Tuesday, June 25 was the first day of our Yosemite backpacking adventure. We got ready at the campground, packed up, and headed to McGurk Meadow in Yosemite. We started clean, down to our teeth. The "after" pictures will illustrate just how dirty people can get in a couple of days.
The littles in their backpacks just killed me.
We passed a patch of snow, so there was more snowball throwing.
Bear took a Kleenex out of my pocket, and then when I was off helping Ever heed nature's call, they buried it for a fun game.
Just a moment of Bear walking with her giant backpack:
Wrenzy had a stick that she called her flute, and she played it by making a really high-pitched sound. The purpose of the flute was to make Jim follow her closely. It was really cute. The flute is the sound before she says, "Come on, Dad" in the video below.
Jim gave the girls a lesson in water purification.
"Look, I found an ice cream cone!"
The girls did really great hiking the four miles to Dewey Point, where we spent night one. Dewey Point is a spectacular spot Jim discovered when he took the Young Men. Upon arrival, Jim took the girls one by one out to a precarious lookout spot. It was kind of scary.
Ever helped Jim and me set up the tents, while the littles just
Lord of the Flies'd it.
I loved watching their interactions and explorations.
Nothing says safety like camping right next to cliffs like these:
Close-up of our tents:
The girls got in a tent and played Pippi by putting their heads down in their bags and their feet on their pillows. (I was horrified by the thought of their dirty feet on their pillows, but I pushed through.) Tiny had a giant meltdown over her positioning or something and could not be comforted. Ever is still being Pippi in the below pic; Tiny is losing her mind on the left.
Bear enjoyed the sunset.
Jim took pictures of the purpling valley.
Jim started a fire in a preexisting ring (which we'd been told was OK). Very quickly, we regretted that idea. The wind was blowing sparks everywhere - to our tents, the logs next to the fire, the bushes. It seemed likely that we were going to start the mountaintop on fire.
Jim pulled away the really close, giant log, but when danger still seemed imminent, he put it out completely with rocks and dirt. Disaster averted.
We read in the tents and went to sleep. Jim and the littles were in one tent; Ever and I were in the other. When I saw Tiny in the morning, I was pleased to see that her face was much cleaner, and I asked Jim if he had cleaned her with wipes before they went to sleep. (She always chooses to sleep with him instead of me.) He said no, the dirt must have rubbed off on her pillow. Ugh.
We packed up while the girls climbed around (which concerned me, given the cliffs) and got filthier.
Tiny promptly got to pouring dirt on herself, her favorite pastime.
Wrenzy joined in. This whole trip about killed the part of me (which is all of me) that hates to see my kids - or anything else that I'm going to have to clean - get dirty. I tried to tell myself over and over again, "God made dirt, so dirt don't hurt." I drew the line when Tiny tried (repreatedly) to throw dirt on other people.
Ever insisted on climbing out to this spot by herself, about which I wouldn't have thought twice had it not been for the cliffs on both sides and the little down/up bit required to get there. The pic doesn't show how precarious it was.
Jim got a couple fab pics before we set off on our day 2 hike.
We started on the trail down.
Jim wasn't sure when we'd hit water again, and we'd need some to drink before too long. He decided to leave me to hang out with the littles while he ran back to a little stream we'd passed shortly before we got to Dewey Point the day before. Ever wanted to go with him. We advised her that this was a bad idea, as it would add two miles onto her hike for the day. She insisted on going and promised she'd keep up with him. So off they went.
The littles and I ate lunch and read The Tale of Despereaux.
This interim was uncomfortable, and bugs were attacking us the entire time. We kept moving short distances but could not escape them. It felt like an eternity before Jim and Ever returned. Jim assures me that his was not a fun excursion, either. The really sad part was that we hit water about 10 minutes farther down the trail.
We stopped off at this viewpoint to see a little waterfall.
This is where Jim took the kids down the side and held them out to get a view, reminiscent of the time Michael Jackson dangled his baby over the balcony. We decided that this type of thing is ill-advised and shall not be repeated.
My turn.
Snack break.
The biggers had so much fun playing this game where they jumped simultaneously onto logs and tried not to be the first one to fall off.
I did not capture on video the many times that somebody immediately ate it.
Wednesday (day 2) was pretty much a death march. The girls were exhausted. Jim had remembered that this part was all downhill, but it was really not. And then when it was, Ever actually complained that the downhill was harder. It was a really tough day.
Tiny kept running and falling, apparently on purpose. She said, "That's how I slow down." Jim asked, "Who taught you?" She said, "I taught myself."
We ended up doing about five miles that day, and Tiny was crazy. She would not stop running. Jim was worried that she wouldn't make it through the hike, so he figured his only hope was to let her keep running and get as much ground under them as possible or else she'd lose it. So they led the way, and we tried to keep up.
Tiny and Jim eventually got so far ahead that the biggers and I lost sight of them. We kept hiking, and we couldn't see them, and we couldn't see them, and we couldn't see them.
We were going to stop for the night as soon as we could find a spot to pitch our tents. I kept thinking we'd come upon them at a site they'd found, and Jim would have set up the tents. But they were nowhere to be found. I became seriously concerned that there had been a fork somewhere that I hadn't noticed, and we'd gone the wrong way. After what felt like forever, we finally found them waiting for us in one of the switchbacks. Jim explained the whole I-have-to-let-Tiny-run-or-she's-not-going-to-make-it-because-she's-totally-wrecked thing. We continued together (I didn't want to be left alone again) and looked for anyplace we could pitch our tents. There was no place until Inspiration Point, which wasn't the best campsite but was fine. Dirty, exhausted people:
But not too dirty to keep playing in the dirt.
Jim boiled water for a couple of dehydrated backpackers' meals and desserts. Although they were edible, those types of meals are just never good. Wren and Ever ate some on promise of dessert, but then turns out dehydrated desserts aren't any better than dehydrated meals. Tiny, who does not even eat regular food, refused to try the first meal we made (which was better than the second) and had only a bite or two of the second.
The girls decided they wanted all to be in the same tent, with Jim and me in the other. Until then, Jim and I had split up between the two tents. Foolishly, we allowed this attempt. We got everybody pottied (no easy feat), brushed, and into bed; packed away all smelly things in the bear canisters; and got ourselves into bed. I read to the girls, even though it was really late and everybody was wasted, because we read every night and it's fun while camping. Then Tiny proceeded to lose her mind about where in the tent she was or who was next to her or something. That morphed into hysterics about being starving, which she certainly was since she wouldn't eat most of the food we'd brought on the trip (and none of the dinner). She was inconsolable, and we didn't want her to wake the other girls. We had to pull her out of that tent and do some rearranging, and it took a long time to calm her down. Eventually, though, we got some sleep.
The gang was in fine form Thursday morning. Wrenzy rocked a double hat and opted to remain in her pajamas.
I'm not sure if this sign is right at/by Inspiration Point, but from the sign to the parking area at Tunnel View was only 1.3 miles. Thursday was short and all downhill.
Wrenzy started looking like Frida Kahlo crossed with Oliver Twist.
Tiny had so much mud on her, she appeared to be in camo.
This has become a favorite family video. We were rationing the last few granola/Luna bars ('nola bars). I love Wrenzy's clearly foreign accent when she says, "No, we don't have any more of these." And then, of course, there's Tiny.
We were a sight to behold when we got to the parking lot.
I tried to clean us up with baby wipes. Then we sat on a boulder and read The Tale of Despereaux while Jim got a ride to our car, which was not parked in this parking lot but back up by McGurk Meadow.
A nice man who happened to be from Oceanside ended up taking pity on Jim and giving him a ride up to our car. Why? He said he had to give a ride to anyone who had a toilet seat strapped to his pack. In those three days, we must have taken the girls to do their business in the great outdoors about 100 times in the aggregate. We learned early on that the seat from the training potty was unnecessary; the girls are pros now and can do whatever they need to do squatting (and man, do they need to do things all the time). I guess the toilet seat got us our ride, though, so we should be glad Jim lugged it around.
Before reading, we crossed the road so I could take a picture from the lookout (which was not as nice as the view up above).
When I turned back from taking the picture, this motorcycle guy approached me and looked down at my shirt and then at my face and then, as I was trying to figure out what on earth he was doing and how he was going to hurt me, he said, "Texas forever." And after a second I realized that he was just appreciating my
Friday Night Lights shirt, so that was nice.
We thought about stopping at a hotel in Orange County on the way home to do something special for the girls because let's face it, they really earned it. We thought they'd love a night in a hotel, a swim in a hotel pool, etc. We decided to give them the option, and they surprised us by choosing just to head straight home, so that's what we did. We drove from Yosemite to Oceanside and went straight to Denny's in our stench and filth. Jim always offers the girls all sorts of food rewards for hiking, and Ever loves their Nutella crepes and Tiny loves their chocolate chip pancakes and Wren loves something there but I don't remember what. All in all, it was quite the epic first family trip to Yosemite.
