A Camping Adventure

So, Friday night Jeff and I ate a senior citizen early bird dinner. We dined on pork chops at 4:00 pm before departing on our camping trip. Neither of us saw the point in hauling food and cooking equiptment with us on our camping adventure. We had no interest in cooking in 18 degree weather when we would only be two miles from home. We left the cabin at about 4:30 pm to head out to Lake Josephine. We were looking forward to getting back on our skis that were stranded at the ranger station for almost three weeks. Well, as you probably know, it has been above freezing for three weeks now. It just cooled down to the lower twenty's and teens this week. Translation: all the snow is now ice. Even crossing the lakes was less than desireable because the skis were sliding in every direction (except forward it seemed). Once on the trail it is a short, gradual climb, then a short flat area, then a short, gradual decline. This would be easy to ski under normal circumstances, but since we were essentially skiing on ice, it sucked! I literally was on my rear more often then on my skis. I couldn't go up because I couldn't dig my skis into the ice and I couldn't do down because there was no way to slow down. Everything just ended in a big crash. At the risk of sounding weak and pathetic, I was so frustrated and banged up that I actually broke down. This was not a good way to start our camping trip. I ended up walking the remainder of the trail and then skiing (very slowly) across Lake Josephine. We camped in the middle of the lake just out of the hazard area for the avalanche chute. When we got there, I opened my pack to find out that the hot chocolate I was carrying leaked throughout my pack. Luckily, it wasn't as bad as I first thought it was though I'm not sure I felt lucky at the time). Jeff and I set up the tent and crawled inside. I donned all of my extra clothes (I brought a lot) and put on my nice knit gloves. Jeff and I were enjoying the hot chocolate and chatting. Then, as luck would have it, I dropped my cup of hot chocolate all over my sleeping bag and gloves. AWESOME! So I had to use my bandanas to mop up the mess. Now my sleeping bag was wet and smelled like chocolate, and my gloves were useless. Good thing the bears are snoozing away. At this point, I wasn't exactly having the time of my life. It was cold, very cold, and nothing was going my way. Jeff and I bundled up in our sleeping bags, read for a while, then attempted to doze off. Jeff is a much warmer sleeper then I am so he had no problem sleeping. I may have gotten an hour of two of sleep. In the middle of the night, Jeff started screaming in his sleep. This is not the first time he has done this in a tent. I think he has this recurring dream while camping that a bear is coming into the tent and has bitten his hand. I like to make fun of him for this. Lucky for him, I have given him a lot of material to make fun of me.

As soon as the sun started to come up, I woke Jeff up and convinced him that we should go home. Lucky for me, he complied. We made it home just before 9:00 am. I drank some decaf tea, ate breakfast, and turned in for some sleep in a nice, warm bed. Jeff and I spent most of Saturday relaxing. Jeff rallied and went to the hotel for an hour to do some work. It snowed lightly, but steadily all day. I haven't had to shovel snow in weeks, so I'm out of practice. But, from the looks of it, I will be getting some practice soon!

Today, we will be watching football. A storm front has slowly made its way over the mountains, and it is starting to snow. YIPPEE!