As written by Lizzy. Possibly less truthful but more grammatically correct than normal.
Start of the trip
On the drive out we broke up the day with a short hike, only three miles or so. This brought up one recurring theme of the trip: Pearl is a little bit of a princess. She wanted to be carried up the steps. Very scary stairs made of metal. We understand, Pearl.
Day 1
The following day, the first day of hiking, we followed Lost Creek until the intersection with an ATV trail leading to Platinum Creek. The creekbed was very good walking, gravely but flat with some creek crossings but mostly just walking the gravel. After a few miles on the creek we reached the ATV trail. We saw two bears down on the creek when we started walking up the ATV trail, though we didn’t manage to get any photos. Other than those two at a distance, we didn’t see any other bears.
You’ll notice that in this photo Pearl is not wearing booties. Later on she had to wear them, and booties ended up being in short supply on this trip. Pearl isn’t very good about understanding that she will never catch marmots, so she has to be on a leash to prevent marmot chasing. We continued along the ATV trail until we reached Platinum Creek. We continued walking along it until the creek started drying up, and we eventually camped beside the creek.
Molly had dehydrated food in preparation for the trip. Dinner was rice with beans, corn, and tomatoes, with chocolate for dessert. Afterwards we settled down in the tent, a five-person pyramid tent with the four of us and both the dogs. It was a little tight, but the dogs seemed to like it. Eddy usually takes some convincing to get into the tent, but he seemed eager.
I’m not sure what Molly’s side eye is for. Probably to tell Dad to stop taking photos and go to bed.
Day 2
At the start of day 2 we crossed over a pass, then traveled down into the valley and followed a creek that doesn’t seem to have a name. Maybe it can be called Lizzy’s Creek.
Top of the pass, and then the creek we started walking along.
There were many bones and antlers. Some of them we permitted Eddy to taste, while others we decided were too photogenic for him to sample. Eddy also believes he should be allowed to carry antlers with him while hiking, which slows progress.
Pearl had to wear booties at this point, after getting sores on her feet after the first day of hiking. My pants were also suffering with an expanding knee hole.
Eventually we reached the creek leading into Soda Lake, and then reached the lake itself. We camped just next to the lake, after extensive discussion over the best spot to put the tent. At my urging we put the tent in a slightly flatter, but windier section. The tent didn’t end up blowing over, so I’m giving myself credit. Pearl didn’t think she got enough dinner. We ate seaweed, rice and edamame for dinner, followed by chocolate, of course. The games we had packed were starting to become boring, and the only things I had downloaded on my phone were random PDFs, which included some fanfiction. As a result the whole family got to listen to Star Trek fanfiction.
Day 3
This was our shortest day. We followed a different creek leading into Soda Lake, sidehilling around brush in the creek.
Eventually we cut through the valley and met up with a new creek, Totschunda Creek. Crossing through the valley proved to have more excitement than expected, at least for me. I ended up stepping into a wasp nest. I only got a couple of stings on my ankle, and pushed on. I told my mom I wouldn’t take antihistamines, but wanted to test to see if it would swell up at all.
We continued up the creek, passing by a waterfall and continuing to walk through the valley. We turned back when we saw sheep on the hills and camped earlier in the valley, not wanting to disturb their access to water.
Waterfall and distant sheep. That’s my dad’s photo, I know it’s blurry. Blame him.
We ate dinner, which was labeled Curry?. Molly had us guess the ingredients, and the first three things I guessed were all incorrect. It was delicious, though Molly complained that it was too spicy and that it caused exciting poops the following morning. Well, who created the dinners? I didn’t have problems with the Curry? but I did have problems with my pants.
They got sewed back together with dental floss. We were also running through dog booties very quickly at this point, and had to do some repairs with tape. Eddy and Pearl entered energy saver mode quickly at camp. I continued reading the fanfiction aloud.
Day 4
Not taking antihistamines first thing after getting stung was a mistake. My ankle swelled up, reddened and became very itchy. It also throbbed when I walked. Even now it’s scabbed and a little swollen. Apparently, like my mom, I have a slight allergy.
We started day 4 by retracing our steps back down to the creek. However, when we reached the valley instead of going straight up to Soda Lake, we went over a ridge, walked along it, and then cut down to Platinum Creek. We followed the creek back to the trail to Soda Lake, and then camped there.
This was by far the brushiest day. The descent down to Platinum creek was very brushy, but at least it was downhill. Pearl wasn’t a major brush fan. Suitcase mode had to be activated when she refused to go down into an especially thick section of alder. I picked her up by her backpack handle, carried her for a few steps like a briefcase, and threw her down into the brush. She wasn’t a fan of suitcase mode.
Walking along the creek.
Pearl had to be on a leash most of day 4 because of cliffs. She has a tendency to leap before she looks, meaning that she has been known to hurl herself off cliffs without seeing how tall they are. Eddy always has to be on a leash, because he believes recall is a choice.
Red rocks approaching Soda Lake, followed by rock piles near Soda Lake. We refer to them as the egg cartons.
Second night of camping on Soda Lake, camping right on the shore.
Dinner was a bag labeled the OG. Dad thought OG stood for Original Jesus, because he can’t spell. It turned out to be lentils, rice, curry powder, tomato and other spices. We discovered that Eddy now has sores on his feet, and so he needs booties for the remaining days. All the rocks apparently are hard on dogs’ feet. I read aloud more fanfiction. At this point we were well over page one hundred.
Day 5
In the morning there was an argument about whether Molly had grabbed Dad’s nose in the middle of the night and wiggled it back and forth. Dad swore she did, and she swore that she hadn’t and that he had dreamed it because she had been wiggling Eddy’s nose the night before. The nose twiddling mystery is still unsolved, if Dad dreamed it, if he made it up, if Molly did twiddle his nose, or if she did it in her sleep. Or if somehow the dogs managed to wiggle his nose. He eventually accused me, but as I was on the opposite side of the tent, it would have taken skills to be able to touch his nose without waking everyone else up.
This day was the longest day, about 18 miles of walking on creeks, ATV trails and ridges. We started out by leaving Soda Lake the same way we arrived the previous day and following the ATV trail out. However, when we reached Lost Creek we turned up it instead of down. At this point I had run out of breakfast, due to miscalculating my food needs, so I ate granola bars for breakfast. The audiobook I was listening to was coming to a very slow end, one that was thoroughly unexciting and predictable, so I was annoyed, but I had spent ten hours listening to it, and so had to finish.
The creek walking was mostly unexciting, though when the banks narrowed we had to climb up to the hill on the side, which proved to provide a little more adventure. Suitcase mode had to be activated again as Pearl didn’t seem to understand the danger of trying to run off cliffs.
Eddy in the flowers, and us walking on the ATV trail.
Near the end of the day we reached a large section of ice. We also met the only other person we saw on the trip, a hunter who seemed very unwilling to talk to us and probably would have ignored us entirely if we hadn’t called out to him and asked where to camp. He didn’t give us a useful answer. Maybe it was because, as I learned later, there was a large hole in the butt of my pants, or maybe he was annoyed that we had probably scared away all the sheep. We should have told him that there were hundreds before we hiked by.
Finding a campsite was a little tricky. We ended up camping on a slightly sloped, somewhat windy ledge on the side of a hill. Dinner was mashed potatoes with something resembling meat. It was called “mashed potatoes” in quotes, which isn’t at all suspicious. It tasted good though.
Major bootie repairs had to happen. We had run through 4 sets of booties, and had to start sewing them together in order to have any that didn’t have holes.
Eddy wasn’t entertained. At some point during the more adventurous sections of the day I had slid on my butt and ripped the whole seat of my pants open. We were out of dental floss, so there was no repairing my pants. However, I was excited when I realized that I had accidentally carried extra hiking pants, which I was going to wear during the car ride back, so I wouldn’t have to do the final day with my pants gaping.
Day 6
The day started by hiking up a hill and then through a pass. We then followed a sheep trail down the other side of the pass. The descent was much steeper than the ascent, and with poorer footing, with nothing but a foot wide sheep trail to follow down the side of the loose rock.
Walking up the ridge, and then at the top. Watch out Pearl, it’s a cliff!
The sheep trail. Leash time for Pearl! No taking the short way down the hill.
When we approached the valley we continued walking on the ridge for a while, until we ended up with a steep scree on all sides and then had to turn around and descend to Trail Creek in the valley. We started walking along the creek, following it until it mixed and merged with an ATV trail, and then reached the road and our car.
End of the trip! Eddy was camera shy. Pearl was camera dumb.
Only one bootie, out of five sets, survived the trip without a hole. We had to throw out all the other booties. My pants didn’t survive the trip, and my ankle was definitely a new level of itchy, like twenty mosquito bites piled on top of each other. Maybe only ten. It is fair to say that fun was had by all, and that the trip is an experience worth repeating. Four out of five stars. Five if there was ice cream waiting at the car for us instead of a single protein beverage that Molly drank.
