We were on a trail... just not the right one!

This weekend, we went to Maple Canyon. It is behind Nephi, just up the road from Moroni (Utah, if the names didn't already give that away!). Ray has wanted to go there for a LONG time - years, people! - and he's finally going down for Youth Conference in a few weeks. So, we did a pre-trip so that he can check things out, make his plan. I DID NOT complain that now that he is serving in Young Mens AGAIN that all our family time is taken up by scouts - even when we're out as a family, it is for scouts. He was awfully proud of the fact that last year, we did not plan a family trip, and we ended up camping the weekend before school began, and this year we did plan a trip, and went the first weekend after school ended (the girls actually missed the last day of school for us to leave - it was painful for them).

Anyway, so we went with out Bishop and his wife, to Maple Canyon. Ray and Bishop left early to go check things out, and Sister Miller, the kids and I left after lunch. We got there, and the boys were no where to be seen. Maple Canyon is possibly the best rock climbing canyon in the world, which is why Ray had been so anxious to go there. The walls of the canyon appear to be huge piles of rock that someone has poured cement into to hold the rocks in place, creating contoured walls great for climbing.

It is called Maple Canyon for the obvious reason -

Tons of Maple trees all over,
making a beautiful green contrast to the rock.

Our campground was deep in the trees,

providing great shade and plenty of places for the kids to explore.

M, E, and J, trying out the best climbing in the world!

My favorite thing about Family vacations - kids playing happily together!

And, sometimes posing happily together. SMILE!!!

Sometimes, the only way to keep them from posing is to make sure they don't see the camera...

Sister Miller, with S, J, M

We sat around the camp site for a good hour before setting off to find them. We found them driving down the road towards us right as we left the campground. We got camp set up, and started the fire to cook dinner. The kids loved helping dad with the fire!

The men took the kids out to explore more while the dutch oven dinner and dessert were cooking. We had yummy chicken and stuffing, and peach cobbler. The kids loved the S'Mores!

The S'Mores were a big hit, especially with J.

To watch him cook them, he was more excited to be able to stick something in the fire without dad stopping him than he was to eat what he burned - though eat he did.

J was very excited for his new Lightening McQueen camping chair

Here, you see displayed the correct way to make S'Mores,

or in other words, MY way

Put the chocolate on graham crackers near enough to the fire that once you are done roasting your marshmallow, the chocolate is melted and ready to smear all over your melted delight!

I must admit, I did not partake on this trip. The peach cobbler was much too yummy, and I was full.

M, showing off her head lamp.

E, sitting back and enjoying the fruits of her labor.

Off  to bed we went, at 9:30! Only to get out of bed a few minutes later to vacate the tent so J would settle down and go to sleep; we hadn't looked at the stars yet, either. :)



The next morning after breakfast, we were getting ready to go hiking. Everyone had their walking sticks, and S & J were marching up and down the road chanting "Lets go hiking! Lets go hiking!"

Ray and Bishop were discussing whether we were going to climb up a fifteen foot wall to see a cave during our hike. If we did, we would have to carry all of Ray's rock climbing gear with us along the trail. I spoke up that I would prefer not to do the climb with the kids, and I would like Ray to be able to help when J needed to be carried along the trail. As men can often do, my opinion was disregarded out of hand. : | I did get Ray to pack granola bars and trail mix. (Do you have a sense of foreboding yet?)

Dad gave a lesson in walking stick etiquette to the kids before we left.

 J disregarded everything Dad said, even while the words were coming out of his mouth.

We found our trail head, and off we went. Maple Canyon is a narrow canyon, so we had rock walls close on both sides of us, with green trees shading our way. It was a beautiful day for a walk in the woods.

I love pictures of my little ones walking beside their dad.

Here are my sweet ones, showing off all their learned about walking sticks from Dad.

J is very proud of his walking stick. During the day, I would ask if I could carry it for him.

He would say "no, I yub my tick."

Except for a few short moments, he carried it up and down the mountain.

This was J's second favorite way to travel

This was his favorite position when not walking -

notice the stick in my face!

After we saw our first item of interest, the arch, we sat down for a snack.

We had been walking for quite a while, and we were getting a bit tired.

Though he was close a few times, J never did actually fall asleep.

We know now that just before this picture was taken, we missed a turn. We were only supposed to travel .5 miles further to get to the Overlook, which was our half-way point. We missed the turn off to the overlook, and continued on up the mountain. It was steep, it was hot, we ran out of trees for shade... but we pushed on, well past .5 miles. At one point Ray and I mentioned to each other that the trail wasn't traveled very much, as there were little plants growing in the path.

We made it up to a road. We walked down one direction... it stretched out along the top of the mountain as far as we could see. We turned around and went the other direction for a mile... we could see a road at the bottom of the mountain, but there was no guarantee that it was the same road. Ray and Bishop were discussing our options, and I didn't quite trust the facts they were assuming. I finally spoke up at a point we had stopped at and said, "Can we just admit that we are lost?" As they talked on, I sat down, and E came and sat next to me. Soon, she looked up at me and said, "Mom, I'm scared. Can't we just go back the way we came?" and started to cry. Ray said that it was my fault for freaking her out with my blunt statement... but I was getting a bit freaked out at that time myself. I tried to calm E down while waiting for a decision to be made about where me and my kids would be walking next. I am NOT good at giving my power of choice over into the hands of others without at least feeling like I have a say in the matter.

The discussion continued, with me calling into question some of the assumptions being made - that the road we were on would lead us back to the campground being the main one that I didn't trust. Bishop wanted to continue on the road, and have Ray run ahead of us, get the truck, and come back to meet us. I could see many ways that would go wrong, not including the fact of running my husband haggard and leaving me as the main able-bodied person to take care of the four kids.

As we were talking, I was praying for direction. The answer to my, and E's and everyone's, came in the form of a white jeep that drove over the hill in the distance towards us. They stopped, and while there was no room in the jeep for anyone, they were able to tell us exactly where the road we were on would take us were we to continue walking on the road. Over to the next canyon if we went the way Bishop had suggested, or eventually back to Maple canyon, though it was a long walk. It was suggested cutting off the path to make it down to the road we could see down the hill... but I was never going to agree to asking J and the other kids to walk through the brush and trees into unknown ground.

Finally, we decided it was best to just go back the way we had come up. The kids were hungry - it was 1:45 at this time - and our water was running low. We walked back along the road, found the path, and quickly and quietly without much talking made our way back down. Once, S fell down. He was crying, but he stood back up and started walked. Ray asked him if he was okay, and he said no. Ray asked him if he needed to stop, and he said no and just continued walking. The kids wanted off the mountain, and knew the only way to do it was to just keep going. I am so proud of my little ones for not just sitting down and giving up. I was sorely tempted to do so a few times down the mountain, and I'm supposedly more mature! S did mention a few times that he was hungry, and said that 'his feet were getting soft.' E was a little energizer bunny, traveling happily and quickly everywhere she needed to go. Her skinny body and long legs helped, I'm sure! M wasn't ever very far behind her.

The amazing one was little J. We had carried him at least half way up the mountain. He walked 9 tenths of the way back down. Granted, downhill is easier to walk than uphill. He just seemed to get his wind, and even when I asked him to let me carry him (so we could travel a bit faster), he refused, trudging along at a 2-year-olds pace. He would hold my hand on the really steep parts to keep from slipping, but once he judged he was safe he would let go and tell me, "I no hold your hand anymore." A few times, after a hard part, he would whoop and say, "We made it, Mom!" Judging by how I felt at the end of the trail, it is a very good thing he walked down, because if I had had to carry him... my body would probably have failed to make it all the way down. The last five minutes of walking my back was starting to complain with every step, which would have happened sooner had I had 30 more pounds on it while I walked crouched over to keep him on. Though, I know that however it had to happen, we would have made it down - I know that because I trust my husband, and I trust the Lord.

We estimated that we hiked about 10 miles that day. What was supposed to be a two hour loop turned into a six hour long hike up and down a mountain, with about 1500 feet in elevation changes. This was based of of Bishop Miller's GPS coordinates of 4 miles from camp as a crow flies at our furthest point away, and estimating the extra two miles of switchbacks we traveled.

We have no more pictures. The fun ended, and it was all we could do to just make it back to camp. We had lunch, packed up camp, and went home. While it was not what we had planned, I'll always remember my kids working so hard without complaint - and remember the peace that I felt. My typical response to this situation would be to get snappy with everyone, have no patience, and be a grouch until I felt back in control. I wasn't even holding onto my temper - my temper was not in evidence, for most of the hike. I am glad for the evidence of my growth, at least for the afternoon. :)

It served its main purpose. I can guarantee that every youth group that travels that trail will be warned exactly where we went wrong, and the consequences of taking the wrong path. So, in three weeks, we shouldn't have a pack of lost teenagers wandering the mountain - because we had a pack of lost adults and children do it for them. :) I was concerned because we were supposed to check out of our campsite at 1:00, and we didn't get back until at least 3. No one was there waiting for us. When we finally pulled out at 4:30, we were still safe from overstaying our reservation. The sign on the campsite hadn't even been changed from our name. That had been one of my main concerns while hiking down the mountain - but I knew that we were on the Lord's errand, and He would take care of the things that didn't need to go wrong.

I asked the kids what their favorite part of the day was, as I thought I knew their least favorite part. E said she liked having the Millers along, M couldn't think of one, and S looked at me and said, "My favorite part was going to the top of the mountain, even higher than the overlook, and seeing all that we could see."