Family Joins in the Backpacking Adventure!

We drove down to the Tetons and got a room in Jackson. We went on a short hike to a beautiful lake in the afternoon and then basically crashed at the hotel for the late afternoon and evening. The exciting part?? For the first time, Naomi let go of the bed and walked a few steps toward her stroller before falling. And she didn't just do it once, she kept doing it over and over again! (In her defense, she probably would've started walking a lot earlier, but as you can see from these posts, she hadn't been in prime conditions to learn to use her little legs and feet much all summer.) It was so fun to watch her concentrate and keep trying over and over again :)

The next day was the 4th of July, so we kinda laid low in the morning since there was a big parade and crowd downtown. We did some laundry, got some groceries and took our last shower for a week...and then went to the airport to pick up the rest of the family!

We picked them up, set up camp at a local campground, unpacked their stuff to repack the backpacks, and enjoyed watching everyone get excited and nervous for the adventure that would come the next day. Below is Amy, a great family friend, helping Naomi walk with hiking poles :) And for the evening we went to the Jackson resort and rode a free ski lift up to the top to get a view of our surroundings.

 The next morning we loaded up and headed out. We had to drop everyone off at the trailhead and do a little shuttling of cars so that we would have a car at the trailhead where we would finish...but after that we hit the trail!

Uncle Tyler & Rachel at our first stream crossing...thankfully this one had a bridge!

Uncle Kyle & Aunt Emily amongst huge, beautiful greenery and flowers :)

Grandpa and his buddy Mike checking out the valley walls and searching for wildlife

 We got to our campsite mid-afternoon right before the rain settled in for a few hours. This would've been no big deal, except one of the tents we brought wasn't really a backpacking tent and therefore it did a decent amount of leaking. And of course once the rain stopped, the sun had already set and the evening chill had settled in. So...for the 4 youngin's of the trip, the first night was damp, chilled, and pretty miserable :(  But thankfully the next day dawned with a bright, clear sky! This was our longest day of hiking, with quite a bit uphill so we headed out early with some fear and some determination :)

"Awesome" Amy hiking amongst the wildflowers

We had lunch at May Lake after a wet stream crossing and a gnarly uphill. There were marmots everywhere! After lunch we had another good climb, but at the top of this one we got our first glimpse of the backside of the majestic Tetons!

After we got on top of that hill, we did some rolling meadows until we dropped onto Death Canyon Shelf...this was probably the gnarliest part of the whole trip; a huge snow drift was covering the path and you could see where people had gone before...but the dropoff to your right was steep and unforgiving. Tears were shed, poles were shared, and there was some 'we aren't turning back no matter what if it means we have to go over that again' talk...but we all made it to the other side physically safe (emotionally might be another story) and kept on trekking for a couple miles on the shelf.

This picture doesn't do it justice, but everyone was a bit too focused on the way across to get a pic at 'just the right angle' to show the slope that was a potential for disaster ;-)

That evening we set up camp and propped up our feet...for a few minutes. Then we learned of how pristine of a view the shelf offered of Death Canyon in front of us and the Tetons to our left. Everyone spent quality time out on the edge of the shelf taking in the view, both that night and for breakfast the next morning. It was a wonderful, relaxing reward for a physically and emotionally tough day!

Naomi 'resting' while everyone sets up their tents

Coming back from our family walk out to take in the view...Naomi loved being out of the pack and playing with the snow :)

 The next morning we took our time enjoying the sunshine and then packed up, prayed, and headed out. The whole trip Naomi loved holding hands when we circled up :)

Uncle Kyle's pack was rubbing his shoulders, so he and Mommy switched loads for the morning. Let's just say I didn't mind a pack that had all the weight close to my back...and not having to constantly sing, feed, and find the camelbak straw was a nice little break too. Uncle Kyle commented on how carrying the baby was constant work, beyond just making your legs move with the extra weight :) haha!

As  we came down off the shelf we saw a huge patch of snow off to our right and Naomi's daddy and uncles thought it looked like a good sledding hill. They dropped their packs, grabbed their crazy creeks and headed back up the hill. The rest of us sat down to watch...it looked sketchy and who wants to add another uphill climb when you don't have to?? Well, needless to say, it looked pretty darn fun when they were done and almost everyone in the group took a turn coming down. Even Naomi went down a miniature hill with daddy pulling her. Every time he paused, she signed 'more' repeatedly until he started moving again :)

Walking around with Aunt Emily while we wait for the initial downhill slide!

Here are the guys on the first ride down. Most of us only made it about 1/2 way down before coming to a stop...until Kyle wrapped his seat in a trash bag and went FLYING down the hill and into the mud past the snow at the bottom! :)

It threatened to rain on us at lunch so we got out our rain gear and set up the rain flys to eat lunch under. Thankfully it just barely sprinkled and we loaded back up after food and a rest to journey to Sunset Lake, our next camping destination.

Uncle Tyler ready for the rain...I believe this was right before he threw Rachel's boots 'over' the roaring creek...they actually went into the creek, and down the creek, and there was a lot of running and shouting and pointing that happened in the 30 seconds from when they landed in water until they were recovered 50 yds downstream...

The wildflowers were AMAZING on this trip...this is probably the best pic we got of them. They were everywhere, and in bloom, and every color of the rainbow...they made the trip twice as beautiful! 

We hiked to Sunset Lake to see that every possible campsite was taken and there were huge black clouds rolling in from the west. So we decided to head up the valley wall and camp above the lake...that evening was pretty sketchy with the wind, thunder and lightning...but when we first got to our campsite, this was the view if we looked back over where we had come that day!

That night while it stormed we crowded in our tent with Uncle Tyler and Rachel. To say that 5 sweaty bodies stunk up the small space quickly might be an understatement. However, Naomi was entirely unaware of the smell and the scariness of the storm happening around us and had a blast crawling in and around and on and through and over everything she could find...it was pretty funny!

The next morning while we were packing up we emptied out our tent of everything but Naomi so that she had a confined area within which to crawl.  A few minutes later someone said our tent might be blowing away...we look over and realize that instead Naomi just tried to stand up against the soft walls of the tent and tipped it over, hahaha! She was totally unfazed by the tip-over :)

Our third day of hiking got us to the highest point of our trip, and then dropped us in on a permanent glacier. It was pretty, the water was beyond freezing, and of course Josh jumped in for a quick dip (at least he admitted it was the coldest thing he had ever been in...). We also saw a black bear along the trail this afternoon as we were hiking. Grandma and Amy had been terrified of seeing a bear the whole trip, and what did they do when we saw it? Ran back up the trail to see it some more!

The next day was our day 'off', we hiked a little over a mile up to Lake Solitude. Daddy and Grandpa went fishing, some of us read, some slept, some explored...it was just a chill day with no packs on our backs :) We got to eat fresh fish with our soup for lunch, which was a wonderful change. And Naomi had a grand time with Grammy and Amy at the edge of the lake!

That night we got to relax around camp without being exhausted and/or having bad weather for the first time the whole trip! We played Silent Football, ate some good food, snacked on all our extra food, and were entertained by Naomi :)

The next morning Naomi enjoyed her last breakfast on the trail from the backpack: Clif Bars, yummy!

Here we are at what was supposed to be our lunch spot, an overlook of Jenny Lake...everyone hiked so fast because showers and pizza were waiting at the end of the trail that we got to our lunch spot before mid-morning. So, instead we ate a quick snack, hiked around the lake, and finally reentered civilization. What a great adventure!!