McHugh Creek via Turnagain Arm Trail April 27th.

Sean and I told the girls Sunday night that we were going to get up early Monday, going hiking, listen to a podcast about something educational and that would be their "school" for the day.

Millie stayed up really late.

That makes for a really grouchy start to the morning.

After dealing with a grouchy Millie, Sean and I ended up getting into a spat.

Instead of all of us going hiking together, Sean and Dingo stayed home.

The girls and I headed down to McHugh Creek Rec area.

When we arrived to the parking lot, Millie told Autumn and I that she was going to try really hard not to cry today.

Well, we didn't even make it out of the parking lot before Millie started crying.

She was cold.

We walked around the parking lot for just a few minutes, as there are a ton of waterfalls there.

We get going on the trail and it is immediately making it's way up.

Up is good when you are cold.

I was quite comfortable!



Waterfalls pretty near the second parking area.


A closer view of the bridge.


View from the bridge.


Me. I feel like I am looking a lot healthier these days.


We climbed roughly 1,500 feet in elevation to get this gorgeous view.


There was a bit of scree to navigate, but going up, it was not a problem.


Millie and me. Autumn was not interested in getting her picture taken!


Plant life is waking up!




I was surprised how much fire damage we had to walk through.

The only think I can liken it to is tornado damage.

It's really similar as it destroys the trees.

A lot of trees are still there, but they are felled.



Millie took this photo.


I like how you can see the snow line across the arm.


Millie says, picture please.

Shortly after we left this part of the trail, the girls and I were back into the forest part.

As we were walking (me first, Autumn and Millie bringing up the rear), we heard very large limbs breaking and trees moving off to our right.

We could not see what was making the trees move, but we could tell it was something large.

That is when it huffed at us (sounds like heaving sighing almost).

I had the girls clap their hands and stomp their feet while I was readying the bear spray.

We stayed in place for a minute or so.

Whatever was moving had stopped.

We slowly started to back away all the while talking to the animal letting it know we were leaving.

I was trying to stay calm, but I really was scared!

My whole body was shaking!

We pressed on hoping that the bear had time to do whatever it needed to do.


Up until now, the trail has really been dry.


About two and half miles in, the trail suddenly gets really wet.

The girls are done, so we turn around and take our time heading back (we are only about a half mile past where we heard the bear noise now).


Autumn allowed me to get this photo of her.

She said it was an illuminati rock!


Millie's turn.


Illuminati! HA

On the way back, we heard a woodpecker up in a tree.

Peck, peck, peck.

Then somewhere behind us, another one answered back.

Peck, peck, peck.

Millie says, "they are tweeting each other. They must have twitter accounts."

Oh my gosh! The dad jokes are strong with that one!

It's been awhile since I had the girls walk so far.

Millie's feet got really tired (or so I assume).

The girl fell four or five times.

Every time she fell, she made a big production of it.

At first, I was very tender.

Millie, are you OK?

You have to get up.

You must walk yourself, I cannot carry you.

After the second or third time...

Millie, watch where you are putting your feet!

Stop crying!!!

Let's go!!!

Finally, she took a pretty big fall.

She cried and carried on, just like she did all the other times.

Millie told me, "I'm bleeding so much that my rain coat is soaking wet."

Well, I didn't believe her!

We finally make it back to the car and I ask Millie to take her coat off and let me look at her elbow.

Mostly because she fussed about it all the way back to the car.

To my surprise, her elbow looked bad and her rain coat even worse!

Oh my gosh, I felt awful!!!




She actually tore a hole in her rain coat that Sean had to repair.


I sent Sean a message and told him that Millie was going to need some first aid when we got home.

Sean cleaned her up, repaired her coat and she took it like a champ.

I learned a few lessons that day.

I really ought to be carrying some sort of first aid stuff, even if it is really small.

We still had fun.

I would love to go back sometime with Sean and finish that trail.

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