Ashdown Gorge with Kennis and Tasia

I was a little worried it would be too cold and the water too high.  It was pretty cold starting out and the water was high, but it was still great once we got going!  This is one of our all time favorite hikes and we love to share it with people we love.  This year we took Kennis and Tasia here for their Christmas edventure date.  Kennis felt a little sick right as we began, but with some snacks she pulled right out of it.  We lunched at Flanigan Arch and then moved on to make it to Tom's Head and then on to the waterfalls.  It was a perfect weather day for this hike.  We did some cooling off in a couple of the deeper pools on the way back and it felt really good to be wet when we were back out in the full sun for the end of the hike.  We decided to take Lance's quick but steep accent trail to the top to shorten the walk back.  Surprisingly it wasn't in bad shape after the wet, snowy winter and we were glad we shaved off just that little bit that it saves when you are tired and ready to be done.  Then we broke tradition and treated ourselves to crepes at Park Place instead of cones at Arctic Circle.  They were SO good!  We did have a little trouble on the hike.  Paul decided to take what he thought would be a little short cut around a rock/through some thick/brushy trees on one part of the trail.  It ended up not being what he thought, so he had to backtrack and in the process the trees knocked off his glasses.  He didn't notice it for a few minutes, and then it hit him that things were a little blurry.  We went back and searched and searched...Kennis said our prayer.  And still we could not find them.  So we continued on.  On the way back, I admit I thought it would do no good, but we stopped again at the spot to look...and just as we were about to give up, there they were right where we had walked over them lots of times.  They were a little bent up, but bent back into shape.  One of the nose guards had fallen off, but Paul saw it and Tasia was able to put it back on for him.  So then Tasia said our thank you prayer.  It ended up being a sweet little reminder to pray with faith, do your part, and expect answers.  So glad we could share this beautiful place and day with these girls.  Oh, we didn't turn on the GPS, but the phones and watches seemed to agree on about 9.2 miles.  

Flanigan Arch and Tom's Head in backgrounds.