A little hike...

Our family spent Wednesday through Sunday of Thanksgiving week camping at Garner State Park in our travel trailer. Friday after Thanksgiving some friends joined us to tent camp for the weekend. The weather was beautiful, mostly in the 60's during the day, cooler at night. The kids rode bikes until they popped the tires, we drew and painted, photographed birds, hiked, played football, sat by the fire, roasted marshmallows, made s'mores, and watched movies outdoor. It was lovely.

Saturday morning was slow going, a big storm had blown through on Friday night and everyone seemed to be taking a while to get things together. We had decided we all wanted to go hike to see a little cave they have called "The Crystal Cave". By the time we were on our way, Elliott ended up staying behind with Caleb and Micah.

So, with Elliott staying back in the RV with Micah and Caleb and Curious George on DVD, the rest of us set off. In total there were 5 adults, 11 children (one being a baby strapped to a momma's back), and 2 dogs. We started on the Crystal Cave hike and very quickly found we were going up a pretty steep cliff. Comments were occasionally heard like, "is that a baby on the hike?"... that probably should have been our first clue to turn back.

Alas, we carried on, the kids were all very excited to see this cave filled with crystals! We had to take a few breaks to catch our breath, but all in all, it was a nice and challenging hike. We made it to the cave, right after about fifty other people, so we waited our turn and then went in to explore. It was funny to watch the kids be so excited about a little caving expedition. We took a snack break and then plotted our return hike.

Since the hike we came up was pretty steep, and the map of trails had shown a less challenging hike that looped into the one we were on, we decided to take that loop back instead of hike down such a steep path. We started hiking, everyone refreshed from the snack and break. We soon got to the sign for the other trail, but there was some confusion. The sign had no arrow showing which direction you should take and we met a couple who said they had circled the same spot multiple times trying to get back down. We decided to take the route that looks like it was a nice, gentle descent.

So we hiked. And hiked. The hike was moving much faster without the steep inclines of the first half of the hike. There were little painted yellow footprints to let you know you were on an official path. This was encouraging. We were sure we would be back to the main road soon. So we kept hiking.
Then we came to a cross road that was not labeled. After some investigating we decided on a route as we spotted some more yellow feet. We got to a spot where the trees opened up and you could see "Old Baldy" very clearly and we paused to take some family photos. The views were breathtaking. But everyone was getting a little tired and looking forward to the hike ending... maybe around that next bend...
We kept hiking. We were not running into any one on the trails. We kept seeing yellow painted footprints... white dots... red dots... We started coming to areas with steep drop offs, the dogs were needing to be carried, the kids helped down. Then we ran into a couple coming towards us on the hike, so we asked if they knew were we were. They said we were a third of a mile from the end of the trail. What rejoicing there was!

Renewed with the fresh hope of finding our way safely out everyone picked up the pace a little. In a few moments we would get to the spot where we could see the end of the trail. There was only one problem. The end of the trail was at the bottom of a cliff. We looked around for the painted foot prints and dots... they went straight down. We had been hiking for over 2 hours. The dogs were tired, the kids were tired, the parents were all quietly wondering if one of the group was going to slip off the cliff.

Once we all realized we were indeed going to have to make this descent, we laughed. At some of the more treacherous parts of the climb where we were having to help guide each other over sharp drops, we took the opportunity to take photos of the drama. At the bottom of the slope, once we were finally at the bottom, there was a sign - DANGER: Very Steep, Falling Rocks. Yep, and we hiked it.

When we figured it out, looking at the trail map and trying to decipher where we went wrong, we calculated that we likely hiked 3.5-4 miles... with 11 children, 5 parents and 2 dogs. We all slept really well that night. It was awesome, at least, it was awesome once we all survived and got back to camp. Just a little hike...