their house, but now we had to commence with the repacking for the long trip to Utah. They were going to come with us and brave the desert heat in July to visit some of the National Parks of Utah. The kids were looking forward to the trip, because Will and Lillia, their children, were their really good friends. The Meisters had the added excitement of getting to use Laurel's parents small RV to travel in. Laurel was a little hesitant about the whole deal, but Brent was all in. It was their chance to travel the west in a large vehicle. We got ourselves as packed as we could the night before and then it was time to head south after that. Our first stop would be in Lava Beds National Monument in the northern part of California.

This was going to be the easiest drive that we had as we just had to head down to Springfield and over on 58 until we reached 97. From there we just went south. I was thinking originally that a stop at Crater Lake would be appealing, but there was actually so much to do in this part of Oregon that I had not experienced. Mt. Thielsen, Mt. McLoughlin, Diamond Peak, Crater Lake, and the list goes on of places I would like to spend some time. Instead we just drove right on through, not seeing the Meisters on the drive. We were able to get to Lava Beds with no issue and find a campsite with a bit of shade around the camp area. They showed up about 15 minutes later and we were ready for a night of camping in the high desert.

Our first goal was to get to some caves. The kids  probably would have been happy to just hang out in the RV the whole time as we took it to ride out to our first set of caves. There was a group of 3 caves. The first of which was Skull Cave. We had a complete lack of information on these caves except that they were rather easy. Skull Cave was like most of the caves that we would see. There was a pile of rocks and a large opening. A path led down to this opening. We were all over prepared with head lamps, long  pants, and long sleeves. As we walked into the cave, we got to turn on our lights but the path was easy to find. There was a set of metal stairs that led down below to where the ice was down at the bottom of the cave. And there the cave would end. We did all the usual parts of caves for the kids of turning off our lights and being really quiet.

Then it was off to the next one. This would take a walk and in the hot desert heat, we were all melting before too long. The kids weren't complaining much, but the heat was going to get to them. The two caves that we checked out next were Big Painted Cave and Symbol Bridge. Both were highlighted by the large amount of petroglyphs in the cave. It is a sad day in the world when you find petroglyphs but wonder if they are real. These were neat as they were like nothing I had ever saw before. They were grayish on this black rock which under the shine of a headlight in the darkness was hard to discern. We found many of them in both caves. They were both rather short and Symbol Bridge was not even a cave really, but just a bridge. We all made sure to cross under the bridge and return back on the other side for a bit of exploring. I was proud of how all the kids were doing and they were interacting together really well.
We went back to the RV and then up to the Visitor Center. We checked that out, but then made our way to the Cave Loop. This was a series of caves all in a short distance. Some were closed and the only one that Brent and I could get to come with us was Will on some of these. The best was definitely Sentinel Cave which had one entrance and one exit. Everyone came for this one and it was well worth it being the longest of the caves that we had spent time in that day. After that one though, we had to exit the road and I think everyone was lava tubed out.

It was back to camp where an exciting new activity was created, The Homeless Game where our children pretended they were homeless and had to gather resources. This was all unknown to us as we went through the usual nature of things by setting up tents, making dinner, blowing up air mattresses, etc... We did enjoy an excellent evening program where our kids were all so very excited to participate in the program. I think the ranger was happy to have them there because there were only a handful of people at the program.
The campground itself was rather full and I was a bit nervous about the boy scout troop nearby. It turned out to be a rather quiet evening with the main distraction being the deer that wandered into our campsite at 2 in the morning. Still, we got a decent night's sleep and were soon prepared for our early morning driving as we had a ways to go. We were heading through Nevada and by the time we were awake, the Meisters had left. They needed to get their A/C fixed and the only place to do that was hours away in Reno. We got ourselves going and were soon on our way to meet up with them later that day.

Cougar Lakes

We just returned from Canada, but this was summer so there was no time to rest. This summer was dedicated to getting out into the wild as many days as possible, so Dad and I had a trip planned for the morning following the return from Canada. It was a quick turn around, but that is what we had to do. Unfortunately, he was having trouble with his foot, so the original trip of hiking up Desolation Peak in the North Cascades was out of the question. Instead, we decided to head over to the Bumping Lake area to do some backpacking around there. After thinking about the snow line and the weather, we decided on heading up to Cougar Lakes. It was going to be a bit of a drive. Jacqueline and the kids left us around Puyallup and then it was up into the mountains from there. We went past Bumping Lake, down a sort of rough road, until we reached the Swamp Lake trailhead. We got packed up and headed up the trail where we were immediately given some great views of the Bumping River. It looked to be pretty full from snow melt and there was a cascading waterfall to check out from high above.

It wasn't too much longer that the trail led us right down into the river. I looked around for a bridge to cross, but nope, we were stuck crossing the river. This always makes me a bit uneasy because it means that my shoes are going to be wet for an extended period of time. Also, I did not want to fall in and I was wondering if the river was a bit too swift. At this point, though, there was no returning because this had been an entire day of driving to get to this point. We were going to cross. I went first using a stick to brace me that I found at the edge left I am sure by someone else doing the crossing. It turned out to be not so bad as it wasn't very slick. Dad made the crossing next and now the only fun thing we got to deal with for the rest of the trip was having wet shoes. He was smart and took his socks off for the crossing which helped his shoes dry out faster.

After that it was just the trudge through the alpine forest up the slope until we arrived at a large camping area next to Swamp Lake. We took the best camping spot as no one else was up there and I did not anticipate anyone joining us this evening. We set up the tent, ate some freeze dried food, played some cribbage, and read our books.
The next morning we slept in as long as we could which was not much. Then it was putting on the day packs to head up to Cougar Lakes. We debated moving camp, but thought it would be easy to spend the day hiking around up there and then return to camp in the evening. This turned out to be a wise decision. As soon as we started, we had to soak our shoes all over again to cross the creek coming out of Swamp Lake.

This was made worse by the fact that within minutes, the trail turned from dry and easy to snowy and challenging. We were able to follow it for a while using the cut trees as our guide until we got to a nice open meadow and then it was game over. We both went separate directions to try to find the trail. I was able to locate a trail and we followed that for a while. Unfortunately, after following that for some time, we realized that we were heading on the American Ridge trail and not the trail over to Cougar Lakes. At some point, my feet were freezing and it just felt like endless trudging through snow when we got to a point that both of us decided that going up was fruitless. We went back down the trail until we ran into the trail junction that we originally started following and sure enough it was taking us where we did not want to go.

It was obviously time to regroup and come up with a plan. It was still only 10 AM, so we were looking at only about 12 hours of daylight left. There was plenty of time, but how much time you can spend hiking in snow with wet feet was the question. We chose to go cross country and not worry about finding the trail to Cougar Lakes. This turned out to be a wise decision as the uphill hiking in the snow eventually put us on a plateau. I can tell from the map and the photos that we had to head toward a specific mountain. When we did, we were able to finally get a view of one of the two lakes peaking out through the trees. We were happy that we were able to locate these lakes.

Now we just had to get down to them. We hiked for a ways in the snow until finally deciding to just go down the steep slope. It took a bit of bushwhacking, but we were both happy to land on the trail again that led us down to Cougar Lakes. We ate some lunch by the lake which was a fairly ideal spot. Down by the lake, there was far less snow and mountains all around. We hung out at the smaller of the two lakes, but did walk over to check out the other one. I could see how this could be a great place to spend a few days. We used the trail to hike out of there, which we were able to follow a bit easier from this direction.

We hiked back down to camp and had to figure out what we were going to do with ourselves now that we had completed about all the trails that were offered to us in this area. I considered doing a separate hike going off trail to a lake or a peak, but off trail hiking does not hold a ton of appeal in the heavily wooded Pacific Northwest. We first had to decide whether to pack up camp tonight and head out or if we were going to stay another night. I voted on staying another night, even though it required a lot of hanging out around camp. We did run into the only other person we saw out there. He was an ex-military guy that did not seem to be afraid of the snow, yet ended up camping near us instead of at Cougar Lakes. After a while, we were able to come up with a plan for the next day that would involve hiking back to the car.

We got started once again as late as we could sleep in. This was going to be a fairly leisurely day. I hiked with Dad until we got to the Bumping River where he crossed to get back to his truck while I continued hike down the Bumping Lake trail. This trail took me through the forest to edge of the lake where I spent the next four miles or so hiking along the lake shore. I found the largest ant hill I ever saw in my entire life as this ant hill had entire logs in the middle of it. There were many large ant hills along this area, but this four peaked massive ant hill was by far the largest. I saw some more people and the views of the lake were fantastic.

The trail turned out to be a few miles shorter than what I was hoping for. Dad met me at the other end. We decided to set up camp at one of the many campground choices. We seemed to have this entire campground to ourselves. It was not by the lake, which was fine with me. I was able to find a way through the woods to the river where I sucked up the nerve to get in the chilly water for a dip. After that, it was time to hang out around camp. We were expecting a bit of weather and we did end up getting a bit of moisture on a couple of nights, but nowhere as bad as it could be.

The next morning, we were up early. The plan was for me to hike over the ridge and cross Goat Peak before descending back down to the other side, where Dad would meet me at the trailhead. The only issue was that this trail climbed 3700 feet in just a few miles to the top of the peak. I had my work cut out for me. It was definitely a steep hike with many switchbacks. I felt pretty good, though, and I felt like I was moving along just fine. The trail got fairly narrow after a while and it was rather scenic given that I could see down into the valley below. Eventually, though, I ran into the American Ridge trail. This trail was not snowy on this side of the valley, but it was rather unkempt.

I didn't have a tough time finding the trail, but it was very narrow in many spots. I didn't want to plunge down to the valley below, so I stayed aware. The trail swung around the peak to the other side, but never really relented in the endless climb to the top. The top of Goat Peak was a small, flattish rocky area where there was a register. It looked like about 2-3 groups had been up here so far this summer. It was a fantastic view and I was happy to be on a summit this summer. The trail continued to the other side of the peak, where I made sure to find the correct trail down at the fork where the trail split.

This trail seemed to be even steeper than the other side. It was better to go down it as far as it not being physically exhausting, but there was still that awareness of making sure I did not put my foot in the wrong place for much of the hike down. Where there weren't switchbacks, it was just a straight on descent with nothing to break the pursuit. This trail looked like it did not get much use which was not surprising for how steep it was, but it was fairly easy access coming right from the highway. It wasn't too long before I made it to the truck and Dad was able to get me back to my family where we start to begin the trip back home.