Goodwin Lake

 I was really, really needing a hike today.  Last weekend was Sully's birthday party, and then we had visitors and meetings  and  only managed to get in one (albeit really good) hike from the first half of Josie's Ridge to Sink or Swim (the steep West/East way!). So today I was really ready to get out there.  When trying to settle on a hike yesterday, Mike shot down a coupe and then, when I suggested Goodwin Lake,  he said: "Is that the one up that crazy hill out on the Elk Refuge?" with a devious and hopeful grin on his face.  Yes it is, and I knew we had a winner.  

Sully enjoy the bumpy, crazy road.  The blur was unavoidable. 

 The road to the Goodwin Lake trailhead is one of the more harrowing experiences of Jackson Hole. (for the type of people who don't do any of the wide assortment of extreme activities that is).  I recall fighting off a good old fashioned panic attack the first time I was driven up there for a camping trip in 1996.  

Goodwin is a glacial run-off lake at an elevation of 9500 feet.  The Valley itself is at about 6,200 so we are taking about a 3,300 gain.  1,500 is the hike from the trailhead to the lake but the large remaining chunk consists of this single lane, water eroded, rutted, washboard road with no shoulder, or guardrails and 90 degree turns up teenly litte switchbacks and a sheer drop off the side of a very pretty and terribly steep mountainside. This is the kind of road my husband gets giddy to ride on

I figured it would be sort of looney tunes up in the Park this weekend, with all of the visitors in town for the holiday (How the hell is it the 4th of July already???).  So I was pretty eager to do what I figured would be a less sought after hike.  But since I had not hiked this trail in maybe 13 years(?)  I had no idea how popular it was! Lots of local plates, lots of dogs (ugh, dogs!).  I had also forgotten how steep it was,  but we are doing our dandiest to not let steepness deter us, within reason considering we are both dragging and lugging wee children up these things! 

So away we went, with us doing our best to keep big man motivated...There's a lake!  We'll play on the beach!  And he made it up just fine except for one minor injury, was quickly mended thanks to the fact that I finally remember to pack the damn first aide kit!! Also, I realized today that annoying cartoon character bandaids are critical in these instances to convince him to continue on after the injury.

Back Country Triage!

Sully has the best hiker legs.

This is kind of the close to the lake,  Its a really narrow path on the side of a really steep hill.  Mike is holding on to his pack to be sure he doesn't do anything crazy, like fall off a mountain. 

 So being that its at a higher elevation, there was still plenty of snow to be found.  Sul took full advantage, filling his hat with snow to cool him.  (5 year old hiking savant that he is) and then later making a snow angel on the last day of June.

 

The last haul gets a little bumpy.  Sully, on the way down said he liked this kind of hiking because it was "harder" and more fun (than a dirt trail).

So, there is still snow up there.  And there was a large bank of snow on the shore of the lake, right near where we decided to rest and play.  So I thought it would be a nifty idea to jump in the lake,  swim out a bit and have Mike snap a shot of me with the snowbanks in the back.  Easy right?  Except that it was so cold that I'm pretty sure I would have hurt myself if I had done it!  I sat in the water,  waiting patiently to get used to the temperature. I tried, I really did but I just couldn't make the plunge.  Mike was kind enough to photograph the attempt anyway.  

 

Shrew this, I'm out of here.

And then a number of random pictures, many of which are like other pictures from other hikes ,  but I just can't help posting them because these boys are so damn gorgeous.

He is being a zombie, chasing us up the steep incline. 

This is the kind of thing that Sully geeks out on in the forrest.  Lumberjack genes run deep. 

This kid can't eat neatly.  

Eli has decided to have personality in the last few days,  turns out he's pretty goofy. 

 Some pretty cool action shots of Sully bouncing around on the rocks by the lake.  

He eventually waded in pretty far,  I think he forgot how cold it was for a bit

 Eli desperately wanted to practice walking,  He's climbing anything to try. 

6 miles, 3 of them uphill and still a handsome kid. 

June 21

June 21, 2007

Sully was born on the summer solstice.  The longest day of the year, and it was in fact the longest day of our lives.  I remember driving into town from our place in Teton Village, the sun setting behind us as we crossed the river and wondering if he would be born on this first day of summer or early in the morning the next day.  Little did I know that he would be born within minutes of our arrival at the hospital and that his birth was going to involve life flights and a three week NICU stay in Utah.  Such was our crash course into the terror and joys of parenting.  The picture above was the first time I saw Sully,  I had been unconscious for his birth and unsure of his fate when I came to in the ICU.  By the time this little reunion took place I was only able to touch his little hand and his right knee, everything else was strapped down and wired up.  Moments later he was wisked away to another state where I would have to wait a day and a half to see him again.  Mike and I had to wait a full week before we could hold him for about 5 minutes at a time.

What we learned in those first frightening moments, and the subsequent recovery period was that Sully was a fighter of the fiercest regard.  A force of nature who simply will not be denied his opportunity to do what he sets out to do.  He still is.

June 21, 2008

One year later and the only residual effects of his health scare was a dreadful sleep pattern caused by months and months of sleeping with a never silent oxygen saturation monitor and an oxygen canula stuffed up his tiny nose.  By the age of one, Sully was a walking pro and was talking up a storm in his own little language. (Dee Doo!  Brava!).  A year into this thing Sully was cracking us up on a nearly constant basis.  Easy going and full of hilarity Sully could charm the pants off the grumpiest of people. (And this period encompassed our brief foray living in NYC where the professional grumps live).

June 21, 2009

The terrible twos were pretty terrific.  Sully was still extremely easy going and hysterical to be around.  This was the age of catch phrases that would put any child sitcom star of the 80's to absolute shame (Whoa Momma! , Awww Nuts! and of course: Hippopotamus Quesadilla)  during this year we began to get a grasp of the never ending reserves of energy this kid was storing deep within his tiny little body.  On a road trip around the South West that summer we started to get a sense of what an outdoorsman we seemed to have been given charge of.  And then there were the trains.  Oh good grief you mommies of baby boys out there!  Be weary of the trains! They are a ploy to turn your tiny man into a vapid member of the consumer society!

June 21, 2010

The age of trains continued and nearly consumed us all! Most of our free time was spent in the pursuit of the perfect track.  It was also during this time that our dodging of the terrible twos seemed to catch up with us and we suddenly found Sully not so easy going after all.  Enrolling his eager little mind in preschool a year earlier than we had planned helped. His brain needed more diverse learning and he was craving social interactions with his peers. This was the age of the budding comedian with gems like: "That toilet looks thirsty, I think I'll give it a drink" and of course his infamous pickle bit.

 

June 21, 2011

Ah the frustrating fours!  This is the age they should warn new parents about.  Having assumed that we were amazing parents by navigating the twos and even the threes with relative ease we were abundantly under prepared for the mayhem of the fours!  This was the age of trying new things and getting extremely frustrated when they did not go exactly as he wanted them too.   All of the meltdowns and tantrums that we did not experience in his teeny tiny years seemed to have been held in reserve for this year and we found ourselves scratching our heads and failing epically in our attempts to reason with him.  Still, this was the age of amazing leeps, no longer completely obsessed with trains, we now seem to have a future civil engineer on our hands.  Bridges that span the kitchen counters, lego masterpieces that make us wonder if he has an actual engineer living under his bed helping him and creatures made of tinker toys and kinex, and whatever other trinket or thing he can incorporate have become a common occurrence.  As hard as he works his little brain in the pursuit of the perfect robot/bridge/rocket ship he works his body just as hard.  There is no rock or boulder Sully will not climb and no trail he doesn't want to explore.  This was the year he first climbed the King after begging to climb it all summer long.  More recently Sully has spent every weekend hiking the trails of Grand Teton and many weeknights running around on the trail system of Snow King.  As much as we try to tire him out with these escapades, we usually only succeed in wearing ourselves out, never-the-less, seeing the way he uses the outdoors so comfortably is something that brings us much pride and joy.

June 21, 2012

Which brings us to today.  Sully at the ripe old age of 5.   What a half a decade!  We're looking forward to the challenges and triumphs of the next year as he takes on Kindergarten and who knows what else!

Father's Day 2012

Today may have been the closest thing to perfection we've had in a while.  Mike let me sleep in to the unbelievably late hour of 9 AM!!!! We had a delicious fruit pancake bonanza,  a delightful hike on Sink or Swim and then home to drink beer and make pirate ships on the deck.

Then, just when we thought the day couldn't get any better?  Eli decided to FINALLY start crawling!  (Sort of, its more of a dragging his body across the floor with his arms, but he's getting from point A to B!)