An Adventure with Water

Well, we had quite the adventure with this last camping trip.  We packed up and got settled in our camping spot after a quick game of "musical campsites" with the campground hosts.  When we got to the site they gave us, someone was parked there, but we couldn't find anyone in the area, so they gave us another site, but someone was there picnicking.  They gave us another site and as we were parking, the car that was in the first site pulled out, so we moved back to the original site.  Phew! It was worth the hassle, though, as site 16 in Tanner's Flat is really nice. 

We were going to go to a water cleanup project in the canyon but I just couldn't drag us away from the relaxation going on, so I cancelled the plans and we did our own little version of water cleanup in the water next to our campsite. 

 My brother Dan came up after he got off of work on Sunday night.  We had dinner, explored the area and played some games. We got the fire started and roasted marshmallows and played MadLibs.  It isn't a camping trip without playing MadLibs! 

Monday morning we went on a hike to "Cecret Lake".  The original owner of the land used the "c" instead of the "s" for secret and it stayed that way.  It isn't much of a secret anymore, though.  The parking lot was packed!

I need to back up to explain what happened before we started the hike.  Paul fell in the water up to his waist first thing in the morning, so he put on his spare shoes to go on the hike.  He went down to the water to tell everyone that it was time to leave for the hike and he fell in the water again, soaking his second pair of shoes.  He was really upset and wanted to stay behind while we went on the hike.  I told him that I couldn't let him stay here by himself so I would stay here and Dan would take Mark and Seth on a hike.  He didn't like that option, so he decided to wear his flip-flops on the hike.  By the time we got up to the trailhead (about 15 minutes up the canyon from our camp) he was in good spirits and ready to tackle the hike.   

 The water levels are so low- it is really quite sad.  The lake is really low but it allowed for more places to explore.  The boys found some salamanders and had fun following them around. 

Paul stepped into some mud and when he pulled his foot out, his flip-flop broke.  The part that goes between your toes popped out.  He was able to put it back in, but it came out every few minutes. 

Me and Dan

 After we played around the lake for a while, we headed back down the trail.  Paul was really frustrated with his shoes, but he didn't complain about it.  I felt awful that I couldn't do anything to help him.  We tried using some long grass to hold the plug in, but it didn't work.   About 5 minutes down the trail the two plugs on the side of his flip-flop came out.  The poor guy just couldn't catch a break! He'd have to stop every minute or two to fix one of the three plugs- and at times he had to put all three back in!  He finally decided to go at it barefoot.

It was at this point of the hike that things got interesting.  The weather had been cloudy and overcast but suddenly the clouds combined and we had lightning and thunder.  The thunder was so deep and loud that I could feel it shake me.  The rain came down in a hurry.  The raindrops were big and super cold.  One landed on my shoulder and it had little splashes of ice.  We were about 10 minutes away from the car, so we ran as fast as Paul was comfortable with and made it to the car rather wet.  I gave Paul my hat to wear, so I was soaked.  My hair was super wet and I was cold. 



 We made it back to our camp and set our things out to dry.  Dan left to go home a bit after we got back.  My hair and clothes had just dried off when I realized that the storm had followed us and we were in for another rainstorm.  I put all of the things away that were out to dry, put the firewood in the van, lowered the shade tent over the table to keep some of our things dry and we went into our tents to wait out the storm.  The rain came down fast and hard like it did earlier.  Seth and I played UNO and read books.  About 45 minutes into the storm, Mark came into our tent.  (Mark and Paul have their own pup tents and Seth and I share a larger tent) I asked him if his tent was dry and he said that he had a small leak in the corner, kind of like the leak in my tent.  What?  I have a leak?  Yep I sure did!  The tent had leaked all around the perimeter- anywhere there was a seam on the bottom, I could see little drops of water dripping out.  I had already moved everything to the center of the tent so that we wouldn't touch anything, so nothing got wet, but I had quite a few puddles to mop up. 

That was when I first considered going home.  I thought we'd just put most of our things in the van, go home and then come back up in the morning to take the tents down.  I was wet, I was cold and my happy camper mojo was gone.  It was 6 pm and the temperature was down to 60 degrees.  It was only going to get colder and I don't do well in the cold, especially if I start out wet.  I went to the van to get a few more umbrellas.  I sat in there and I started to cry.  I just didn't know if I could pull off a cold, wet night and function the next day.  I felt alone and so worried about my kids and our situation.  Mark came into the van and we talked.  I mentioned that I was thinking about going home.  He wasn't thrilled about the idea, but he was supportive.  The determining factor for me was how wet my tent was- if it was still leaking.  We decided to check out the tent and make a decision to stay or go.  We had to decide soon, as it was starting to get dark and I didn't want to pack up in the dark. 

When we got to the tent we discovered that the center of the tent had leaked all over my bedding.  Decision made- we are going home.  I didn't want to come back up the next day, so we packed up the tents while wet and threw everything in the van.  The boys were real troopers- they helped and we took down the 4 tents, and got everything in the van in about 30 minutes.  The rain had eased so that made packing up easier.  Mark was sweet and held an umbrella over me while I wrestled the tent into the bag. I was already wet, so the rain wasn't really bothering me, but it was a nice reprieve from the rain. 

As we were getting ready to get in the van, the rain stopped and the sun came out.  If my tent hadn't been leaking, we totally would have stayed and waited out that last 30 minutes of the storm and enjoyed the rest of our stay.  Everything was quite muddy, though.  We had big puddles of water everywhere. 

Since the weather had cleared a bit, we went down to the river to see how it had changed with the rainstorm.  It was fun to see how the water had raised a bit- places that were dry now had puddles and some of the logs had moved.  We paused for a group picture and got ready to go.  Paul's shoes were somewhat dry, but I had to tease him and tell him to be careful to not fall in the water.  He said "I've had enough with the water today!". 

My sweet boys

 

How sad are you to be leaving?  Check out the puddles behind them! 

We stopped off at Wendy's for an ice cream on the way home.  This is where we ate dinner the last time we went camping at this campground and had disaster strike (remember this?).  Mark thinks that we should avoid this campground in the future.  I'm not so sure that it is the campground's fault!  It is a beautiful area and we are creating MANY memories there! 

Tuesday morning we pulled all of the camping gear out of the garage and set it up outside to dry.  I had to hose things down because they were really muddy.  I bought some seam sealer for the tent, so once I need to apply that to the tent before our next outing. 

We went over to the middle school so that Paul could find his locker and his classes.  He was overwhelmed, but did a great job finding things.  He didn't want me with him as he explored the school- he said "you won't be here with my on my first day, so I need to find things by myself". True, but ouch.  Jane came with us. She had her backpack with a lunch box and she was excited to go to school! 

Mark got glasses last week.  He sure looks grown up with them on!   

 Wednesday we went on a hike.  We were going to go on Tuesday, but we were all so tired, that we postponed it.  Seth didn't want to come (he had been sick on Tuesday), so it was me, Mark, Paul and Ryan Turley (one of Mark's friends). 

I don't like that the water level is so low- it really worries me.  The one good thing about the low water level is that some hikes are accessible that aren't when the water level is high.  We went on this hike a few weeks ago with Dan and Jane.  Since we didn't have Jane with us we were able to explore a bit higher to a waterfall.  I know that we may not be able to do this hike next year if we get a good snowpack, so we plan on going back on this hike a few more times before it snows.  This trailhead is 30 minutes away from our house. 

Where's Pauldo?  He was wearing camo!

Ryan and Mark

They found a slide!  It really was smooth and they slid down!

I know that this last camping trip was a bit of a disappointment.  I'm glad that we were able to be safe and do what we needed to do.  The laundry is finally done, the gear is stowed away, and I'm already trying to figure out when we will go again.  Being in the mountains is my favorite place to be.

As part of Paul's birthday presents, he got some canvases.  He created this painting yesterday while I took Mark to piano lessons.  I really like it.  He named it "Light and Dark".

Paul is experiencing his first day of middle school today.  I really hope that he has a good time.  Mark and Paul are in the same math class this year, so that should be interesting!