In my Friday post you can see Julie and I had grand plans for a camping trip this weekend. Things don't always go as you envision (remind me to tell you about our beach picnic earlier this year).
Friday night we took inventory of our camping gear and composed a short list of things we needed to get at REI saturday morning. We woke up very excited, went to REI, went to the grocery store to get brats, buns smores and some large Coors light cans to celebrate the Rockies from the wilderness. We packed our bags and headed out.
(checking out the trail-head)
(totally prepared!... Sorta)
We chose a spot that was a six mile hike from the tail parking lot at the skyline near Saratoga CA. When we got there the ranger told us that no fires were permitted due to fire season risk. We asked ourselves "Do we really want to hike six miles with 100 lbs on our back so we can drink a cold beer with a pre-cooked bratwurst in the cold darkness?"We realized that a fire is a very significant part of the fun of camping and opted not to do the hike. We drove to three other places to find the same info. Basically you either have to reserve a car-camping spot weeks in advance, or you have to back-pack 6-12 miles to reach a spot where no fires are permitted.
Again we decided that even if we did the hike, we weren't equipped to have fun in the dark. We'd need at least a small burner to heat up some food.
So what do we do now? We'd driven 100 miles to find camping and ended up empty handed. We did learn some excellent ideas for future camping trips though! We considered it a learning experience and went home for a real camping trip. Here are some pics of our improvisation at "Chez Morales":
(improvising at home)
6 comments:
oh Man...........I WANT a Smore right now! ...........Yum!
I think you made the right decision by turning around and coming home. Being COLD is NOT fun, regardless of where you are.
Plus it's ALWAYS SO good to "Come Home". I Love coming home.
One more thing: I know you two really like being surrounded by "Nature", but I think "Camping" is for the birds.....GUACALA! (YUCK!)
I know, I know.........not a very cool thing to say..........However, I would have to ask "WHY?"...........It must be that I'm into my Golden Years.
La Viejita,
Moon
I agree with Raka.....probably a wise choice. I love Julies improv of how to cook a marshmallow.
John and I didn't get a chance to go camping at all this year:(
-but we did do a lot of off roading and found many beautiful places to camp. We usually go way deep into the national forests (via my kick ass Jeep), and never have had any "fire danger" issues. We always have a big enough fire to keep the bears away! -Raka you've never been camping with us.... gotta go sometime!
Oh Yeah!!! HOW ABOUT THOSE ROCKIES!!
Joey & Julie: This is Grandma! You asked that you be reminded to tell us about your "beach trip?" We always enjoy the blogs, just don't have much to tell you about unless you consider a trip to the doctor of interest? Anyway, we're going on a cruise to Hawaii 11/18 - 12/3 and will let you all know how it comess out. Grandma & Harry
Grandma and Harry!!!
Great to see you on the blog! How cute. A Hawaii cruise sounds so relaxing! I've still never been there.
I'm going to send you some pictures on email in a little bit.
Great to hear from you. Love to you both.
Joey
I'm going for s'mores ingredients.
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