Mint Wash with Dad

This hike was definitely not mom approved!

I had the kids all day while H and mom recreated in the valley.

A busy kid is a happy kid, so I loaded them all up and headed out to Granite Basin lake to hike Mint Wash. No real intended endpoint, but I have always wanted to check out the huge house sized boulders down in the wash that look like ideal picnic spots with their flat tops.



Seen above they don't look that big. They are.

I put the baby in the "Ultimate Babywrap", and slung the kid pack on the back since I was sure the 3yo would poop out before the end. He was required to walk in, however.

Herding the 5 and 3 yo over the slick rocks at the first stream crossing was harder than I thought it would be without me falling in with the baby as well.

Things were going swimmingly until Abby (5) fell into Mint Wash at the first crossing. I had slready got Joel (3) across and was "helping" her when she splashed in, to I pulled her out quick. She was a trooper and walked the rest with wet pants and shoes (they dried after a while). Tough kid.

Rachel happily caught "nature" in her nature bag.



Stopped for photos at a downed tree.







The flower in Rachel's hair cracks me up. Girly girl to extreme.


We hiked to the big rocks then descended off trail to the stream bed to explore.





It became clear to me that it was "impossible" to climb up the big rock like I had wanted to. It had at least 10 foot near sheer drop offs all around. Ethan (8) kept bugging me to go up there, and I insisted it was "impossible", but he wanted to go bushwack around the thing, so I let him. (I was trying to herd the 3 and 5 yo down the hill at this time).

A few minutes later:



"Hi Dad"

Turns out on the back side there is a log braced up against the side which can be shimmied, then from there you can work a crack to the top.

Rachel soon joined him.

I was now puzzling how to get us all up there. In perhaps my not best parenting judgement, I hoisted Abby and Joel up to the crack and spotted them (while wearing a baby mind you) until they reached the top, then hauled myself up.

This involved a lot of trepidation, and a bit of self recrimination. No one died though (yet). Now I was worried about getting them down.

Who cares about that? Lets have a snack and enjoy the view.



Baby got out of the tamale for a while.



Notice soaked pant leg. (dried in the sun on the rock)





Don't back up too far, that is a 30 foot fall behind him.



bravado before the descent:



Amazingly I got down with Joel and Josh without injury. Did have to hang Joel and drop him about 2 feet, but he survived. I talked/lifted Abby down, the spotted the older kids.

Bravado gone, but nice work on the crack.









The top of the log is at least 7 feet off the ground.

We went back down the creek to explore some more in less technical terrain.









Man Power!





I couldn't believe how much harder hiking with 50 lbs of kids strapped on was. Lots of respect to those who carry big packs and fight for our freedom. I was climbing the hills quite slow towards the end.





Back across the creek where Abby fell.



Careful!



Back at the lake.