We ended up getting to the trail head to start out our hike around 9 am, but then Adam needed to go park the car and the only parking lot was about a block away. Then we all needed to get our warm clothes on and packs tightened and comfortable which took awhile too. But the real time consumer was when we started hiking on a completely wrong trail which got us a bit lost! But because of that we discovered that it was way too hot of a day to be in our winter gear, so we made another stop to strip down and pack up our coats, hats, and gloves! ha ha! But in the end we DID find the right trail and were able to finally start on our hike at around 10:00 am! It was all good though. We were all just so excited to be in the Winds that the delay didn’t matter.
I wish I could say that everything was perfectly peachy after that, but for some reason that first hour backpacking was brutal for the kids and there was LOTS and LOTS of complaining. Mostly from Branson who wanted to stop every 10 feet (not kidding) to rest. I think they just weren’t used to hiking without packs so that first bit was really tough to get used to. But after the first hour, the kids hiked liked CHAMPS! And mostly were awesome little hikers and backpackers the rest of our 4 day trip! Both Adam and I were so proud of them! We saw some awesome views of the lake as we hiked.
We ended up stopping for a longer snack break at Porcipine creek where Adam let the kids have a “packs off” rest. Then Adam carried all our packs across the river for us where we began the most difficult part of our hike in. The switchbacks!
This part of the trail was super steep and consisted of 13 switch backs (two of which are insanely long!) This was by far the most difficult part for some of us (Brans, Daws, and I) but Adam and Harry seem to have an unlimited supply of energy and got to the top much more quickly than the rest of us and then came back to help carry our packs. We all ended up switching so Adam took mine (which was 45 pounds), while I took Bransons (26 lbs), and Branson took Dawsons (13 lbs). We all felt so relieved to have on a much lighter pack!
There were shouts of joy when we finally reached porcipine creek! (which means the ends of the switchbacks!) Yay!
Then all that was left from there, was to hike across the meadow into the trees where Adam’s family years ago discovered a clearing that is perfect for setting up base camp! The hike up to the meadow is 4.5 miles long and ended up taking us about 4 hours.
They even have set up logs around a firepit for people to sit on when they camp here! Its the perfect spot!
Adam and the boys went straight to work gathering wood for a fire, while I worked on getting tents set up and water boiling for lunch!
We ended up having lunch around the campfire (Ramen noodles, Bear Creek Soup, and pudding) and then I went and laid down for a nap while Adam took the boys fishing at the nearby creek. Pictures of that coming up next!
