Where are the Falls Anyway???

You don't get 60 degree days in January very often, so it's always good to take advantage of it. Dan said we should go hiking.

I agreed.

I suggested we hike the Twin Falls Trail. It sounded good at the time. Hike down a trail along a beautiful rushing creek to two waterfalls at the end. Sunshine, 60 degree weather. Sounded really good.

"You know it takes 2 hours to drive there and the trail is 5.5 miles long?" Dan asked me. "Oh," I replied. It seemed like the best answer at the moment. I didn't want a few minor details to get in the way of our nice day out. Cabin fever and the winter blues had set in at our house, and I was ready to get outside.  "Our kids are 11, 9, 6, and 2," he continued, (as if I don't know how old our children are!) "that's kind of a long walk for them." "Oh," I said again.

"What time are we leaving?" I asked him. "I guess at 8:00," said the guy who likes to humor me.

I made sandwiches and packed snacks while Dan filled the camel backs and loaded the car. It was a beautiful winter morning, and the drive was full of great sights. It was peaceful also - we actually let the kids watch the tv in the van this time. Every once in a while Dan would say, "Look at that view, kids!" To which the kids would give varying degrees of answers ranging from, "cool" to "awesome," to "wow." I don't think they looked outside once, but they've learned they better give a good answer or dad makes them turn off the movie. They're really good at staying perfectly engrossed in their show while giving an extremely accurate response to any of Dan's suggested views.  In fact, I was pretty impressed with the fact that Rylie had convinced me that she had also seen the elk along side the road, when in all actuality she had seen nothing but cartoons. I know this because today I asked her to tell someone about the elk we saw, and she replied with, "What elk?"

We finally made it to the trailhead and got loaded up. When you hike with six people, and four are small, most of the "loading up" means mom and dad were donning heavy backpacks. I carefully weighed my options and chose the lighter of the two backpacks. In my defense, I do have the smaller back.

The kids each donned their camel backs and we set off. We walked at least 100 feet before we hit our first obstacle - the river. At this point I reminded myself that this trail was my idea, and that I don't really mind river crossings in January.....

After our second unseasonably (or maybe seasonably) cold river crossing, Dan informed us that I had led everyone astray and we were no longer on the trail. After being married to me for over 12 years, he should know better than to follow me in the woods!

We decided that since we were already on the wrong side of the river (and no one could feel their feet yet anyway) that we would just hike the river bank, and hopefully figure out what to do later. Again, a great idea with small children.

We begin our trek over boulders and through underbrush. We had hiked maybe another 100 feet when we came upon a hiker headed the opposite direction as us, but on the same (wrong) side of the river. He was wearing blue jeans, had a HUGE overnight backpack on his back and a smaller backpack that he was wearing on his front. (Maybe a front pack?)  He looked exhausted. Knowing we were only 200 feet into a 5.5 mile trail, I lightheartedly asked him in a teasing voice, "Are we almost there?"  He looked at me and said, "Arghhhhuuggghh," and then let out a little maniacal laugh. At this point I became nervous, and again second guessed my decisions of coming on this hike and taking the non trail. He never answered my question, but said, "I just came over that mountain, am I almost there?" I cautiously asked, "Where are you headed?" "The car," came his firm reply.  Dan caught up to us at this point, took one look at the hiker and said, "Did you murder someone and take their pack?" I about blew a gasket! You don't ask a maniacal hiker in the middle of the woods if he's a murderer!! He might murder you! I hurriedly collected the children and headed on down the river bank leaving Dan to deal with the murdering, maniacal hiker.....

After another couple of hours of rough hiking, multiple river crossings, scratches, bumps, and lots of tears we decided we should give up our quest to find the falls and just find the car. I had  come through some underbrush which had pulled my hair in all different directions, and we all had stumbled back across the river in an attempt to find the trail. We thought that hiking on the real trail would be an easier event for the trek out. We were wet, tired, and scratched up. Rylie looked at me said, "Wow, Mom, you look like you've been hiking for days!" "I have," came my maniacal reply.

We did eventually find the trail and headed back. About halfway to the car we met a group of fresh hikers who had just begun their trek to the falls. "Are we almost there?" they asked us jokingly as they skipped lightly down the trail. With a crazed look in our eye we all replied, "Arghhhhuggghhh."