No trip to Cokeville would be complete without a trip to Pine Creek. This was my parent's answer to a vacation...one or two nights in the tent or camper, a hike into the woods looking for the Oregon Trail and wading in the freezing cold creek. I took Eden and Madison out to inflict the same sort of "vacation" on them only we went for just a couple of hours instead of a couple days.
My photos look happy and chipper, but we had a few frowns along the way. My desire for a hike was met with the same resistance I'm sure I gave my parents years ago. I can make Eden come along, she is still young enough to do as mommy says, but not so much with a willful teenage niece.
Our trip down the creek turned sour when the girls found their feet numb, but also at a really bad place for getting out of the creek. It turned from bad to worse when my niece lost her shoe to a muddy black hole. Neither girl was willing to put her hand into the gue to retrieve the shoe; Eden because it wasn't her shoe and Madison because Eden was "closer." As the girls balanced on rocks their crying turned into dramatic displays of helplessness as they screamed for me to come get them.
Mind you, they were in no real danger--the water, while cold, was a foot deep at the most, but exasperated and cold they did not want to walk back up stream. They wanted out of the creek and wanted me to come get them. Only problem was, the 15 feet between me and them was laden with stinging nettle and a 5 foot shale slope. But, as the drama became a little more dramatic I knew I had to go fish them out of the creek, so down the slope I went hanging on to bush branches to slow my slide.
I was able to flatten a path that almost reached the girls, then with a long stick I reached out towards Eden who just needed that little bit of comfort to come out of the creek. It was pretty comical when it came time for me to help the girls up the slope. It wasn't that it was so tall, but the slippery shale was almost vertical with very little to grab onto. Imagine me pushing from below as the girls struggled to keep their footing by grabbing onto patches of weeds.
It was a somber ride home. What started out as a fun picnic ended with a lost shoe and two very cranky girls that even a drink from the Flying J couldn't fix. Oh well. By the time I am in Wyoming again the day will be forgotten and I'll suggest another Pine Creek outing.
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