Camping and Hiking!

Before I tell you about our trip I have to say I am going to catch up on this blog! This weekend will be the time. I have so many things to talk about and experiences to share. I will catch up this weekend. :)

Ok, James has finally caught the hiking and camping bug! So much so, that we went to REI last night and he found a backpack that he wants to get and actually use! I am so excited. We are using our allowance to help pay for the expensive start up stuff. After that it's maintenance of the expensive hobby that will hopefully be not to expensive. Last weekend we had an absolutely wonderful time camping out in the Washington forests and hiking up to an old abandoned mining town. The weekend was supposed to be rainy but it played perfectly with our trip. The pictures are posted here. Some of them aren't so good because we were playing with the settings on our camera but there are some really great shots too. Mostly by James. He and our camera have an understanding. Even food looks yummier when photographed by him.

We started out getting off work a little early to beat everyone else to the campgrounds. It's a good thing too because traffic was still horrible even at 3 in the afternoon. It took about 2 and 1/2 hours to get to the campground. We stopped at a few along the way but they were all full. We didn't have reservations so we were crossing our fingers to find something decent. We drove into one of the biggest on our route and just happened to take the right turn down a little drive right past several great sites. The one we picked was sheltered enough that we couldn't see anyone else. We were surrounded by families with little kids which was great because it got quiet much sooner than I could have hoped for. They were the kind of people who didn't need music blaring and the kids were so fun to listen to playing out in the woods.

It was so nice to start the fire and just sit there and talk while we waited for some good coals to cook dinner. It was very peaceful and just perfect. I'd missed the wonderful feeling of being out in the wilderness. Fires are so mesmerizing. We sat there for a couple of hours and just talked and held hands and watched the fire. I loved it. We had hot dogs and smores made out of oreos for dinner. It got quiet by ten so we climbed into bed then and actually slept well.

I woke up around 7 to rain pattering around the tent. Miracle though, the trees were thick exactly over the tent and the firepit so even though the car was getting wet we stayed dry until just as we were packing up and it started to pour. I also love mornings when camping because it's so crisp and clean. Such a beautiful world to wake up to.

We had to drive a half hour more into the mountains to get to the trail and the sun came out just when we got there. We hiked up an old mining road to an abandoned mining town site called Monte Cristo. The buildings there were rebuilt to represent where the town was. It was about 4 miles in of gentle uphill but we were sore by the time we got there. While we hiked we were both worried that we had forgotten to lock the car so we stopped to say a prayer. We had been completely alone on the trail until we said that prayer and just as we got to the end and sayed amen a guy biked by and sayed amen too. :)

There was a couple who were continuing up the trail to Glacier Basin to sleep over. They were hiking with their dogs who had packs on too. James said he wants dogs we can hike with too. I completely agree! We saw some beautiful flowers and a cute little squirrel on the trip. There was a slide with packed snow still covering part of the trail!

Altogether, we hiked 8 miles and we were beat when we got back! It was a great weekend though and we can't wait to go again.

Our next trip might be our first backpacking trip with our friend Brenton and James' brother David. We are hiking about 4 miles into a lake where we'll make base camp. Then Brenton and David will hike up to the top of a mountain and James and I will relax around the lake and go on short hikes. We aren't quite ready for the big stuff yet. It's going to be so much fun! We'll stay two days at the lake then hike back.

I'm so glad this is going to become a bigger part of our life together!