Last weekend the three of us went camping at around 9000 feet in State Forest Park. The campground we stayed in was gorgeous and just how I envisioned camping in the mountains. We were surrounded by tall, tall trees and ground squirrels scampered about. The park is also home to about 400 moose. Several things put us at a disadvantage:
1. I forgot to pack a flashlight. Fortunately, I realized this before we drove through the last major town and we stopped to buy one. We ended up getting a two-pack and Linus had fun playing with his in the car. He insisted he needed it to see moose. In a whisper he would tell us, "I'll hear a moose. Then I'll turn on the flashlight and see it." He was adorable about his quest to see a moose. He learned this animal tracking method from the Owl Moon book from Peter and Betsy.
2. The pump for the air mattress didn't work. That wasn't such a big deal, but it worked when Lyz was here in July. Matthew made a valiant effort to blow it up himself, but then I reminded him that at our high altitude there wasn't as much oxygen. He stopped blowing and when he stood up he felt lightheaded.
3. It kept raining on us. Rain shower after rain shower came and went. At times they were accompanied by lightening. If there is one thing I've learned very well here is that lightening is very dangerous at high altitudes. So I'd tell everyone to get into the car. Linus was troubled by this a bit. It was difficult for me to prepare dinner in these conditions. I finally decided that the hobo dinners could just have the rainwater in them!
4. The water jug leaked in the trunk. Apparently the seal is no longer any good. We were relieved that nothing important got wet from the leak.
5. I realized I hadn't packed diapers for Linus to sleep in. Uh, oh. The low that night was going to be in the high 30's and one doesn't want to get wet and risk hypothermia. We tossed around the idea of wrapping his lower half in an extra plastic bag I'd brought along.
6. We were rushing to make s'mores before it started raining again and failed. It was dark and the rain started coming down hard. We dove into the tent with the graham crackers, chocolate, and marshmallows. We sipped the hot chocolate we'd managed to make and ate the individual ingredients. Things weren't too bad until I felt rain water leaking onto me. Our bedding started to get wet and then Linus wet his pants. We had to make the decision to sleep in the car. Matthew slept in the driver seat, I slept up front with him, and we tucked Linus into his car seat. Part way through the night, Linus woke up crying and ended up sleeping the rest of the night with Matthew. The two of them were wedged into the steering wheel.
When we got up the next morning it was quite chilly and it felt good to stand by the fire. Rain showers continued to come through and we decided we had to head home instead of staying for a second night as we had planned. Before we left we attended a talk about moose and drove around a bit in search of one. We did get to cook our hot dogs on the fire, but had to eat our lunch in the car because it started raining again.
One thing I will say about us: we are really good sports and quite good at maintaining a positive attitude. I'm going to figure out how we can weatherproof our tent some more and I think we'd like to rent a cabin there next summer.
