Feels Like a Break

Can you believe that hiking 12 miles up and down the side of a mountain actually felt like a break? I think parenting twins has to be classified as some type of extreme survival sport (I think Rachel would agree) so last week when we were able to get away, it felt awesome! We split the girls up and each Grandma took one for the day. We had originally planned to leave the girls with Grandmas overnight while we backpacked to Signal Peak, camped at Further Water and came down Browns Point Trail the next morning but we changed our minds at the last minute (separation anxiety, yes) and decided to dayhike up to the summit and back down by nightfall. We hit the trail with Kalin, Tia, and David around 8am and made our way up the bouldery switchbacks. There were still big snowdrifts in the shaded canyons and the temperatures were oh-so-refreshingly-cool! We were walking across one snowdrift when one of us noticed small black melty holes in the ice. Peeking down into them, we found that we were actually walking on a big ice bridge that was still frozen over a deep ravine filled with freezing cold water! Yikes! Once we were all safely across, the boys had fun throwing big boulders onto the ice, watching them break through and fall through to the pools below. We lunched with the pine ants and then summited at 2:00 pm, six miles into the hike. Our goal was to make it to the junction of trails before turning around. Once we did that we rested a bit and then headed back down. It was miserably hot at the bottom and Kyle's bruised and battered ankles and shins (he fell a couple of times) and ALL of me was glad to be back to the truck. Thank you Pine Valley Wilderness! Thank you Grandmas! Thank you IcyHot!