Exploring Falls Creek

On Monday we set off to climb Lexy's first peak. Well, at least we headed in that direction. We had a few different options on this route that we could have done, such as 2 different peaks or a lake. It was a long 8 hour day, but we had a blast. I have to say my kids are tough and they never cease to amaze me.

Lex loves breaks (I have to limit them to every mile or we'd never get anywhere). In fact the more "breaks" the better and if she can take off her shoes and soak her feet in the creek (glacial runoff) it's heaven. We almost had a meltdown when she dropped her sock in the creek and it almost went down the falls. I saved it :-) and then she hiked with one dry sock the rest of the trip. She couldn't bare losing one of her favorite socks.

About 2.5 miles in is what's left of Joe Legore's mining cabin. Early 1900's I believe. Not quite as nice as the Aneroid ones we stayed in but the remnants are still cool.

At about 8200 ft we hit snow, which was one of the highlights of the day. The kids could hardly wait to ski down it on the way back.

The peak behind us was the goal. Sawtooth Elevation 9132 ft. Nojah climbed this when he was only 8. It was his first and only peak so far and he looked forward to doing it again.

Up on top waiting for our arrival were some very curious Ewe's and their babies.

Lex didn't feel very good by the time we had gotten up this far, complaining of a headache, that seemed to be getting worse as we got higher. Nojah, being the good brother he is, had a pep talk with her and encouraged her to just try. She was game.

So they chose their route carefully and climbed on the loose rock and scree up the steep and scary last 600ft or so....

Until it just became to overwhelming. Her headache got worse and it was getting late in the day so we all decided it was best to get her down the mountain. We made it 9044ft, a mere 88 ft below the summit. While we were up there she cried out "Daddy would be so mad at you for bringing me up this high." Poor little girl.....Honestly she did great and it is really steep. 9000ft peaks aren't a cake walk. (oh, and Daddy knew we were going there :-)

Even though we didn't make it the last 100ft or so we still had a sweet view that made it all worth it. If you look at the bottom right hand corner, that is the meadow we took the family picture in at about 8600ft. That should give you an indication of how high up we were. The car is parked at 5000ft.

We made our way slowly back down to the meadow, down the mountain, glissading through snow, sliding down scree, crossing fridged streams back to the Legore mines. Inside one of the mines (which Lex pronounces "minds") we found a box. Apparently we stumbled across a geo-cache site. The kids were excited to open the box and sign their names in the book.

Myah is usually a pain, so we gave her a job. She carried all our food and Lexy's water. It slowed her down a "bit" and kept her relatively under control. Although at one point she dumped her pack in the bushes and took off.

Nojah kept messing around on the way down and finally fell on his bum. I took the opportunity to get photo's of the event. For the record he is laughing, not crying. Although I probably still would have taken a picture......

It was a good day. The kids climbed over 4000ft in 3.25 mile and we had a blast doing it. Unfortunately Lex is now running a high temperature and isn't feeling so great. We are keeping our fingers crossed she is better tomorrow. Poor kiddo.