Another Weekend In The Mountains

Last Friday we loaded up the van and headed back up into the mountains to do some more camping. We liked where we camped a few weeks ago so much that we decided to go a few miles up the road. Actually, the campgrounds were all reserved months ago. We just happened to get lucky in the fact that they were great places to pitch a tent. But I digress…

Camping with friends is always more fun so we went with our friends, John and Dana Rimington and their three daughters. For additional fun points, we also brought along Chelsea and her soon to be husband, Nick. We tried to get my brother, Ryan, to come too but he had to work. Maybe next time… It was really nice spending time with everybody. The kids enjoyed playing with John and Dana’s girls and they loved having Nick and Chelsea along. I know though that if Ryan had been able to make it, he would have been the star of the weekend. The kids love playing with him so much.

For the most part, the camping trip was very relaxing. I say “for the most part” because we had to go gather wood on Saturday. John, Nick, and I ended up knocking down a couple of dead trees. These trees happened to be about forty or fifty feet tall. Because they were so big, we had to cut them into smaller logs. None of us own an axe so we used the next best thing: our hatchets. Let me tell you, cutting a tree using only a hatchet makes for some lovely blisters on your hands. It’s also great exercise but I don’t recommend doing it unless you have to. I’ll be taking an axe with me next time. Guess I better go buy one…

Our camp happened to be right near a point on the Duschene River where a beaver had decided to build a dam. I’m guessing that he did it to help with his trout fishing activities. I’m glad because it helped with ours too. The river was very slow and about 3 1/2 feet deep; it was almost like a small pond. Emma was able to reel in the first of her two fish on our first night on the river. It was only about seven inches long but it put up quite a fight. She was very excited. Her second fish came as we were getting ready to leave on Sunday. It was a bit small and I thought that we should release it but she was so proud of herself that we couldn’t let it go. On our second night, I caught an 11 inch long fish that actually jumped about four feet out of the water as I was reeling it in. It was quite a rush to see the fish jump that high in the air in a failed escape attempt.

One thing that I love about camping is the food. We always bring the camping staples: marshmallows, s’mores, and marshmallows. We’ve become quite the fans of Dutch oven cooking too. Over the course of the weekend, we had chicken and rice, pot roast, chocolate cake, and cherry crisp. I also did a breakfast consisting of hash browns, eggs, sausage, and biscuits. For lunch on Sunday, we cooked our seven fish in the fire. They were very tasty. It’s funny because I look forward to being able to cook in my Dutch oven almost as much as I look forward to fishing when we camp. (I know that I can cook at home but it’s just not the same.) Dutch oven cooking and freshly caught fish makes for an excellent weekend.

Next weekend we have another small camping trip planned. It’ll be at the same place that I took Alex earlier in the year. I’m looking forward to not having to deal with a lot of the logistics that come with taking five, seven, or twelve people into the mountains for three days. If anything noteworthy happens, I’ll be sure to post it here.