I forget what I was working on Saturday morning*, but in the afternoon it was time for another exploration party.

This is off a dirt road about half an hour from our house. We are inside a federally designated wilderness area, and the old bridge we’re sitting on leads to an abandoned mine near Rock Lake. Sometime within the last decade (I’d guess) a rockslide filled up the gully where this bridge sits. You can see the rocks behind and beneath us, and to Natalie’s right you can see water trickling over the bridge, since under the bridge is filled up with rocks.

Left to right: Dad, Abby (age 7), Emma (13), Katie (age 10, wearing her tee shirt from the Rumpelstiltskin play), Becca (12), Hank the dog, and Natalie (4).

We foolishly tried to get in to a higher lake but were stopped by snow some 2600 vertical feet below it. We hiked in a half-mile on the snow, but I think we’ll give it another month to melt before we try it again. Then we came down lower and tried the trail pictured here, but a hundred feet beyond this bridge we were foiled again, this time by high meltwater. The stream was surprisingly fast and strong; it came tearing down from above like a waterfall, the more startling because no streambed was visible; just a foaming white rage among dark trees. So we came back and took a picture.

Five seconds after this picture was taken, I discovered I had lost my wallet. This is the first time in recorded history (for me, that’s in the last 25 years or so). We looked everywhere a dozen times, praying individually and collectivly to find it, and even plunged our hands into the swirling pools below the bridge, where the meltwater was about 32.0001 degrees. Nothin’. Why does stuff like this happen? I’m not sure, but I’m already working on a new driver’s license, debit cards (We have no Dumb Stupid Credit Cards in our house, since we’re debt free), and a temple recommend. And if you’re ever crossing this bridge, let me know if you find my wallet. There’s no cash in it.

*Oh, it was the treehouse, which Katie and I finished. Here she is peeking out the door.