Snow in July

July 6: I was so excited about having a day off from hiking. Charles promised that we would spend the day hanging out by the campsite, laying on the warm boulders, and maybe walking a brief 5 minutes to the ridge to look down the other side. We enjoyed a cool, but not freezing AM drinking tea, coffee, hot chocolate, and eating oatmeal and granola bars. Charles hiked to the stream for fresh water, while Jacob and I searched for firewood and kept the fire going. Emily and Sam slept in. While the kids slept, Charles and I decided that we would surprise the kids and hike out a day early - on Sam's 11th birthday (the 7th). Although we felt a little wimpy for not making the whole 5 days, we felt that we had accomplished a lot on our first real back country camping trip. We hoped the F's wouldn't think less of us. We'd finally conquered the altitude sickness, and had mastered the whole cooking over a fire thing, not to mention had managed to set up our tents without the instructions (Emily proved essential for that engineering feat).

So, when the kids awoke we let them know that we were leaving the next morning - provided that it wasn't raining or something. Although their first reaction was to eat all their food now, we managed to convince the kids to continue to ration food and enjoy the day ahead. Sam was profoundly happy to be able to visit McDonalds on his birthday.

The only morning event that was rather frightening was a nasty fall Charles took while on his way back to camp with more water. Keeping his hands warm in his pockets, he tripped and landed on his head - ripping it open. A lot of blood was involved when he marched into camp, but we fixed him up with melted snow and neosporin.

Charles and I were relaxing on our rocks, when we noticed some really nasty looking clouds out in the distance. As we watched them build we realized we were in for some rough weather. We gathered the kids and had them start putting all the packs, food, and other items into the tents. Charles was smart enough to gather firewood and store it in the vestibule of the kids tent. Just as we finished all the gathering, it started to rain. The kids settled into their tent, and Charles and I zipped ourselves in. As the kids played games in their tent, Charles and I napped. Soon however, the thunder started. Then the hail began. Then I heard Jacob yell "Snow"! Sure enough, we could see the snow start accumulating on top of the tent.

Soon we were heard odd slushing sounds. Charles grabbed his bear spray (always around our necks, you'll notice in the pictures) and demanded that the bear make himself known (Who's out there?). Now my imagination started inventing hoards of bears trying to get in the tent from every direction, and I squealed and tried to center myself in the tent. At this point we noticed that when the ice slid off the tent it made an odd slushing sound. Feeling rather foolish we assured the kids that everything was all right.

Luckily the weather cleared in time for dinner. Despite the snow, Charles was able to start a fire and we ate another meal of noodle soup, rice, and mashed potatoes. It was early to bed in anticipation of our hike out the next day.