Two Tales of One Weekend...Part 2

So. While Noah and I were enjoying our weekend, Nathan, Asher and Micah were off on their first backpack camping adventure. They left early Saturday morning amid a few tears and trepidation. (In the days leading up to this, it suddenly dawned on Micah that this trip meant spending the night away from me and he wasn't happy about it. Can't be upset with such a sweet sentiment and couldn't completely convince him that his daddy would work, lol.)

(The following is pieced together from their accounts...) They reached their trailhead without incident and set out. They made it about a mile before Micah declared he couldn't carry his pack any further, and Nathan ended up carrying it strapped to his front for the rest of the time. (Fortunately, the pack wasn't heavy...just not the right size for Micah.) They proceeded to hike in about 9.5 miles (according to Micah, which was corroborated by Nathan). Along the way they skipped some stones, got bitten by mosquitoes and saw wild turkeys and a snake. :)

 
 

Having gone past the established campsites in the hopes of finding a more solitary one only to realize that wasn't going to work, they then backtracked to find a campsite. At this point, they were beat and just wanted to set up camp (and most of the sites were full) so shared a site with a couple of fly-fishermen. 

After setting up the tent and dropping their packs, they went nearby to get water to purify. On the walk back from that, the skies opened up and drenched them. Hurrying back to the tent, the boys grabbed their rain gear and an umbrella and huddled under a tree with their packs while Nathan moved the tent (and all its contents) uphill. Did I mention that the site was in a depression? Yeah. Here's what it looked like after Nathan moved the tent:

So. Nathan then got them in the tent and into dry clothes and they all bundled into their sleeping bags to get warm and wait out the storm...for a couple hours. At this point, I'm told, they simply lay there and waited; they didn't play any of the games they'd brought, as they just wanted to get warm and rest. Finally, around 9-9:30ish, Nathan ventured just outside the tent to make dinner on the little camp stove. (The boys say it was still drizzling at this point, so they stayed in the tent.) Then they went to sleep.

The next morning, they made breakfast and chatted a bit with their neighbors before packing up and getting on their way. The boys tell me that they made good time and were in a hurry, as they wanted to get home and were mostly out of food. ;)

And they pulled into the driveway a bit after 4pm on Sunday. ;) We got everyone inside and unpacked and bathed and then did dinner.

To be honest, they were all kinda miserable when they got home. :( But. Now that there's been a bit of distance from it all, Nathan thinks it was a good learning experience and hopes the boys will join him again. Asher says he'd be game but would pick a weekend without rain. Micah says the hike needed to be shorter, the trip needed to be drier and I needed to come. ;)  

Comments

[nan]

Is that a wild turkey in the picture of the tent depression? upper left?

Kudos to the hardy boys!