Camping - Day 3

We woke up on day 3 after another chilly night in the mountains. Hubby slept like a rock as always, snuggled away in his nice warm mummy bag. Dude slept like a puppy with MY pillow. Princess slept motionless all cuddled up in my warm mummy bag. Me? I spent the night figuring out how to roll onto my side while inside a child’s sleeping bag without exposing myself to the cold air, adjusting the flimsy pillow I had left so my neck didn’t get a kink in it, and venturing out into the cold to the bathroom while regretting the hot chocolate and schnapps I just HAD to have before bed!

After a yummy breakfast of scrambed eggs and bacon, we headed out on another hike. We decided to go on a “difficult” rated trail this time - the kids are such good hikers and love the outdoors, so we figured it wouldn’t be a problem. We started out on the 2.5 mile trail, thankful for the overcast skies, but hoping the rain would hold off until we finished our hike. The trail was a loop, so we decided to head to the right and go UP the hill to start.

Here’s Princess and Hubby heading up the hill. You can see the incline a little bit in this photo - if you want to know what the incline was really like, set your treadmill to a 10% incline and walk 1 mile like that - at 9800 feet elevation Of course Dude and Duma are way up ahead! A bit further up the hill, it got pretty rocky and we got to climb a little bit.

Here are the 3 kids having fun climbing on the rocks We saw lots of other cool things on the way up the hill - Princess particularly liked this cool tree.

She liekd that it was curved over “like a rainbow!” I thought it was cool because it was twisted . . . here’s a closer shot so you can see what I mean.

Of course there was more balance beam action.

About half way around the loop, there was a sign that said we could hike off the trail .5 miles (further UP I might add) to a backcountry camping shelter. We figured why not! So up we headed again . . . and at the end we saw this neat little shack, which turned out to be the perfect spot for a snack.

Oh - and note to anyone who geocaches - there’s a geocache in this shelter - we found it by accident Notice that Princess and Hubby are in the shelter having a snack, and I’m taking the picture. Who’s missing? Dude and Duma of course! Since it’s impossible for Dude to ever sit still when he’s out in nature, he and Duma went exploring behind the shelter, and discovered this really cool boulder to climb (it’s about 5 feet high) with an AWESOME view . . .

All you could see were snowcapped mountains forEVER - and to think we would have missed this awesome view if we had decided NOT to keep hiking up another half mile. I love that my kids will hike!

The 2nd half of the hike was much less eventful . . . there were lots of pretty flowers to look at, bugs to inspect, fallen trees to use as balance beams, and creeks to cross. And once again, right when we got back to the Jeep from our hike, it started to rain! We have been SOOOO lucky! So we got to spend another family afternoon in the camper playing games, listening to music on the iPod radio (You’re gonna need an oceaaannn, of calamine lotiiiooonnn - saw some poison ivy so I had to play the song for Dude), and discussing Princess’ loose tooth. Duma, of course, hung out on the bed and napped all afternoon again. Think she’s a little spoiled?

After a yummo dinner out on the picnic table after it rained, we started another fire and had one last night roasting marshmallows and eating s’mores and STILL talking about that loose tooth - that is still INSIDE Princess’ mouth.