Up the Creek with Miles

The weather this week made my boots ache as I sat in my cube and stared at the big puffy clouds rolling by. I decided to play hooky from work on Friday and go hiking with my son. At 10 days shy of 4 years, he's a great little hiker. We set off for Denny Creek. We arrived at the trail head at 9:30 am and set off. Miles knows that hiking is all about some destination and so he kept asking me : "how much further dad", so we set short goals and had many destinations.

• First the bridge that crosses the creek
• Then the freeway that the trail crosses under
• Then another bridge that crosses the creek again at the "bathing rocks"
  
• Then the big rocks (first talus field)
• Then the waterfall (Keekwulee) where we paused for a break
• Then the log bridge that crosses the creek
• Then the top of Hemlock Pass
  
• Then the Lake (Lower Lake Melakwa)
• Then the Upper Lake Melakwa where we turned around

Along the way we stopped many times to enjoy the scenery and the experience of a beautiful day out in the mountains. We went "rock climbing" on the big boulders a couple of times. We threw snow balls at each other. We talked about Miles up coming birthday : He wants to invite all his friends, Maggie Rennie, Maggie Noble, McKay (Hancock), Isaac (Chamberlain) and Dane (Hansen). He wants a firetruck birthday cake, that is red and tastes like marshmallows. And he wants a present.

While we were hiking Miles looked at the largely leaveless bushes : "Hey those are huckleberry bushes", I asked him how he knew and he replied : "I just know". Further up the trail in the snow, Miles took my hiking pole and said we were pirates. He marked the a spot on the ground : "X Marks the spot" and then proceeded to dig for the treasure. I convinced him the treasure was at the Lake. When we arrived at Lake Melakwa Miles was asleep on my shoulders, he'd had a 3 and 11/12th's year old breakdown before the top of Hemlock Pass and I carried him up and over and along the ridge line to the Lake. Waking up to the several inches of snow that covered the ground, Miles declared : "Its the lake of ice and snow". Indeed a thin layer of ice was formed on the lakes surface. We had a grand time throwing rocks into the lake, breaking them through the ice and watching the spout of water shoot up through the entry hole.

We traversed around the edge of Lake Melakwa to view the upper Lake Melakwa that sits below Kaleetan Peak and Melakwa Pass. The weather was beautiful, the sun was shining with a crisp fall air. Most of the leaves had already fallen, but a few hung to the trees and their color still lasted on the trail. When I pointed to the top of the pass where I'd hiked with Kyle, Miles declared "No!", as in I am not climbing any higher. I assured him we had reached our turn around point for the day. Some day we'll make the traverse, but for that we'll probably have to wait till he is at least 6. :) Another great day in the mountains, made all the better by taking it slow with my son.

Stats (though it hardly matters) : 7 hours on the trail, 7.8 miles, 2400 feet of elevation gain.

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