We were all anxious to get some hiking in.  Yes, all of us, even Brooke!

It was a little chilly when we started hiking, but by the end of the hike we had shed most of our layers.  I’m pointing to the crazy mud, or rather little stream that had taken over our designated path.  I extend my apologies to the poor shrubs and vegetation that were stepped on in an effort to navigate around the water.  We’ve been on wet hikes B.C. (Before Child) but never with cuties in tow. It all worked out though.  Brooke and Scott were troopers.  Brooke walked when she could, but Scott had to carry her over most of the wet spots. Brooke was kind enough to repeat Scott’s reminder that I had the “opportunity” to wear my hiking boots and I chose not to. Opps!  It wasn’t the wet feet that were so bad so much as the fresh supply of really cold water each new puddle, and the accidental footing into the forest friends open pit potty when I was trying to avoid the water.  It reminded me of scuba diving in the cold lakes of Wisconsin.

A wet suit always has water floating through it, but it usually warms up pretty quickly from body heat and well… I’ll just leave it at body heat.  However, if you dip down into a thermo cline a whole new batch of icy water circulates.  That’s what kept happening to my squishy feet.  I kept forgetting how cold the water was, but no fear a new batch of water would appear.  I guess I’ll put on my heavy hiking boots for tomorrow.

This is the end of the trail.  Notice I’m in the bushes again.  Scott is standing in water and warned me to go the other way.  Cody is passed out on my back again.  We wanted to eat lunch at the end of the trail, but it was a little wet.  We ate some of our lunch standing up, and then returned to the trail.

At the top of another hill on the way back we stopped and ate more lunch.  Cody was even up to enjoy the beautiful scenery and food.

In between the hike and our dinner location Scott stopped at an abandoned Gold Dredge.  He came upon some kids who were panning for gold there.  I put those pictures on a different post because Scott went camera crazy and wanted all of them posted.  He said it was about 30 miles up the Steeses Highway.

This was our dinner site, Chatanika River.  We had American Chop Suey.

No more bottle chuckin :)