Thanks, Russell. Enjoy your time in the Eagle Cap Wilderness and all the best to you with your writing. And stay warm out there!

Your piece does a great job of preparing for august thunderstorms. I’m expecting to hit them at least one afternoon, hopefully when I’m past the basin. I’m double and triple checking my insulation after the story about your boy.

Well done and thanks for writing it.

Best,
Russell James
Corvallis, OR

Hi Leah,

Sounds like you have a really fun trip ahead of you. Thanks for the comment and have fun.

The most perfect reply.
I just ran across your article researching Hell’s Canyon as a possible add on to my Oregon trip this August. Have never traveled to Oregon, and have quite the general itinerary. Lol.
Enjoyed your read, thanks for sharing and if you think of anything I should be considering, please reply. We are also running the coast, and Colombia River Gorge.

Thanks for sharing that story, Ron.

That’s a wonderful area to explore, James. Thanks for sharing that and I hope you get back there soon. Good luck to your wife on Kili.

Thanks for sharing your entertaining story, Mckenzie. I suppose many of us as kids learn lessons only through doing dumb things. I’m glad my stories about my family make you smile because they have the same effect on me.

The part about you running down the mountain to get your jacket to your son reminds me of the time my family was hiking in the backcountry in Alaska and I did what any good 14-year-old would do and ignored my mom’s stern warnings not to swing my backpack around as I walked. One swing too hard and it set off on a tumble down the side of the mountain and didn’t stop for at least 1/2 mile. It was so far that I couldn’t see where it landed. But my mom raced after it (a few stern words as she tore off) and brought it back up to the rest of us, and I can safely say I have not swung my backpack around on any of the many hikes since then.

I’m not sure how she ran up and down that mountain so fast but I suspect it has to do with the way parents seem to develop super-human strength when it comes to their kiddos.

Thank you for sharing that remembrance, Juliet. I wish you and your father the best.

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the nice compliment about my story and your thoughts on the leave no trace wilderness ethic, which I certainly share with you. I’m sorry you read that interpretation in my brief account of our kids playing in the creek. When I wrote this story, I didn’t find it necessary to expound at length on ethics, but it has always been my practice to make sure we leave no trace as a family, and that includes making sure our kids’ efforts in a creek are not permanent, scattering their rocks when necessary.

I trust you understand that I was letting my kids play and have fun, and I’m confident it was actually harmless. As young kids, they were not capable of moving heavier rocks than any mountain or canyon stream can move on its own when their waters rise; even adults would not have the strength to do that. Those creeks rearrange their rocks quite effectively on their own every year, and they move remarkably enormous rocks. I recall interviewing the longtime trails manager for Mount Rainier National Park a number of years ago, and he told me a detail I’ve been reminded of repeatedly in certain contexts, including while backpacking the Wonderland Trail around Rainier just a month ago: Mount Rainier National Park trail crews have to replace every single log bridge over creeks in the park (dozens of them) every summer, because all of those creeks get destroyed by high runoff every spring. Children playing in a stream cannot generate the kind of power that nature routinely generates.

Still, I agree with the leave no trace ethic and follow it devoutly. Thanks again for your thoughts and please share your comments anytime.

First of all, you’re teaching them to break one of the cardinal rules when you enter a wilderness area, that is as you probably already know, is “leave no trace.” How about teaching them to leave an area better than they found it, maybe undoing traces from others instead, ie.. dismantling rock dams. We all tend to think “oh what harm could a few rocks moved around in stream do?” Well, multiple that times the number of people visiting these treasures year after year and growing in numbers every year! My tip to your kids would have to be “leave it as you found it, if not better.” Thanks for sharing the adventures and thanks for listening.