Utah Trip 2019 - Day 5

On Wednesday (May 29th), we hiked the Subway (which we'd picked up our permits for the previous day).  We were a little slow and finally left the campground around 8 am.  We ate breakfast in the car as we drove to the trailhead (Left Fork Trailhead) on Kolob Terrace Road (we had to leave the park and re-enter on the west side).

We finally got started hiking around 9:20 am.  We picked up a couple of hiking sticks at the trailhead which were VERY USEFUL later on.

We also decided that at 5 hours, we had to turn around no matter what.  We'd read that it typically takes about 8-10 hours with normal water levels to reach the Subway and return to the trailhead.  We were towing along 3 kids and the water levels were currently extremely high.  The hike is supposedly 9 miles round-trip.  However, I believe you can normally hike a lot in the river rather than trying to avoid it like we had to do because of the high level and COLD temperature.  So I think we were forced to make the hike longer.

Anyway, the hike starts off relatively flat and then drops down the side of the canyon to the Left Fork River.

When we reached the bottom, we almost immediately had to cross the river for the first time.

We changed into our Chacos and neoprene socks.  The water temperature was no joke but the socks helped a lot.  And the hiking sticks for Carter and Rylan since the current was quite strong at times.

And even though the water was freezing, the air temperature was perfect. 

It was really pretty in the canyon with a variety of different types of vegetation and scenery.

We didn't see a ton of wildlife in the canyon, but we did come along this little guy.

During our numerous stream crossing, the big boys got as deep as their chests.  Brian and I were in up to our waists at times.

We had to find trails as we went as there is no set route when out of the river.  There are various paths that have been worn down though. 

We started with Gray in the carrier at the trailhead but we took him out for the first few river crossings and carried him across in our arms (we felt a little safer this way).  Soon though he wanted to hike instead of be in the carrier.  He ended up hiking a ton and fast!  He wanted to lead most of the time and did a great job at it.  He wore his cute little hiking boots and found the trails for us.

Rylan always wanted to cross the river even if we didn't really need to.  He loved that part of the hike and was really brave.  He became a pro at using his hiking stick in the water and facing upstream to battle the current.  Carter did great too - he just wasn't as enthusiastic as Rylan.

At 4.5 hours in, we still felt we had a ways to go until we reached the Subway.  Even though we were tracking our mileage on our watches, because we were going back and forth across the river, we were doing more mileage than what is listed on trail maps.  We saw a guy heading back out toward the trailhead that looked a little concerned when he saw that we had the kids with us.  He told us that he guides the area and the water at the entrance to the Subway was very high and flowing very fast.  He even turned around instead of entering.  We told him we planned to only hike in for about 20 minutes before heading back and he seemed relived. 

At 4.75 hours in, we stopped for lunch.  We had only stopped once before then for a snack so we were all hungry.  I hiked a little up the trail just to make sure we weren't stopping just before the Subway entrance and didn't see anything interesting so we decided it was time to head back.  We knew we had a long hike back still and didn't want to take any crazy risks with the kids.

Just to show how much water we were dealing with, here is a picture I took of the ledges waterfall.

And this is what it normally looks like.  Barely a trickle.

Not long after we started hiking back, Brian set Gray down on a rock before starting a river crossing and GRAY FELL IN COMPLETELY!!!  Luckily we had some extra clothes we had brought as layers (Gray's skeleton pajama pants and one of Rylan's shirts) and Gray's Chacos.  Gray was NOT HAPPY about going completely under in freezing cold water, but he calmed down pretty quickly.

Gray did a little more hiking but was getting tired.  We put him back in the carrier, and I carried him for awhile.  He fell asleep and woke up right before the last river crossing.  We had no idea he'd woken up, and he just yelled out, "This is where we crossed the first time!"  Very impressive as everything starts to look the same after awhile!

We seemed to find better trails on the way back to the trailhead and made good time.  Before heading back up the side of the canyon, we ate and drank as much as we could to lighten our load.  Brian offered to carrier Gray in the carrier and I didn't fight him for once.

We were the last people back to the trailhead (a couple passed us the last 0.2 miles so it was close!).  We made it out in about 4 hours (as opposed to the almost 5 hours in).

We have some rockstar kids!  We hiked for nine hours in very, very tough conditions and they never complained!

We drove back to the campsite and made a dinner of brats and chips.

While I cleaned up dinner, Brian and the kids walked around the campground.

The boys were still working on their Junior Ranger badges for Zion, and one requirement is attending a ranger program.  There was a ranger talk in the campground from 9:15 to 10 pm we decided to do.  I have no idea what we were thinking!  It was so boring and the kids were zonked.  But we did it and then all fell asleep hard!

Baby Birds

The eggs hatched in the playhouse!  I noticed the mama bird around yesterday morning so I got my phone up above the nest to check on the eggs and look what I found!!!

I honestly can't figure out which parts are one bird and what is a body versus a head.  I think they had hatched sometime in the last 24 hours (maybe just a few hours).

Then I noticed a robin working on a nest in the crabapple outside the guest bedroom window when I was putting something away in there.  I went the the master bathroom on the second floor to see if I could get a better look and there is a perfect view of the nest from their!

I watched Mrs. Robin gather materials, land on the basketball goal, and then fly to the nest.  Mr. Robin was hanging around as the lookout.

Once she brought something to the nest, she would use her feet and shimmy around to work it in.  Gray said it looked like she was twerking (I kind of agree).

We are excited for Mrs. Robin to return to lay eggs and then hopefully watch the babies grow!  I'm sure we would have never of noticed this nest if we weren't home all the time right now. We would have been at soccer and baseball games all day yesterday and not had the time to notice or watch the nest being built.

Friday's Pictures

The boys took a day off from school work yesterday and did Friday's work today.  We spent the morning outside, did a hike with Jen's family, and then Carter and Rylan had art class in the late afternoon.

Our hollys in the front yard are covered in hundreds of ladybugs.  I've never seen so many in one place before!

The boys have still been spending a lot of time each day in their hammocks.  One of our neighbors has started copying them too :)

We went to Cheeks Bend Bluff View with Jen's family in the afternoon.  The boys and I did this hike a couple of months ago.  It's relatively flat, about 2 miles roundtrip, and has a cool cave to explore.  I figured this was different from all the waterfalls we've done lately and was a good option for our different ages.

This guy looks like he spends a lot of time in the woods :)

We also did some more science and tried to identify more wildflowers.  Here's what we think we found:

False Garlic (Nothoscordum Bivalve)

False Rue-Anemone (Enemion Biternatum)

  Violet Wood Sorrel (Oxalis Violacea)

Fire Pink (Silene Virginica)

We haven't figured this one out yet :)

Pictures from This Week

We are on bird watch.  We have a little nest in the corner of the playhouse again this year.  We think this is a house finch nest.

When I checked on the nest on March 20th, there were 3 eggs.

On March 30th, there were 5 eggs.

I've only seen a bird sitting on the nest once for a few minutes but I'm pretty sure the bird is there more often as the eggs have been being moved.

Last year we had a similar nest in the playhouse but it was a little more in the open.  Unfortunately on the day we noticed the baby birds, crows stole the babies out of the nest.  Hopefully they're in a safter location this year!

On Monday I scrubbed down the playhouse as we've had many nests the last few years and when the babies do hatch and thrive, they poop a lot!  I finally really washed everything really well and it looks great.  After the boys had finished their schoolwork, they played with their tablets for awhile in their hammocks.  I set these up on the trees we planted since we've moved in.  They are barely big enough this year to finally support the boys (not sure if they could handle me or Brian though).

On Tuesday it rained all day (it was not our best day).  But it cleared up enough for us to go on a family walk that evening.  There is a water tower hidden up a hill in our neighborhood.  There is a trail and a paved road on the backside.  We did the paved road and saw a bit of a pretty sunset.

The boys have been really missing school.  This week they each did a Zoom call with their classes (I set up the one for Carter's class since I'm the lead room parent for that class).  Rylan's third grade class was easy to get talking (mostly just being silly).  The fifth graders took longer to really talk much (they are much more self conscious) but the feedback from parents was that the kids really liked seeing their friends.  We are planning on making this a weekly thing for both Carter and Rylan.

Jen and her kids did a Spring Break trip with me and my kids to a cabin in Gatlinburg.  We had planned to go to Dollywood for two days and hike in the Smokies one day.  Spring Break was right when Covid-19 was just starting to really become a concern in this area.  We decided to still go on our trip but only go hiking and spend time in the cabin.  I'll post about that trip soon.

Anyway, we decided to both completely isolate our families after returning from anyone else so that we could then feel okay about spending time with each other.  Both Brian and Burke have worked from home 100% of the time.  Jen and I only run basic errands for groceries and necessities.  We have been meeting up a couple of times a week to take the kids hiking in order for them to get some exercise and a little social time.  We have committed to only going on hikes, not using restrooms,playgrounds, etc, and trying to not touch each other (though that's hard for her 4 year old!).  We hope this keeps us all sane and safe!

Yesterday we did a 2 mile hike in Smith Park which is only a few minutes from our house.  I love this sweet picture.  Carter, Rylan, and Reed were in the lead getting some "boy" time for Reed since he has all sisters.  Gray and Lofton were next.  Evie (the only middle schooler) was walking with Jen and I in the back.  Mae didn't come this time.

This morning the boys and I started a container garden.  I order pots from Target and then made a very, very quick trip to the garden center at Lowe's to get some soil and plants.  We planted strawberries, tomatoes, 3 types of peppers, cilantro, and basil.  I don't have a ton of faith that we can keep these alive, but we are going to try!

Firstlight Art Class

Carter and Rylan still have a single activity on our now completely empty calendar - their art class.  Firstlight is still doing their classes via Zoom at their normal times and with the normal instructors.  All the kids in the class get on Zoom and they can all see one another and talk as they complete their normal lesson at home.  The instructor can do private breakout discussions with each student to talk about the piece they are working on as well.

It's great, except for the paint!  Carter did okay but Rylan had it on everything, including his computer.  Luckily it mostly came off everything :)

Here was the goal of Friday's lesson:

Students will learn how to use the palette knife technique before working on a landscape. There are specific colors that must be mixed and used side by side. This helps artists see how expanding your colors to several variations enhances the final painting.

Here are the landscapes each boy chose to paint as well as their completed works.

Carter:

Rylan:

Timberland Park

Brian and I took the boys to a new park this afternoon to do a little hiking.  It's beautiful today (around 70F and sunny) so we really wanted to get outside for awhile.  We went to Timberland Park which is off the Natchez Trace and managed by Williamson County Parks and Rec.  It's a fairly new park with a interconnecting trails that go up and down some small hills and ravines.  We probably did about two miles and also found a couple of geocaches.  The park is so new that their fancy trailmarkers are still in good shape and not vandalized!

Group selfie!

This guys looks pretty cool in his shades :)

Though we've seen a lot more wildflowers on other recent hikes, I decided to do a little science lesson with the boys with the wildflowers we did see (homeschooling, ahhh!).  I took pictures of some of the wildflowers and then when we got home, we identified them.  We also talked about their Latin names and what that means.

Toadshade (Trillium Sessile):

Celandine Poppy (Stylophorum Diphyllum):

Carolina Springbeauty (Claytonia Caroliniana):

Star Chickweed (Stellaria Pubera):

Common Blue Violet (Viola Sororia):

Wild Blue Phlox (Phlox Divaricata):

Two-Flower Cynthia (Krigia Biflora):

Bare-Toothed Russula (Russula Vesca):