Tuesday started out early but that was ok. We started a fire and sat around wishing we had brought some hot chocolate! We had a yummy breakfast of pancakes, eggs, bacon and fruit. It was super yummy. We did clean up and then got ready for our first hike.
[During times of cooking or clean up we had the kids take turns strolling Keri around to keep her happy. She LOVED it!!]
We had seen a trail head right outside the camp ground entrance and wanted to get an early start so that it wouldn’t get too hot (since we didn’t know what the weather would be like later in the afternoon). We started on the trail and it was wonderful. Mostly in the shade and mostly flat. It did seem to go in an upward direction, but not too bad. Keri, who was strapped to my back, fell asleep pretty much right away!
[All ready for the hike]
After a good 20 minutes we hit the real “ups”. The trail seemed to go straight up in most places. That was ok, the kids were enjoying it and we pressed on. We did a switch back and kept going up. We asked Alix, who had taken the lead for most of the hike, ‘What’s over that hill’. She looks back and says ‘More trail!’ We just laughed and laughed. About 45 minutes in we took a break and ate granola bars and drank water.
[Our picnic spot]
We went a little farther but the kids were starting to get tired and Keri woke up and so we opted to turn around. Hard for me, I really wanted to get to the trail end. But I figured after more than an hour of going up, the kids had endured enough of my insane love of hiking. So we headed back down.
[See the trail? We took this picture in hopes that when we do that trail again, we’ll get past this spot……think we’ll remember?]
Afton then notifies us that she has to go potty. Scott took care of that one and we all just laughed!
[Need I say more? I think the faces say it all]
The hardest part was getting back down those nearly straight up parts of the trail. The kids did great though and we got back to camp with no injuries.
[Photo op]
As we were coming down Jaime, Alix and I had stopped to wait for the others and were looking at the hill on the other side of the ravine.
Jaime says ‘Look I just saw a deer.’
So Alix and I look. All of a sudden I see the light brown fur
‘Hey I see the dee…..wait, that’s not a deer that’s a mountain lion!’
At that point Scott comes around the bend. ‘Scott, I just saw a mountain lion over there.’
He starts looking ‘Whoa, there it is.’
‘I want to see it’ says Niah.
‘If you hold real still and are really quiet, he might come out again’ I say.
Weird look from Scott ‘Are you crazy?? What are you trying to do lure it over here??’
I guess I wasn’t thinking on that one. We promptly headed back down the trail.
[We took the time to blow up the balls to play with at the lake. Unfortunately, it was WAY too windy.]
We decided to try the lake even though it was pretty chilly. We had just been hiking and were pretty hot so we changed and went for it. The water was pretty cold but once you got used to the water it was warmer to stay in the water than come out of the water.
[The kids all wrapped up to stay warm]
We were there about an hour. Scott stayed out with Keri and the other kids and I splashed and had a good time.
We got back and changed and had dinner and smores and the kids once again begged to go to bed. No complaints there! It was a busy day. I decided to risk Keri getting cold and didn’t put her hood on. She didn’t even move the whole night!!
[Hot Dog face! It’s so fun to camp and just get dirty!!]
Jaime went to bed and Scott went to get ready for bed and I sat watching the fire die. It was finally dead and I figured I should get ready for bed too. I stood up and turned around and something moved. I stayed still trying to let my eyes figure out what was out there. The “thing” finally moved into the moon light and I saw that it was a skunk with it’s tail straight up. I started to slowly back away. At this point I see Scott and I told him there was a skunk. He goes and gets a flash light but we couldn’t find it. As we are scanning camp we look over at our neighbors and there it is, standing right behind them (they were at their table having a late dinner). I yelled over to them that there was a skunk right behind them. They were pretty cool about it. The skunk sniffed around for a few moments before running off across the grassy field. I was so glad I did not get sprayed!!
Wow. Skunks and mountain lions– now THAT’s roughing it! I’ve been camping and hiking so many times and never so much wildlife excitement.
Next year we’re going to feed the skunk to the mountain lion. It’ll be like TV, only in real life.
i heard u guys arnt coming because of milos surgrey i hope you still come milo is in my prayers love ya
love megan