Crow Pass
On the two month anniversary of Emelia's birth, we decided to hike out to Crow Pass. Here is our Journey.
Autumn needed to decide on which shoes to wear. Our friend Tara (a "participant" in the Crow Pass Challenge that took place July 4th weekend) can tell you that it is imperative to wear good shoes on this hike. Of course we were only headed to the pass and had no intentions of completing the entire 24 mile hike to Eagle River.
I love those boots Autumn, but they aren't the right shoes for our purposes!
Here we are at the trail head. In all honesty, I should have dressed Autumn in something different, but we will get to that later. For now, you can see the sun is shining and Autumn has her most important accessory, Roww.
Getting ready to go!
Sean had Autumn. Right over Sean's head, you can see a nice waterfall.
I had Emelia. My sunglasses fell off my head and I stepped right on them! Good thing they were cheap ones.
A little bird. That guy hiked with us for a bit. He had a worm or something in his mouth and didn't want to fly off with it, so he hopped along near us for awhile.
One of the views. Do you see the bridge? That is where the parking lot is.
I'm bringing up the rear as usual.
The flowers were beautiful, but the raspberries weren't ripe yet (really the only thing that I found disappointing about our hike was not being able to eat any raspberries).
Roww hitched a ride with me for a little while.
Even Autumn walked some of the trail.
I guess walked is a relative term. Ha!
That little girl is so spoiled by her daddy.
I don't know if it is just me, but that trail felt quite narrow. Maybe it is an optical illusion because there were other parts of the trail (as you will see) that were much narrower than this.
As you can see, Autumn really did walk some of the trail. I really love this photo of those two.
About 45 minutes in, we stopped to eat our lunch. We picked a spot where the trail forks. The lower trail takes you to the mines while the upper trail takes you to a cabin. These two routes eventually meet back up, but we decided to take the upper trail. We packed little sandwiches for Sean and me and Autumn had a chicken leg. I thought our lunch was delicious. It was a nice little break, but the sun went away and I was feeling a little cold now that I wasn't moving.
After we finished eating, we got back on the trail again.
Yes, that is snow.... in JULY!
The trail is starting to get a little more technical now and a little bit more narrow. Probably for most people, it wouldn't even be noticeable, but I'm carrying Emelia on the front of me which throws off my center of gravity and also makes it so that I cannot see my feet.
This is the view directly in front of us.
The view behind us. Shortly after taking this photo we came up to another snow crossing on the trail. At the end of the snow crossing was a water crossing. These areas scared me the most. The snow is slippery and I was having a hard time getting good footing. Eventually, what I was afraid of, happened. I fell.
Right where the snow meets the water is where I fell. I went down on my right side to protect Emelia from injury and we started sliding. I was grasping trying to get a grip, but my fingers weren't able to find anything. We didn't slide very far and in the moment, I was terrified Emelia was going to get hurt, but now that it is all said and done, even if we had kept sliding down, I think we would have been OK. I have some scratches from this fall and how we stopped was my elbow dug in to the snow. I was wearing a short sleeve shirt though, so it felt like a very cold carpet burn. Besides that, I was pretty wet.
A closer view of where I fell. Once getting back to my feet, we had to cross the water. I wasn't taking any chances of falling again, so I just stomped right through that water. It was COLD!!!!!!! Sean and Autumn crossed with no problems.
What a great photo of Autumn, Roww and Sean.
Yet another water crossing.
These next few photos were taken near the day use cabin.
It became significantly colder up here. We were at approximately 3300 feet now. The wind was blowing and I was WET.
Doesn't he look like a lonely traveler. I'm so proud of my Crow Pass Challenge Finisher. After doing just this little part of the trail, it amazes me that Sean not only hiked this to Eagle River Nature Center, but that he turned around and came back!
The views were spectacular.
Autumn started off with her hands getting cold (remember I said it became significantly colder), so Sean was trying to show Autumn to put her hands in her pockets.
That worked initially, but Autumn didn't want to walk with her hands in her pockets. I wish I would have remembered to grab her gloves out of her backpack.
We continue on.
I turned a corner and saw something black on the mountain side. I immediately stopped because I couldn't tell if it was a bear or just a cave. I waited for Sean to see what he thought, but the spot was too far away. It didn't appear to be moving, so we pressed forward. When I got home, I zoomed in on this picture and it definitely is a cave, but there appears to be something in the lower left hand corner of the cave. I have no idea what it is, but it didn't seem bothered by us.
We finally made it to the sign that says:
Crow Pass Elevation 3500 feet.
Roww did it too!
Just beyond that sign is the glacier.
Close up view of the blue ice.
Glaciers are so beautiful.
Autumn really started to get upset about the cold and we knew we needed to warm her up. Emelia was fine because she was strapped to my chest in my Moby wrap, but Autumn was not quite so comfortable. Sean decided to wrap her up in his coat to help her get warmed up. She was shivering and you could tell that she wasn't having a fun time with the cold.
We got Autumn squared away and decided we wouldn't stay very much longer BUT...
We had to get a picture of me and Emelia at the pass!
On the way back down we decided to take the lower route (by we I mean Sean- it was the only time on the trail that I actually got mad at Sean. That lower route was extremely steep and killed my knees and made my legs feel like jello). I was somewhat relieved that I wouldn't have to walk through any more snow though (the lower route was snow free). The upper route would have been more of a gradual decline, but would have taken longer and we really wanted to get Autumn to a lower elevation so that she would get warm. In the end I was glad we took the lower route because we got the whole experience that is Crow Pass.
Cool waterfall and yet another water crossing.
They made it! Autumn fell asleep almost as soon as we started our decent.
More waterfalls.
Poor Autumn- she had a pretty big day.
Lessons learned from this hike:
1. I should have brought my own jacket (everyone had a jacket but me).
2. The mosquitoes were relentless on certain parts of the trail. We all had bug spray on, but we didn't bring any with us to reapply. We were sweating out on the trail and either the bugs just didn't care about the bug spray, or it wore off.
3. Autumn/Emelia need to be dressed better for the changing conditions.
4. Bring rope. LOL.
5. The trail wasn't too strenuous. We spent about five hours out there and that seemed to be right at the girls limit.
6. Stop and enjoy the view.
The Jordan's.
Autumn needed to decide on which shoes to wear. Our friend Tara (a "participant" in the Crow Pass Challenge that took place July 4th weekend) can tell you that it is imperative to wear good shoes on this hike. Of course we were only headed to the pass and had no intentions of completing the entire 24 mile hike to Eagle River.
I love those boots Autumn, but they aren't the right shoes for our purposes!
Here we are at the trail head. In all honesty, I should have dressed Autumn in something different, but we will get to that later. For now, you can see the sun is shining and Autumn has her most important accessory, Roww.
Getting ready to go!
Sean had Autumn. Right over Sean's head, you can see a nice waterfall.
I had Emelia. My sunglasses fell off my head and I stepped right on them! Good thing they were cheap ones.
A little bird. That guy hiked with us for a bit. He had a worm or something in his mouth and didn't want to fly off with it, so he hopped along near us for awhile.
One of the views. Do you see the bridge? That is where the parking lot is.
I'm bringing up the rear as usual.
The flowers were beautiful, but the raspberries weren't ripe yet (really the only thing that I found disappointing about our hike was not being able to eat any raspberries).
Roww hitched a ride with me for a little while.
Even Autumn walked some of the trail.
I guess walked is a relative term. Ha!
That little girl is so spoiled by her daddy.
I don't know if it is just me, but that trail felt quite narrow. Maybe it is an optical illusion because there were other parts of the trail (as you will see) that were much narrower than this.
As you can see, Autumn really did walk some of the trail. I really love this photo of those two.
About 45 minutes in, we stopped to eat our lunch. We picked a spot where the trail forks. The lower trail takes you to the mines while the upper trail takes you to a cabin. These two routes eventually meet back up, but we decided to take the upper trail. We packed little sandwiches for Sean and me and Autumn had a chicken leg. I thought our lunch was delicious. It was a nice little break, but the sun went away and I was feeling a little cold now that I wasn't moving.
After we finished eating, we got back on the trail again.
Yes, that is snow.... in JULY!
The trail is starting to get a little more technical now and a little bit more narrow. Probably for most people, it wouldn't even be noticeable, but I'm carrying Emelia on the front of me which throws off my center of gravity and also makes it so that I cannot see my feet.
This is the view directly in front of us.
The view behind us. Shortly after taking this photo we came up to another snow crossing on the trail. At the end of the snow crossing was a water crossing. These areas scared me the most. The snow is slippery and I was having a hard time getting good footing. Eventually, what I was afraid of, happened. I fell.
Right where the snow meets the water is where I fell. I went down on my right side to protect Emelia from injury and we started sliding. I was grasping trying to get a grip, but my fingers weren't able to find anything. We didn't slide very far and in the moment, I was terrified Emelia was going to get hurt, but now that it is all said and done, even if we had kept sliding down, I think we would have been OK. I have some scratches from this fall and how we stopped was my elbow dug in to the snow. I was wearing a short sleeve shirt though, so it felt like a very cold carpet burn. Besides that, I was pretty wet.
A closer view of where I fell. Once getting back to my feet, we had to cross the water. I wasn't taking any chances of falling again, so I just stomped right through that water. It was COLD!!!!!!! Sean and Autumn crossed with no problems.
What a great photo of Autumn, Roww and Sean.
Yet another water crossing.
These next few photos were taken near the day use cabin.
It became significantly colder up here. We were at approximately 3300 feet now. The wind was blowing and I was WET.
Doesn't he look like a lonely traveler. I'm so proud of my Crow Pass Challenge Finisher. After doing just this little part of the trail, it amazes me that Sean not only hiked this to Eagle River Nature Center, but that he turned around and came back!
The views were spectacular.
Autumn started off with her hands getting cold (remember I said it became significantly colder), so Sean was trying to show Autumn to put her hands in her pockets.
That worked initially, but Autumn didn't want to walk with her hands in her pockets. I wish I would have remembered to grab her gloves out of her backpack.
We continue on.
I turned a corner and saw something black on the mountain side. I immediately stopped because I couldn't tell if it was a bear or just a cave. I waited for Sean to see what he thought, but the spot was too far away. It didn't appear to be moving, so we pressed forward. When I got home, I zoomed in on this picture and it definitely is a cave, but there appears to be something in the lower left hand corner of the cave. I have no idea what it is, but it didn't seem bothered by us.
We finally made it to the sign that says:
Crow Pass Elevation 3500 feet.
Roww did it too!
Just beyond that sign is the glacier.
Close up view of the blue ice.
Glaciers are so beautiful.
Autumn really started to get upset about the cold and we knew we needed to warm her up. Emelia was fine because she was strapped to my chest in my Moby wrap, but Autumn was not quite so comfortable. Sean decided to wrap her up in his coat to help her get warmed up. She was shivering and you could tell that she wasn't having a fun time with the cold.
We got Autumn squared away and decided we wouldn't stay very much longer BUT...
We had to get a picture of me and Emelia at the pass!
On the way back down we decided to take the lower route (by we I mean Sean- it was the only time on the trail that I actually got mad at Sean. That lower route was extremely steep and killed my knees and made my legs feel like jello). I was somewhat relieved that I wouldn't have to walk through any more snow though (the lower route was snow free). The upper route would have been more of a gradual decline, but would have taken longer and we really wanted to get Autumn to a lower elevation so that she would get warm. In the end I was glad we took the lower route because we got the whole experience that is Crow Pass.
Cool waterfall and yet another water crossing.
They made it! Autumn fell asleep almost as soon as we started our decent.
More waterfalls.
Poor Autumn- she had a pretty big day.
Lessons learned from this hike:
1. I should have brought my own jacket (everyone had a jacket but me).
2. The mosquitoes were relentless on certain parts of the trail. We all had bug spray on, but we didn't bring any with us to reapply. We were sweating out on the trail and either the bugs just didn't care about the bug spray, or it wore off.
3. Autumn/Emelia need to be dressed better for the changing conditions.
4. Bring rope. LOL.
5. The trail wasn't too strenuous. We spent about five hours out there and that seemed to be right at the girls limit.
6. Stop and enjoy the view.
The Jordan's.
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