Cooper's First 17 Miler

This hike was incredible and miraculous to me for a few reasons:

• Cooper did it at 4 1/2 years old!

• My Mom did it! (on her 53rd Birthday... yay Mom!)

• I did it! (6 weeks pregnant!)

• Jesse did it! (this was his first time on this hike, he was a champ and carried other people's packs a good deal of the time)

• There were possibly armed and dangerous men all over that mountain and we weren't mugged, taken hostage or threatened in any way... more on that later.

For this hike we start in Grass Valley and hike up to Mill Flat (Day 1: 5 miles), then we hike from Mill up to the Browse overlook and down to Whipple Valley (Day 2: 5 miles), The last day we hike down Whipple to the Pine Valley Campgrounds (Day 3: 7 miles). So for now, here are some pics taken on our miraculous hike:

At the Trail head, packs on, ready to go!

A few miles in, Sara found raspberry bushes, she picked enough to cover the bottom of her cup and at for dessert that night we put them on Mom's birthday cheesecake:
The first day we hiked 5 miles from Grass Valley to Mill Flat, but it was nice to be done for the day!
I was just glad to take off my pack:
I brought freeze dried blueberry cheesecake for Mom's birthday cake and we sang, I even remembered to bring 1 little pink candle to stick in it for her! ( it was worth the extra .01 oz of weight!)
Sara packed up Monopoly Deal (our new favorite game) just so we could play a few games:
Cooper burned 3 fingers on the fire... I think he has a healthy respect for campfires now:
The 2nd day we hiked up to this outlook over Browse... breathtaking as always!
MandaSara at the outlook:
Jesse strapped on my mom's pack for the last 3 miles of the 2nd day. When he would put Cooper on his shoulders for a few miles he was carrying about 105 pounds! Woot Woot!
Mom Made it to the lookout too!
Mom hiking through North Valley:
Eating dinner in Whipple Valley:
Ready to go on the last day:
Every time Cooper stopped for snacks he had to take his cow out first:
Jesse: "I think I can see Pine Valley from here!"
Me: "I think I can see Central!"
Cooper: "I can almost see Jesus!"
All done! So after we finished the hike I saw a mexican dressed in work clothes just looking into the bushes, when we got home we saw in the paper that there had been a huge marajuana sting on the mountain while we were hiking and there had been gunfire as the police had apprehended 5 suspects. SCARY! Anyway... none of us got hurt and we all had a good time. Jesse can't wait to do it again with Leila :)