Enchanted Valley Backpacking Day 3: Sunshine Valleys, Beards, and Good News/Bad News

We packed up and left camp early on day 3, knowing it was a long walk home.  Brady panicked and started rolling up his sleeping bag at 4am, thinking we slept through our alarm.  As we ate our final breakfast in the valley, the sun rose over the peaks and it was spectacular.  It felt like a gift to capture the majesty just in time.

Look at us, starting the hike without our extra layers!  The sun made the temperatures perfect.

It felt like a completely different hike going back: different colors, significantly less mud (still plenty), and easier going.

Not sure about my wardrobe choice.  I did not know how to handle my socks with leggings and I'm still not sure...  I think we can all agree that the way I chose was off.

So charmed to find our initials carved on one of the wood bridges.  This trip will always be remembered by me as one of the sweetest gestures Brady has ever made on my behalf.

Getting close to the end.

A beard photo for the boys.  Aaron promptly shaved his off after our trip.

I need this sticker.

We had a worry-free hour of no-reception on our drive back, and then started getting slammed with texts.  I saw a confusing text from Heidi and called her, since no other messages had come through yet.  I found out that Kate had come down with COVID while we were off-grid.  We were so disappointed, knowing their family was exposed (and as a result, had to postpone their vacation when Shay and Nic also caught it).  We also felt terrible for Kate, knowing how bad she must feel with us away.  Finally, we cried for Savannah, who after 3 years of saving up her money had earned enough and planned to come back to Hawaii for the week with us.  Since Kate was quarantined, there was no way the plan would work, and we couldn't communicate that to her until we got back to the Varneys house that night, where she was excitedly waiting with her bags packed.  Ugh.

The Millers were also less-than-thrilled that their daughter was in a fender bender, too.  That has nothing to do with Coleman in the pizza shop without shoes, but this picture had to go somewhere.

Trip Totals:

44,019: steps to camp

36.4 miles

2 falls in the stream (Aaron and Roni)

1 deflected fart 

12+ bears

10+ elk

1 accidental off-roading

1 pair of melted tennis shoes from drying too close to the fire

1 critter in the camp, thankfully not a bear (because no one packed cherry chapstick) 

1: man with chaffing.  Brady asked for the nearest possible market on the way home.  "I need some drinks and petroleum jelly."  Coleman agreed, "I need a Dr. Pepper to be funny again."

4 bagels dragged all the way back home (food over packing point to Brady)

3 couples with sad children for one reason or another

6 happy campers and friends for life

$1 million dollars: the amount it would take Julie to get out of the car and backpack to the valley again at that exact moment.  "I want to see my kids again."  

Thank you, dear friends, for the memories.  Until next time!
 

Enchanted Valley Day 2: Hemlocks, Sun scream, and So Many Bears

After a night of backpacking-quality sleep, I finally really crashed at 6am and slept until 8:49am.  This sounds so lazy but it was raining outside and we were still very much on Kauai time.  I was lured out by the sounds of the fire Aaron worked on for 3 hours with the help of Brady at the end.  I cannot imagine working on a fire for 3 hours but it was very cozy to warm up and dry out next to it while we sipped our tea and cooked breakfast.  (Brady dumped his out on the ground but the good news is I packed too much food so YAY for me winning the extra food point on this round.)

Just after breakfast, Aaron yelled and we all assumed different possibilities for why: he saw a friend on the trail, a bear was in our camp, he spotted elk nearby, etc.  None of us got it right.  It was the sun!  Coleman: "I thought Aaron just saw a friend....I guess he did."  A brief, tiny glimpse of sunshine on the cliffs and in the valley.

Challenge: find a prettier place to poop.  This photo does not do it justice.  Because of the slats, you can see the valley and the hundreds of cascading waterfalls all in your own little room.

Also, we saw several bears on the little trek here.  The night before, we discussed all that needed to be removed and hung from the trees.  Coleman's comment was the bears bust into tents over forget food.  "It is never the cherry chapstick."  For whatever reason, the comment makes me laugh and laugh.

HURRY!  Get the photo before the clouds take over.

On the way to the chalet, we spotted a more exposed (read: cold) campsite that looked much more comfortable than ours with their log seats.  I felt like it was reasonable to ask the boys to move the log.  You know, make a fire for 3 hours, and then provide ample seating.  Reasonable expectations.

The chalet, originally built in 1931, looked so inviting but apparently it is condemned and full of rats.  I might have been willing to risk it on night two when we were still so cold.

For me, this was the funniest moment of our trip.  We rounded the corner and Brady waved hello to us from the john.

Our adventure after out housing--photograph the worldʻs largest hemlock.  Roni and Coleman looked it up and recommended the hike--about 5 miles round trip to make for an easy second day of hiking.

Waterfall views along the way:

We cooked up our lunches (spicy ramen for the win) at the destination and Brady busted out his group contribution: Easy Cheese and crackers.  Itʻs his goal to bring Easy Cheese to the worldʻs best lookouts.  I wonʻt eat it but Iʻm happy to laugh about it.

Coleman: "I donʻt know what are going to get for the worldʻs largest hemlock. I donʻt know what a hemlock is--it could be tiny."

It was not, but it was also less-than-impressive.  It did get us on a little exploration and gave Aaron and Roni a bath in the stream (misstep oops), so it fulfilled our purposes.

It also gave us opportunities to snag more moss shots.

Plenty of bears on the way back!

Brady and I went up to this little waterfall to check things out, too.  Charming.

Day 2 was supposed to have better weather than day 1, but we all felt it was colder and there were plenty of little rain showers.  It was a good test of our gear.

Meanwhile, Aaron maintained his position as Fire Constructor.

Yay for toasty toes, a few pairs of dried out (and also melted) shoes, camping lights, and the log the boys transported.

Also, plenty of our friends refuse to eat Mountain House meals and I think the key is they are not hungry enough.  We thought they were DELICIOUS.

With pride equalling his Easy Cheese, Brady decided to roast salami on the hot coals Aaron created for this purpose.  They made videos and took many pictures celebrating this delicacy that was probably a tiny step above Easy Cheese.

This is one of my favorite photos of the trip.  Why is Coleman eating a stick???  

It was attached to a roasted marshmallow-salami combo.

The boys checked rock-throwing off their list.

Night 2 was colder than night 1 and we shivered all night.  It was also really sweet because we had to stay close for warmth.  In our 20-years-down marital bliss, we rarely spend a whole night within an armʻs length of each other, so while the sleep was terrible, it was also memorable and lovely.