Woodson Bridge to Capay Kayak

Approaching "rapids" on the Sacramento river doesnt faze Jillbug.  Shane finally had to convince her that she had to get IN the boat during this part of the float.

As much as we are loving getting away every weekend, it does take a toll on us in a few ways.  Number One, it isnt free, food cost isnt really the issue, but gas to get places and the cost of a campground (backpacking was free) does add up.  I was telling a friend of mine that we were going to take a weekend off and stay around town and maybe just float down the river instead and she offered her family's cabin for us to make a night of it.  Their place is right along the Sacramento River so we could put in at Woodson Bridge, kayak for a few hours and then stay the night at their place.  I was open to the idea of it, but my one hesitation...our (crazy) girls in someone else's home....I dont want the place destroyed!!

Second reason why going away has been a little challenging is because we cant get anything done around the house.  I have laundry to do and cleaning and gardening.  So, it was nice to have a Saturday morning around the house. We werent in a huge hurry to get out on the river.  By 11 we started the car shuttling process with the help of my dad and by 12:30 we were floating down the river.  It was a gorgeous day.  Our kayaking weather is slowly waning, so it was a great way to take advantage of this end of the season warmth...close to 94 degrees.  But on the river it feels amazing.

We kayaked for a little over and hour and then stopped for lunch and playtime.  Our girls ability to play anywhere and everywhere is always a joy for us.  Two hours later, after reading a book, taking a nap (only Shane, HA!!) and dunking in the freezing water, the girls still wanted to play and lucky for them, Shane and I are not gonna complain about more time to sit and relax together...

We still had about 90 minutes of paddling left so we did eventually have to leave and what is the fastest way to get to any destination?  Let the kids do the grunt work of course!!  They do love to paddle, but after 60 seconds they hand the paddles back.  Alli does know how to keep a straight line, but Jill tends to do circles and it takes a lot of strength to paddle a straight line in a rushing river.

River Otter

The remainder of our paddle was filled with lots of excitement.  The river was pretty packed with boats since the salmon are jumping everywhere and the girls LOVE the wake created by the boats going by.  Unfortunately (not really) most boaters are very respectful of kayaks and would slow to a crawl when they approached us so the girls would yell at them..."Turn on your engine......go faster...."  Until the one time this fishing guide decided he didnt want to wait for us to go through a smaller canal so he jetted ahead at full speed using us almost like bouys.   This guy was probably going 30 mph and only 10 feet from Shane and Jill in the kayak.  We didnt flip, but the wake created was a little scarier than the previous slower boats.  Unbelievable!!

We had a mellow rest of the float where we saw the river otter plus hundreds of jumping salmon.  We passed one boat with two guys on it who managed to both catch salmon at the same time, reel them in and net them by themselves all while not losing their cigarettes out of their mouth.   I think the girls heard more foul words in those three minutes then they had ever heard in their life.

We finally made it to our friend's boat dock and unloaded and only minutes later a huge beaver swam right underneath us.  The girls wanted Shane to fish right away since they were jumping everywhere.  Shane said he thought it was hard to have 10 pound trout jumping all around him and not catching anything, but the 30 pound salmon jumping every 10 seconds all around him was beyond frustrating.  Not even one little nibble, but he did admit that he had no clue what he was doing.

The next day we could have headed home early, but there was no reason to.  The girls were enjoying the 100's of new books in our friend's bedroom, we were enjoying quiet, calm and beautiful relaxation on the deck.  But at some point we have to get back to real life and work and school the next day so we hung out until 4 and then drove the 25 minutes home.  What an amazing weekend.  Thank you to our friends for sharing your cabin with us.  It is so appreciated!!!

Kings Creek and Bumpass Hell Hikes

We are 2 weeks into our goal of getting outside every weekend until October.  We are thinking that after that the temps at night and in the morning will be too cold for the girls.  This weekend we went to Lassen again but this time we car camped....Reason 1 why i love backpacking is that you cannot bring this much stuff....

But car camping makes it easy to bring everything!!  3 pairs of shoes each, a box of games and coloring stuff, helmets, bikes, a tent that weighs 15 pounds and would sleep 6 people!!  It is all possible when you dont have to carry it on your back.

Reason number 2 why I love backpacking...you arent surrounded by other people in a campground.  Night number one, campers 3 spaces away include two parents, a one month old baby who screamed solid for 2 hours and a one year old who cried and yelled when the baby wasnt screaming.  HA!!  Plus, I am way more strict with the girls and how quiet they need to be because I dont want to be those campers annoying everyone around me.  But I digress...On Saturday we hung around camp for most of the morning and then headed out to Kings Creek Falls for an easy 3 mile hike.  The scenery was AMAZING.

But the Falls were nearly impossible to find.  The trail along the creek was closed in one section due to EXTREME HAZARDOUS conditions so we had to take a detour and so we thought maybe we missed the falls, but then finally we came to a steep cliff with a wire fence along the side.  Something like this is a red flag for us because we can just see Jill going flying through the fence since she is so wild.  So we walked around this area following what we thought was a trail.

Of course our trail started skirting down the side of this mountain and ended up at this area where we couldnt see anything at all.  We decide that if we cross the river, we might catch a glimpse of the falls....the girls are in their element, rock scrambling and off trail climbing...and it is worth it...

Now I am happy to report that our hike back was full of whining and complaining and non-stop unhappiness.  It cant be perfect all the time.  Alli was on fire...her tummy hurt and she was hot and tired and grouchy....and on and on.  Of course once the uphill in the sun was done and we were on flat ground she mellowed out some.

That night our camping neighbors included the screaming newborn and one year old, plus the addition of a man behind us who sounded like he had whooping cough.  I dont know how the girls sleep through this stuff but they do, thank goodness.

The next morning we woke up and the first thing Alli said was, "Jill, we get to see boiling mud today."  The girls were so excited to hike Bumpass Hell.  First we had to pack up camp, then we wanted to play some games.  We hung out at the campsite until about 10 and played this game called YAMSLAM which is really fun and a great way for me to work in MATH, then we played UNO in a crazy wind and that was challenging!!  Then we headed off for our 3 mile hike to Bumpass Hell.

We had hiked Devil's kitchen two years ago, and Alli remembered how stinky it was.  Plus, she remembered how much her Daddy LOVES the smell of sulphur (or he pretends to, I hope).  You can see her starting to plug her nose in this picture

Boiling Mud

The girls RUNNING from the stink...

Crazy Shane soaking up all the stink he can, YUCK!!!!

We hiked out and drove to the visitor center where the girls earned their junior ranger patches for Lassen.  3 hours later we were home and unpacked....Shane and I agree that we can do this every weekend.  It extends our camping season with the girls by 6 weeks.  Next weekend...Graeagle... Sierra County Lakes Basin Area.

Juniper Lake Backpacking Loop

In May, we did a 4 mile, 1 night backpack with the girls so we figured, hey, now they can do that 3 nights, 13 mile loop we have been thinking about....

Click here to read about that 4 mile trip....First backpack with the girls

Nevermind the fact that I have never done a 3 night backpack.  The most Shane and i have done is 2 nights just because food becomes such an issue.  You are hiking, a lot, with heavy packs. That makes you hungry, so you need to eat lots of food, but food is heavy....so then you have a heavier pack.  So Shane likes to say that backpacking trips are for "leaning out".  You bring just enough food so no one starves.  I figured this would be the huge challenge with the girls because everyday at home, without fail i hear, "Mommy, I'm hungry" every 45 minutes. This is what they are doing for those 45 minutes.

So hiking between 2.5 - 5 miles a day with limited food supply was going to be a challenge. (Little did I suspect that I was the one who would be hungry nonstop....the girls NEVER said they were hungry...they were too busy playing...) I was amazed --  AND HUNGRY!!

The trip started with a near meltdown from Jill, our boundless energy Jill.  We are 10 minutes into the hike and she is crying saying "I am so tired, I am hot, I want to be there right now"  so Shane and I talked about going back to the car and just camping at Juniper Lake and Jill said, "No, i want to backpack, i want to backpack!!!" so we kept going.  That was the last complaint we heard from her the whole trip.  This is her two hours, and 4 miles later.....Being goofy as usual....

 Our first camping spot was along the shore of Swan Lake.  Our hike had been 4.8 miles.  That first night came and went quickly. The girls played this racing game with our hiking polls.  Alli would pretend she was watching TV and Jill would race through the poles like a downhill skiier.  Then, once we get the tent up then they can play in their for hours, kitties and doggies and babies and wild animals, and at one point they were cows on a farm...it is quite entertaining listening to the dialog of their play.  Once we were in the tents and ready for bed I made the mistake of looking at the time...it was 8:28....backpacking is exhausting.....

In the morning we sat by the lake for a long time.  We had hiked a lot the day before so we just wanted to take this day slow.  The girls got into this lake and played at 8 in the morning....it just could not have been that warm, I didn't get near it.

Alli wanted to help me knit a shawl I was making so i was helping her with that when this deer and fawn came out of NOWHERE and scared us half to death.  The deer in Lassen are not afraid of people at all.  It is a little creepy.  I don't like wildlife that is too friendly.

After we broke down camp and loaded up our packs - which by the way - any of you who want to backpack with your children, you need to carry almost everything for your children-- The girls carried very little, Jill had her water and snacks, a scarf, hat, and mittens (maybe 3 pounds) Alli had her water and snack, plus and all of her clothes (maybe 5 pounds) Shane carried 3 sleeping bags and poles to the tent, plus all the cooking stuff.  I had the tent and food plus all of my things.

And Jill's water lasted however long it takes a child to drink 1 liter at a constant rate because she hikes with the thing in her mouth like this......which as you might guess, makes her pee every 5 - 10 minutes.....not that easy when you wear a one piece sunsuit......but hey, she stays hydrated that is FOR SURE!!!!

So we continued on our way to Rainbow Lake, our second camping destination.  The hike was quick and smooth, the girls trotted along at their own paces.  It was my day to hike with Alli and she can really go at a good speed so we made good time to Rainbow Lake.  Shane and Jill had  a nice pleasant hike together with lots of fun songs and exploring everything on the ground and LOTS of potty breaks....such is backpacking with a 4 year old....this hike was about 1 mile.





We spent hours and hours on the west shore of Rainbow Lake and Shane climbed up to a nearby summit while i stayed to watch the girls play.  He could see Lassen from the top and there was also an awesome crater at that top of this summit.

After a lunch snack and some rest we hiked another 1/2 mile around the lake to find a camping spot.  This new location had more amazing things for the girls to do so once again they were off for hours to play their games.  At one point Shane and I were commenting on how it almost seemed that we were on a backpacking trip alone.  The girls are so amazing at finding things to do, and that left us alone and able to just enjoy some solitude together.  That night it was 8:40 when i checked the time and we just felt we had to stay up til at least 9 so Shane had fun making top 10 lists...best beer...best breakfast place...best city to visit...etc...it was quite entertaining...especially when I guessed his top 5  favorite breakfast places in the correct order!!!  Now that is true love for sure, HA!!  Then we did a Top 10 best trips of all time and we each wrote separate lists to see how similar they would be.  And you know how many trips we have been on in 20 years....we had 8 the same, CRAZY!!

Now, what is really crazy is the hair on these girls.  2 nights in a tent was not good for the hair and backpacking we didn't even bring toothbrushes and we don't have a comb either....This is my feeble attempt at trying to tame Jill's rat's nest hair...Their Daddy just bought them both buffs like we have, so i think that will control this hair situation and next time we will remember the toothbrushes!!

Today we had a 2.5 mile hike to Snag Lake which was where we were planning to stay the night.  Jill and I got to hike this stretch together.  She is so hilarious.  Things she says just cracks me up, like "Did you tell Daddy he had to marry you?"  These questions just come out of nowhere.  Our hike was mostly downhill, which you would think would be better, but actually it slows us down quite a bit, especially when it is really steep.  So as we are hiking there I am thinking about our hike out the next day because we will still have over 4 miles in the morning.  I am beginning to feel like maybe that might be a bit much for Jill and maybe we should try to hike more after dinner in the evening, just to kill some miles with some fresh energy.  When we catch up to Shane he says he was thinking the same thing.  the girls are doing great but we don't want to push our luck, or even worse, make it so they never want to backpack again.  So we get to Snag Lake and spend  6 hours there, relaxing and playing and eating.....

 We eat dinner and start the hike up to a creek.  We know it is uphill and we know that we are running out of food, but it is cooler at night so hiking is easier and the girls really haven't been eating all that much.    We don't really know where we are headed to camp.  On the map it looks like there might be some flat areas along this Grassy Creek we will be hiking along, but really, once we are there it is all marshy and not really a great place for our tents so we just keep hiking.  Shane is amazing at keeping the girls entertained.  He is singing the down at the station song about all the people getting on the train and I swear almost all of you reading this were getting on this train....he was cracking the girls up with this song and it literally got them up 2.5 miles of uphill.  I could never have managed that, kudos to Daddy!!  But you know the real motivation behind all these hikes........DARK CHOCOLATE....this night with caramel and sea salt......oh my!!!

 Look how exhausted Jillbug is!!!  Poor Girl!!!  But i will tell you, they stayed up for an hour after this playing!!

 Shane and i set up camp in the dusk, got the bear bag (of food) hung in the tree and the girls tucked in to bed and the time on the clock...8:36....who cares...we went to bed!!

Our hike out in the morning was beautiful.  Morning and evening are such great times to hike.  It was a huffer, though...lots of uphill.  The girls knew we were going out to breakfast when we got out, so they trooped right along.

AND WE MADE IT!!!  Back to Juniper Lake and our car and then to a coffeeshop and then to Child's Meadow Cafe......YUM!!!

An hour or so later we drove to the Lassen Visitor Center and as we drove up Jill said, "Are we going on another hike?"  I said, "Do you want to go on another hike?"  She said "Yes, I do!"

I said, "No, 13 miles is enough for you this weekend!!"  and laughed.  This is her when we pulled into our driveway.

There are more pictures here from our trip    Lassen Backpack.

And we got our picture taken for the Trail Challenge they were having at Lassen and ended up on their website for that   here.....Trail Challenge at Lassen Visitor Center


Jen