The day was pretty uneventful. We had to cross a river twice. Both times I managed to cross by stepping on rocks. Paul did the same thing, but slipped both times and got his feet wet both times. I just giggled to myself. Its good that he is humbled some times ;) I really think that the river crossings were the most eventful part of our hike today. Well. Okay, so we are just about finished, and my dad says just hike until you see this, and this, and this. We keep going, and then we would stop and say, "now?" He would say, "Nope, keep going." So we would keep going, and continually ask him now? Finally we hit some switch backs, and we no we have gone to far. Dad goes ahead to check it out, and comes back and says, "Yeah, we went to far." Then we had to back track. The front of the pack was pretty much just whatever about it. But the older and younger of the group were pretty frustrated that we had to hike up switch backs, then back down them, only to have to hike up them again in a few days. But, it is what it is. So we got back down the switch backs and followed a game trail to the edge of the river. The one that I had told Paul about over and over; how beautiful it was, and how it was like a little mini oasis in the mountains. Come to find out the river is bone dry. Seriously! Not a drop of water in sight! I just about cried. The biggest reason Paul came on the hike was because I talked up the waterfall so much. It really was like a scaled down version of Havasu Pai only in Montana.
At this point we were all a little frustrated, and worried. We had planned on there being water, because that is what we planned to drink and cook with. We hiked down into the riverbed and followed it for a while. Some of the boys went up the other side of the river to look for potential camp spots, while other boys went down river to look for water. Thankfully we found some. It was a little bit of a walk to get there. Certainly not right in our back door or anything. But we did have water. And awesomely enough, we had a pretty sweet camp spot too. We set up camp, and then most of us set out to get water, and wash our clothes and hair.
Just down the dry river bed a few 100 feet a spring comes down the side of the mountain and joins up to send water down the river. The water coming directly out of the spring was SO cold! Literally like ice water. But there was a little pool up river where some water pooled together that was slightly warmer temperature. We washed our clothes in it. and the crazy ones washed hair and bathed in it. Because it was late, and getting cold, I chose not to was my hair. We planned to go swimming the next day, so I figured when I had plenty of time to dry my hair I would wash it. I didn't want to freeze all night because my hair was still wet. The boys were so fun to watch as they slowly inched into the water. I wish I would have recorded it so that I could have a video Paul, Brytt and my dad. They were all so funny to watch. A few of our party continued to hike down stream to see what was even there. We planned to swim, but we didn't know if there was enough water to make it worth while. They came back with positive news saying that there was water, and it would certainly be fun to play in when it was warmer and the sun was up.
Dinner and games followed the laundry party. Then everyone went to bed we were so tired.
The start of day four. No cannibalism has happened, no broken bones, no serious injuries. Its been a good almost four days. :)
Hiking across the dried up river bed to our campsite. Just through the trees above there was a really nice flat spot with a previously used fire pit and even some logs for seating. And it was shaded quite nicely by the surrounding trees.
Mommy feeling pretty upset that 1. the river bed is bone dry, and B. that dad made her hike up a bunch of switch backs then all the way back down.
Me kind of bummed that all the water is gone.
A picture of what the river looks like... or looked like. Try to imagine it full of really pretty clear green water. Lots of little pools rocks to jump off of. It was great back in its day.
Washing our cloths for the first time in 4 days.
Tallus was brave enough to try the water out first.
Nena washy-washing her hair.
After a while Tallus decided it was too cold to just sit around in the water.
Our glorious clothes line. Paul and I made sure to put our clothes up high as we could so if a deer wanted to eat them, he would be discouraged and go for the lower clothes first. Our plan worked out great until the next day when mom moved things around so lower down clothes could get more sun and more wind!
Kalena showing us how we eat pudding. Sometimes we are too lazy to put the food in our bowl, because then we will have to wash them. So we just eat it out of the bag or pouch. There is no such thing as germs when you are in the middle of no where.
And, again, Tallus eating potatoes right out of the pot. Too lazy to use his bowl. At least he used a spoon though and not his finger!
Dad up in the tree. I guess there were too many branches in this tree for it to be a super great bear bag, so dad climbed up the tree and busted a bunch of the lower branches so our food could hang in the tree with no problems.
Dad and Deven working together to put up all the bear bags.
Deven is such a sweet guy, and decided to bring his wife on a wonderful backpacking trip for their anniversary. Now for some people, this would be totally romantic. This was Nayeli's first hike, so I don't know how "romantic" it was. But Deven surprised her with a hammock. They only set it up a few of the days. But boy was it comfy to sit in.
We just loves each other so much! Its a good thing I have a cool sister.
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