Find Your Way: Our First Real Adventure!

We read about this epic, multi-sport adventure in the most recent Backpacker rag and I knew immediately upon reading it, that it had to happen. It's PERFECT for us. Near Emily, multi-sport to include mountain biking, stashing the bikes in the woods, hoofing through unmaintained trails, climbing rock, traversing snow in crampons and ice axes, and seeing the world at sunset and sunrise from an old, historical lookout tower. What's not to love???

Dad was so awesome to transport us up to the parking spot and then ride with us for 2 hours uphill, to the trailhead!

Overgrown salmon berry bushes and following a rocky stream made for interesting hiking!

Snow fields in the sun! Tricky with the running shoes, but beautiful!

Gorgeous trails help us gain more and more elevation.

Ah! COLD, clear water was WELCOME after drinking from the nasty Camelback all day!

We have arrived at the mote between the glacier and the rock. Unfortunately, the snow hadn't melted away enough to use it as a continued path and were forced to pop out onto the steep angled snow.

Beautiful blue skies and sunny weather forecasts sure didn't prepare us for THIS as we looked over our shoulder in surprise!

Unreal. We had a beautiful day, though the snow was definitely more technical than we anticipated and as we debated on whether to keep pushing into it and climbing higher, we heard surprising thunder behind us. Unbelievably, a storm cell had built as we struggled through the snow terrain. Our debate quickly ended and our decision was made by the weather. Cracks of lightning spanked us and sent us running for the lower ground. A rope was left on a cliff as we made an emergency exit, I lost some skin and ego with a fall (Mike lost his heart for a few minutes over that one), and we made a dejected exit before we could summit to our desired destination.