Wed-venture: Union Creek Falls

Last week, when the horrific riptide waters of online elementary school were closing in around my head, mother nature plunged in her hand to rescue me. I gripped it hard and emerged, taking deep breaths of life-giving oxygen. As I organized my thoughts, one fact became clear. If we were going to stay sane during distance learning, the kids would need to get OUT of the house regularly. 

Problem: online school takes until noon every single weekday. It's like we only get the bad parts (cooped up) of homeschool without the benefits (free-form outings). I began to see why so many families had withdrawn from school to do their own homeschool curriculum. But we are committed to our Sunnyside School District! I have never doubted keeping our kids enrolled in our local public schools. It's right for our family, so we have to work within the new distance learning parameters, however confining they may seem.

Ideally, I'd take one full day each week for an outing with the kids. Exploring takes time! Travel time and walking time and playing time and then more driving time at the end--time we do not have because our schedules limit us to afternoons only. Since we are committed to the school schedule, I realized I had to sacrifice the ideal of a weekly daylong trip into the wilds with my kids for a shorter, more accessible option. Once I was able to let go of my ideal, OPTIONS opened up! This is not the first time I have learned this lesson. If I just let go and open my mind, then boom: solutions and options abound.

When I crunched the numbers, I discovered that we have 5-7 hours between school and dinnertime to work with. We could still go spend 2-3 hours outside in the afternoon if we capped our distance from home at about 120 miles, or a two hour drive. Better than I thought! I was stoked. Bring on the adventures! 

Time to curate a variety of gorgeous soul-satisfying nature excursions for my children to build lasting memories and bond with the earth. No pressure! Haha. Wednesday was the day of choice, because it's halfway through the week and marking that point with an outing would be a nice break. Plus, Jeff has extra teacher meetings on Wednesdays and gets home later, so we wouldn't be abandoning him for as long that day.

Wednesday + Adventure = Wedventure! 

For our inaugural Wedventure on September 2nd, we went to Union Creek Falls, where I did a trail run a few weeks ago during summer. It was a 90 minute drive from Sunnyside--one of the few excellent natural locations that close to home. The plan was to climb half a mile up the creek to the big 60 foot waterfall. The route was steeper, harder, and more intense than I expected! It definitely lived up to the excitement that the word adventure inspires. 

When I ran there a few weeks ago, I did not climb up the creek; I took the trail. I knew that the trail was short and we wouldn't have much to do at the falls. This was about the journey! So we wore Keen sandals and Crocs, and took to the water. The rocks were slick and the climbs were challenging. At one point 2/3 of the kids were in tears. Amber kept trying to leap and scamper ahead, stressing me out on the jagged wet rocks. The water roared in our ears, making it nearly impossible to communicate if we were more than two feet apart.

The most memorable moment of the hike-scramble was when we reached a six-foot tall rock that had water rushing over one side of it. I climbed ahead to check if it was a good route, and when I saw the way clear ahead, I returned and coached, hoisted, boosted, and pulled each kid up the rock. Once the girls were up top, I climbed back down to talk Jay through the finer points of scaling a rough slippery rock face. Amber began crying loudly. After some effort (loud crying, loud waterfall, quiet Shaina-voice), I finally figured out the reason for Amber's wails. She was worried about Jay being left behind or not being able to make it up the steep rock. I told her I was helping him right now, and eventually got the boy up and over the barrier. 

I have to confess, I was laughing like a lunatic for most of this ridiculously challenging climb.

By that point, the kids were all maxed out. The sun had sunk behind the creek's steep rocky crevice and the 88 degree temperature was slashed drastically by shade and cold splattery mist from the thundering sixty-foot waterfall. After a half-hearted attempt at a picture, we waded across the last section of knee-deep fast-flowing frigid water and emerged triumphantly onto the rocks by the trail.

It was an adventure to remember.

Heading up the creek!

Rewind: the kids requested a pre-adventure car selfie, and who was I to refuse them?

Jay, always the planner, told me he was going to run a mile on the trail before we went to the waterfall. I pointed him in the least-steep direction and off he trotted.

While we waited for Jay to run, the girls and I played around the creek, building cairns.

14 rocks tall! 

Jay returned after 3/4 a mile with scuffed dusty knees. He had tripped and fallen on the trail. I told him I understood the feeling all too well. Once Jay changed into water-friendly shoes, we headed to the waterfall.

This single railed hewn log bridge was a thrill.

Jay's fear of heights was a limiting factor for this entire hike, poor guy.

Excuse my finger-photography; I was the only adult on staff and Amber kept doing risky leaps and bounds, so my photography suffered.

The creekside path quickly degenerated into a creekbed scramble.

Cautious Jay trailed behind.

Getting closer to the falls!

Pausing to cool his toes.

I still kind of can't believe that we managed this without injury.

Atop the steep rock at last. I got quite wet from sitting on the rock right next to the water while hoisting kids up and over.

This about captures the sentiment of the moment. The girls were freezing, Jay was putting on a brave face, and I forced them into a picture. HAH, it may be my new favorite picture of these three. 

Weekly Wedventure lesson: adventure and misery often go hand in hand. 

Muahahahaaaa mean moms have more fun.

We didn't go closer to the waterfall than this because the spray really was pretty cold and it seemed precarious. So we crossed the creek and climbed up the other side to the trail.

Amber-the-mountain-goat went first--see her way up there?

Viewpoint partway up the falls.

Rose, painstakingly putting her socks back on. I had to carefully buff every bit of water and dirt of of her toes before she would even try putting her socks on.

Back in the sun, we all warmed up instantly.

Amber left us in the dust.

A bit more rock-throwing before heading to the car.

Trailhead picture!

We drove home through thickening smoke from the Evans Canyon Wildfire, which started Monday afternoon (Aug 31st) and in five days consumed 115 square miles, destroyed 6 homes, and forced the evacuation 900 homes. It is currently just 20% contained, with unhelpfully strong winds forecast for the weekend. It is DRY right now. 

WAHOO FOR OUR FIRST WEDVENTURE!