North Fork

This last Friday was one of our less successful hikes, but oh, well!

The plan was just to try out North Fork Moorman River (which sounds a lot like Mormon River, and cracks us all up).  What I didn't know until we were almost there, is that this is the same parking lot as Blue Hole!  But with Blue Hole you hike upstream, for North Fork, you go downstream.  Unfortunately, there are just as many river crossings where you have to get your feet wet, and it was too cold for water-friendly shoes.  I was the first to dunk a foot in the river, and it was definitely cold, but I was surprised how quickly I got used to it and then having one wet shoe didn't particularly bother me.  Everyone else managed to get across that spot without getting wet.

And then we had a pretty nice little hike until we got to the next crossing where EVERYONE got wet and no one was very happy about it.  So I reluctantly agreed to go back.  But once we were back at the first crossing, everyone decided it was fun to just splash in the river, so I guess we could have kept hiking after all!  

Oh, well.  It was still 2 hours spent outside in nature, so that's always a win.  And there was this cool log that would sort of teeter-totter down as you walked across it, and everyone got a kick out of doing that a few times.  So it was a good day!  And, as always, Adam got excellent pictures!

Camille was nervous to start off here...

But she quickly gained her confidence!  (Bentley is helping push down the log, since she didn't weigh enough for it to lower itself...)

Ryder's turn!

And Colton!

And Kendra!

Bentley also ran across the log several times, but all I have of that is video, and I'm too lazy to post it.  (I also crossed the log, but I warned Adam that he was NOT allowed to take pictures of me doing it!)

And this was a NEW log to climb on!

Throwing rocks into the river is ALWAYS good fun!

Here's Sydney happily splashing in the river at the end!

And this is my favorite shot-- I love love love the bright yellow-green of new leaves!  And I love how tiny these kids look compared to these marvelous trees!