Local veteran hiker takes two girls, ages 9 and 11, to hike Peru's Inca Trail

It was Friday, April 10, when the 11-person group reached the 16,000-foot elevation mark on Rainbow Mountain in Peru.

It was the highest that most of them had ever hiked.

But something about this group was a bit out of the ordinary. It included 9-year-old Avey Woodmansee and 11-year-old Bailey Luvera, the granddaughter and great-niece of 70-year-old Mike Woodmansee, a veteran hiker who was leading the trip.

Before the group reached the 16,000-foot mark, they were told that it's normal for people to throw up at that altitude. But when the girls got there, they weren't sick; they were bored.

It was cloudy, it had started to snow, and to top it off, the group had already hiked 26 miles on the Inca Trail to the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu.

While some in the group, including Avey's parents, Aaron and Nicci Woodmansee, and Avey's grandmother, Liz Colombi, continued hiking to reach 16,500 feet, Mike Woodmansee stayed back with the girls.

He decided, after all the hard work they had put in, that they deserved a reward.

He gave the local guides some money, and the next thing Avey and Bailey knew, they were riding horses back down the mountain.

A FAMILY AFFAIR

Avey began hiking when she was just 3 years old, being carried in a backpack by her dad, Aaron Woodmansee, another lifetime hiker. He grew up hiking with Mike, his dad, in the Cascade mountains, and did his first multiday trip at 9 years old.

Bailey's mom also remembers the occasional family hike from when she was younger. Matthew Luvera, Bailey's dad, has joined the girls and Mike Woodmansee on multiple hikes as well.

Unlike Avey, Bailey had only hiked a handful of times before tackling an 18-mile trek last summer to Stehekin in the North Cascades National Park Service Complex.

Stehekin has long been a frequent destination for the family, with Avey doing her first multiday trip there at 6 years old.

Once Bailey began hiking more consistently, Aaron and Mike Woodmansee would push her and Avey to do longer distances each time, until they weren't getting tired for 10 or more miles.

"It's a lot easier when (Avey) has a companion," Aaron Woodmansee said.

The Stehekin hike brought with it some challenges apart from the distance.

Unlike the Inca Trail, which offers either a consistent uphill or downhill, the terrain was a more constant up-and-down.

At one point, about 16 miles in, Avey slipped, nearly falling off the trail and cutting her leg on a rock. She got up and powered through, with blood dripping down her leg and dirt covering her face, for another two miles until they reached their destination.

"That was kind of the indicator to me that they could have the grit to hike the Inca Trail," Mike Woodmansee said.

From there, planning began for a Machu Picchu trip. By the time winter rolled around, the girls were hiking in the Chuckanut hills every Sunday to train.

THE INCA TRAIL

The bulk of the trip involved the 26-mile trek to Machu Picchu, which the group tackled over four days. The trail was steep, unstable and narrow in many places. The rough conditions surprised even Mike Woodmansee, who has been hiking since he was 17.

"You had to pay attention to every single step," he said.

An added challenge was the elevation. When the group landed in Cusco, Peru, they were already at 11,000 feet. Coming from sea level in Mount Vernon to an elevation slightly higher than Mount Baker was a dramatic shift.

For Avey and Bailey, stepping off the plane in Cusco almost doubled the highest elevation they had ever climbed. Luckily, the worst of it for them was some mild dizziness and nausea.

From there, the group had only a day and a half before starting the Inca Trail.

"They know in their own minds there isn't any quitting," Mike Woodmansee said. "So there's no point in making a big deal out of something, or lagging behind or crying, because when they're all done having a meltdown, well, we still got four miles to walk."

This mindset came in handy on the second day of their trek to Machu Picchu. They woke up in their camp at 10,000 feet at 4 a.m. to rain pouring down outside their tents.

Donning ponchos, which proved to be uncomfortable trail attire, the group set off to tackle the highest elevation they would reach on the Inca Trail - 13,800 feet at Dead Woman's Pass, which the older hikers jokingly renamed "Dead Children's Pass."

That day, the trail brought with it a combined elevation gain of about 10,000 feet.

Although the "Dead Children" joke was far from amusing for Avey and Bailey, it was one of the many ways Mike Woodmansee and the others worked to keep the experience exciting and take the girls' minds off some of the more strenuous parts of the trail.

Mike Woodmansee has somewhat of an expertise in this area from taking his kids on long and strenuous hiking trips when they were young.

Over the years, he's learned that bribes come in handy. Promising ice cream or another treat to a young hiker in exchange for a complaint-free trip can go a long way.

After the horses took the girls down Rainbow Mountain, the group stopped at a store where the girls got to pick out a soda, chips and a candy.

On the Inca Trail, old-fashioned encouragement was a necessity. Pointing out how much elevation the group had gained in a single day was a surefire way to keep spirits up.

Possibly the biggest motivator, though, was keeping the goal of ultimately seeing Machu Picchu at the forefront of the girls' minds. And it worked.

"Right when I saw Machu Picchu, I knew why I came," Bailey said.

Before they could get there, though, the group had to conquer a series of steep, rocky stairs right before reaching the Sun Gate, which at 9,000 feet of elevation serves as the entrance to Machu Picchu.

The stairs are called "gringo killers" because white hikers aren't used to the altitude of the Inca region.

Reaching Machu Picchu through the Sun Gate was one of Mike Woodmansee's motivations for planning the trip. In 2022, he reached Machu Picchu by hiking a different, longer route.

This time, he wanted to arrive the same way the Incas had. Avey and Bailey, on the other hand, wanted a taste of international adventure, and they got it.

AN IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE

"The kids had an entirely different trip than me," Mike Woodmansee said, as the two girls recounted tales of the bugs they saw, bouncing around from one small story to another with their faces lighting up as they remembered something new.

"We were in the same places, but the things they notice and the things that interest them are entirely different," he said.

Mike Woodmansee also pointed out that trips such as these cater more to the adult experience, with a responsibility falling on the kids to adjust accordingly. Despite that, the girls thrived in the places they visited.

Bailey even bartered in a local market for two paintings. They were originally priced at 35 and 40 soles, which equates to roughly $10 and $12, and she got them both for a total of 50 soles, or $15.

Avey's favorite souvenirs include a soft baby alpaca shawl, which she got for $10, and baby alpaca socks.

The new experiences didn't stop there. The girls ate roasted alpaca and guinea pig, which are common high-protein options in the Inca region.

While they both enjoyed the guinea pig, Bailey's experience was slightly tainted by the thought of her pet guinea pig back home.

They also ate lots of potatoes. In that region, about 3,200 potato varieties are grown at a range of elevations.

"The growth, it comes at them from 100 directions," Mike Woodmansee said. "Eating strange foods, sleeping (outside), having to get dressed by a headlamp because you had to be up at 3:20 in the morning, and it's pouring down rain out, so you have to put on your poncho too."

These experiences also came on the trail.

For Avey, this included a female porter taking her hand and walking with her for about 10 minutes. The two were "power walking," as Avey put it, ahead of the group, all the way to their campsite.

Women didn't work as porters, who are local guides who accompany hikers, on the Inca Trail until 2016.

The woman who hiked with Avey was Yadira Huaman Ferro, a native Quechua woman working with Alpaca Expeditions, the company that took the group on its trip.

Mike Woodmansee recalled that she was very proud to be a guide, and they saw her multiple times during their journey on the trail.

The day after Avey walked with Ferro, the group encountered the porter again, this time making sure to get a picture of Avey and her new friend.

CARRYING ON A GENERATIONAL LEGACY

"When Avey was a little girl, Aaron said to me, ‘Dad, I want Avey to have all of the experiences I had growing up,'" Mike Woodmansee said. "As a grandpa, it doesn't get better than that."

Aaron Woodmansee said that growing up hiking with his dad gave him skills to work through adversity that have been valuable to him later in life.

Mike Woodmansee said that seeing Aaron Woodmansee and Avey hike together, with Aaron moving at her pace, took him back to the days when he took Aaron hiking as a child.

For Mike Woodmansee, experiencing these trips with the girls means lasting memories.

"Seeing them flourish means the world," he said.

LOOKING AHEAD

Despite the long plane rides, the girls want to get more use out of their passports. Their next destination will be Paris for five days, where every activity will be reached on foot.

They expect to walk about 10 miles a day, though it won't be as noticeable in such a concentrated city.

Next year will most likely take Mike Woodmansee and the girls to Portugal and Spain for a Camino walk. He has his sights set on the 175-mile Camino Porto route, which takes an average of 10 to 15 days.

Once the girls are a bit older, Mike Woodmansee will begin planning a two- to three-week Himalayan adventure that will take them to 17,000 feet, what he dubs "a true adult-style adventure."

"If there's anybody that I would trust to take them on some sort of excursion, Mike would be the person, no doubt," said Bailey's mom, Bridget Luvera.

While it was difficult for her to have limited contact with her daughter during the trip, Bridget Luvera knew Bailey was in good hands.

Bridget Luvera said that the relationship Bailey has built with her Uncle Mike means a lot to her, and that to be in his circle is to be loved, cared for and encouraged.

When the girls got off the plane in Seattle after their trip, Bridget and Matthew Luvera were waiting at baggage claim to surprise Bailey, who was tearful with excitement to see her parents.

Bridget Luvera said Bailey didn't stop talking about her trip the whole drive home.

BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS ON THE TRAIL

Avey and Bailey are mentoring a younger friend and aspiring hiker, Lowyn Lacey, who is 8 years old. Lowyn has already accompanied them on multiple hikes, and they hope to take her to Stehekin one day.

They do a "hiking school" with her, using numbered rules to teach her how to navigate the trails like them. Rule No. 3 is "stay with the group," and Rule No. 5 is "don't complain."

For these girls, the latter rule is arguably the most important. They want other young hikers to know that when you're on a long trail, your mind is your biggest enemy.

It matters less, they said, what you're feeling physically, and more what you're going to do emotionally to overcome that.

"There were a few moments when I definitely didn't want to be on the hike," Bailey said, reflecting on her experience on the Inca Trail.

"But then there were also moments where I thought, ‘I'm with my family, I'm having a great time, I'm hanging out with my best friend in the whole world."

"Best sister," Avey corrected, and Bailey laughed.

"Yes, best sister in the whole world."

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This story was originally published May 2, 2026 at 7:03 AM.