Punch Bowls Hike

On Saturday, our family went on a hike to the Punch Bowls in Santa Paula.  It ended up being about 3 miles each way, with about a third of that over very rocky terrain and involving a few creek crossings.  I suppose it would be a stretch to say we were climbing every mountain and fording every stream, but there were definitely times we thought of the von Trapps.  We had hoped the swimming up there would be a little warmer, but we still had a lot of fun wading and climbing.

I was so proud of the girls--Emily and Charlotte both hiked every step of the way (except for a few boosts over large rocks and crossing water).  Rachel walked probably about 75% of the way, and would have walked more if the rest of the family would have been more content to watch ants crawl around, look at all sorts of pretty flowers, crawl like a cat, etc.  The whole hike took about 7 hours, with a little less than an hour at the swimming hole at the top.  I'm roughly 8 times their average age, so if we quadruple the distance and double their speed to compensate, the hike works out to the equivalent of me running a 3-hour marathon over rough terrain!  The promise of an unshared shake to anyone who didn't need to be carried was definitely worth the price.  Seeing how everyone handled the hike made me a lot more excited about our upcoming Yosemite trip.

One of the times Rachel was being carried

Charlotte and Emily being "famous mountain climbers"

Freezing our feet at the first Punch Bowl.  It's the same waterfall in the picture below (where it looks more impressive)

The top of the waterfall with Daniel.  Getting there involved some deep wading (as you can see from my shorts) and a short descent with a rope ladder.  Sometimes you need a teenage boy to get you out of your comfort zone (which in my case, turned out to be a good thing)