Camping Success!

Last year on Labor Day weekend, we tried to go camping to Shafer Butte.  Here is the post I never published about that experience.

Sept. 3, 2011.  Camping Fail

Our kids decided that we hadn't done any "real" camping this year because we never had a fire lit or cooked s'mores. They refused to acknowledge the fact that we spent more nights in sleeping bags in July than in beds. So we planned a camping trip for this weekend. We made a reservation for Shafer Butte, which is 18 miles up the road from downtown Boise, a 1 hour drive from our house.

Unfortunately, we didn't get to camp overnight, but we learned valuable lessons, like:

Firewood is necessary to build a fire.
It is cool in the mountains when the valley is hot, so Leo needs a jacket.
Moms need to be able to see. It's not an option to forget glasses and contact lens solution.
Packing for a camping excursion must be done before it's time to leave.
Children need to help their parents pack.

I didn't want to repeat the experience. at. all. All week, Ryan kept mentioning that he'd like to take the family camping, but I didn't really think he was serious.  I sure wasn't.  I am not getting comfortable sleep on my own bed, so why would I like to try to get some sleep in a tent?

Well, Friday morning, he was bound and determined and I found it was futile to resist, so I spent the day working to get ready.  I knew our neighbors were going camping on Friday night, so I asked if we could join their family. (Already better than last year, when you camp with others, what you forget, they most likely have.)

Sabrina had a tennis match, so we couldn't leave until 6:30pm.  We arrived at Ten Mile campground (9 miles beyond Idaho City on Highway 21) about an hour later.  The fire was already going (another perk of going with another family!), so the hot dogs cooked up quickly and we ate.  The kids did some exploring at the nearby creek.  We set up the tent, ate s'mores and JiffyPop, sat around the campfire enjoying the beautiful scenery and talking with the other two families that were sharing our group site.  I slept terribly.  There was a cool rainstorm in the middle of the night that woke us up, although we all stayed quiet so we didn't know others were awake until the morning.

Leo loved sleeping in the tent.  And playing in it while I cleaned up the sleeping pads and bags.  Hyrum loved playing IN the creek.  It was a good thing he had a change of clothes to wear.  Next time I'll have to remember our swim suits and sandals for that campground.  Roderic loved adding wood and pine cones to the fire.  Sabrina wasn't too thrilled about going, she had planned on doing all her homework on Friday night so she wouldn't have to do any the rest of the long weekend.  The s'mores made it worth it.  Next time I need to remember the HOT COCOA for breakfast!

Thank you Egberts and Thorntons for helping me have a positive camping experience so I'll want to do it again with my family!

Infamous Gibby Lake

In the 1950s, Ryan's Dad and brothers took a hike to the Uinta Mountains and found a small, unnamed lake near Grandaddy Lake. They decided that it should be named "Gibby Lake" and before hiking there again, one of the brothers created a wood sign to put there. And so the story goes. Ryan told that story to me and we hiked to this lake in August of 1996, right after we got engaged. There was no sign, was it really the right lake? In August 2003, soon after Baby Xadie died, we went on a family backpacking trip to the same lake. This time, armed with our Canon Digital Elph 2.1 megapixel camera, Ryan took panoramic pictures of the lake in question. When we returned, his dad affirmed that this lake is indeed the infamous Gibby Lake. His mom liked the picture so much, she had it framed for his dad for Christmas, and gave copies of it to all of the Gibby brothers as well.

Gibby Lake, August 2003

Five years have passed, we've added 2 boys to our family, and we planned another backpacking trip to Gibby Lake. In February, when we started making the plans, I surmised that this was going to be the best year to do a backpacking trip because a) Hyrum is still small enough to carry in the backpack; b) Roderic is the same age that Sabrina was the last time we did it, and it wasn't too bad to hike with a 4 year old; c) Ryan loves to go to the same place every 5 or so years; and d) I'm not pregnant.

To prepare for this 4 mile one-way hike, our family has gone on numerous bike rides through our neighborhood (up steep hills, I might add), I've gone on a 3-mile walk through our neighborhood daily, pushing the boys in the double stroller, we went on a couple of short hikes and we've gone swimming a lot. Both Ryan and I even mowed the lawn several times with Hyrum on our backs. When Ryan started to be nervous about the feasibility of the trip, I told him "I've been building up my endurance all summer, we are going." And was it worth it? You bet. Enjoy the pictures.



Requirements for hikers:
AND
AND


CAUTION: ROCKS AHEAD


They are good for
AND
Are we there yet? During the early part of the hike in, I swear we were stopping every 10 minutes for a 5 minute break. Amazingly, when we got to Hades Pass, I calculated that we were hiking a mile an hour. Not bad, for a young family.
We set up camp in the exact same area that we camped in 2003. All of the logs for sitting were the same as they were. Everyone had fun climbing and sitting on them.
Ryan and Sabrina were on water detail. Cool mountain spring water. Yum.

When we all attempted to walk around Gibby Lake, to see it from different vantage points, Sabrina got too close to the edge.

So all but Ryan turned around and went to sit in the sun and throw sticks into the lake.


Ryan walked all around Gibby Lake, taking pictures all along the way. And we waited.

And waited. And while we waited, I can't tell you how many rounds of this game we played. I lost track.



Since we were hiking in on a Monday, we didn't expect to see many people on the trail. The trailhead parking lot was pretty much full when we got there and a Boy Scout Troop passed us on the hike. On Tuesday, Ryan came across these firefighters.


If we would have kept following the maintained trail, we would end up at Lodgepole Lake. It's at the bottom of a steep incline. I didn't want to hike back up. Instead, Roderic hates hiking. At least that is what he will tell you now. I kid you not, we were not more than 20 feet from the parking lot when he first sat down and refused to move any further. (He was upset that he was not the leader in our group.) Ryan, Sabrina and Carson were all ahead of us on the trail. I could not get him to stand. Thankfully, Ryan came back after what seemed minutes and helped me coax him to his feet and start walking. Then he saw a bridge that crossed a stream and he started running for it. Then he tripped on a rock and scraped up his elbow, wrist and knee. (see photos above for the tripping tears). It was really slow going. Ryan sent me on ahead with Carson and Sabrina and then tried to coax/drag Roderic up the trail. He felt really bad doing that when other hikers would pass him, so then he had a brilliant idea. He told Roderic that as long as he walked, he would tell him a story. And that is what we had to do EVERY time we wanted him to move along a trail. "Peter Rabbit", "3 Little Pigs", "Little Red Riding Hood", "the story of Carson", "Star Wars" as long as we talked, he would walk. Except on Tuesday afternoon, he asked his dad for a piggy back ride...

Truly Beautiful.

Hyrum perfected his pronunciation of the word 'water' while on this hike.
Wha-hoo! We did it! We actually survived our trip to the Uintas! When do we go again?
Ryan quickly got over to the creek to soothe his sore feet.
And the rest of them wanted in on the action.
A BIG "Thank You!" to my brother, Carson, for going on this trip with us. As we were packing up all of our stuff, we realized that it was not possible for Ryan to carry everything. Sure, Sabrina carried clothes and sleeping bags for herself and Hyrum, and I carried Hyrum's diapers, but everything else was supposed to be carried by Ryan. Way. Too. Heavy. He had an idea that he could hike up once, then hike down with Sabrina and retrieve a second backpack, to then hike up with. That got me to thinking, so we invited my little brother to come and be our 'pack horse' and he said, "Yes." Yes! So he carried all of the food. And became Roderic's favorite story-teller.

And now a good-bye to a good pair of shoes: