Yes, I'm sure you may have heard by now our newest backpacking story. Let's just say we don't call it a vacation and call it Extreme Endurance Challenge.
We took the kids to Upper Priest Lake in Idaho for a 3 day backpacking trip. It's about 5 miles in and obviously 5 miles out. The only way to get there is by boat or packing in. We left early Friday morning and got to our base camp about 10:30 am. We left the next morning and got back to our Suburban at 11 am! Why the short trip? you ask. Well...you asked for it!
After going through a whole bottle of DEET during a 24 hour period, we had 238 mosquito bites between the 5 of us!!!! We got eaten alive! Bud's hands and ankles swelled up and looked like they had been sprained. Honey got it the worst. When we counted he had 21 just on his right leg bellow his knee. That total bite number is low too. The next day after some of the swelling went down I counted the same leg on Honey and he had 41! So you can imagine how many we really had. We got them everywhere and I mean everywhere. One of the drawbacks to being a girl and having to pee in the woods! I'm itching my leg right now. I got a couple on the back of my thigh that are the size of my palms! Along with our experience as mobile snack bars we also had a series of unfortunate events:
My camera wouldn't work even though I replaced the batteries before we left. No documentation of this "vacation".
The little 1 hour thunder storm fore casted turned out to be a 8 hour wind/lightening/thunder/rain extravaganza. Honey said he has never camped in those extremes.
The tree behind us settled in the storm and moaned all night long, of course you could only hear it between thunder claps.
A tree fell down right next to our camp. In the morning we found that it was beavers! They (we hope!) were also responsible for the LOUD splashing we heard in the water right next to our tents early in the morning.
Beeps felt ill right before we headed out and Honey had to carry her backpack and his. A total of 75 pounds.
Sugar cast her fishing pole and hooked Bud in the cheek.
Beeps cast her fishing pole into the lake and had to dive to go get it.
Beeps dumped all of the fish bait into the lake and we had to find it.
It was also FUN too! Yes I am crazy! I am thankful too that nothing BAD happened. Really thankful. Though at about 4 am I was hoping a bear would eat me and take me out of my itching sleepless misery! The lake was BEAUTIFUL! Buddy caught a perch that he fried up and ate, all of it minus the head, seriously. We swam in the freezing cold lake but it was nice because it was really hot. My home-made dehydrated food was awesome! We eat like Kings & Queens. Most importantly I LOVE the character that I saw in my children. They are real troopers. Endurance, team work, mental & emotional control....that's great stuff.
Because we still had two days left of our little vacation, Honey decided he didn't want to go home, so we went to Schweitzer in Idaho. When he called & made a reservation he only needed two things. Enough beds for all of us and a hot tub! We had a wonderful night. After a trip to Walmart for food, a couple extra clothing items, Benadryl for Buddy, and anti-itch cream, we headed up the mountain. Honey bought a Journey CD and we listened to it going up the hill. That CD brought back lots of memories for me as a kid. We headed right for the hot tub and we gave ourselves some hydrotherapy sessions, alternating between the hot tub and cold pool. That combined with some Sponge Bob (our traditional vacation TV show...we don't watch TV at home), a full tummy, Traumeel, and 11 hours of sleep we were ready-to-roll the next day. We headed up to the Summit of Schweitzer and again, things didn't go quite as planned. We were dressed in summer clothing, flip flops, etc....right?!...it's August. It was 40 degrees at the top and we about froze to death! Luckily I told everyone to bring their light jackets. On the way down the ski lift we yelled to the kids that we'd go to the coffee shop at the bottom of the hill & that they could get hot cocoa or something. Beeps yelled back, "That sounds great! Hot cocoa...I can pour it on my toes!" Next Honey wanted to take us to Coeur d'Alene to a burger joint he really liked as a young adult. We passed by the joint and it was open. We circled the street twice looking for parking. We got out and the burger joint was closed. Poor Honey!
We got back last night & I can say today....honestly....that I wish I was out backpacking!
The title of this post is from the original Parent Trap movie. That movie was filmed at the lake I was baptized in! If you've seen the movie you'll understand when I say "I was submarined" this weekend!
2 comments:
Isn't it great to make memories? I think that I remember the "not-so-fun" moments from my camping experiences when I was growing up more than I do the "fun" ones! One time the bears were in our camp (it was night time)eating my mom's homemade cookies. Your grandpa said that he prayed like crazy that none of us would wake up and cause the bear to be startled and eat us instead! Boy, were we bummed that the cookies were gone and that we missed seeing the bear. Then there were the bee stings at Yosemite that caused my foot to swell to double it's size. I think that that was the trip that I broke my toe too!! The constant rain and mud on our trip to Sutter's Mill in CA. The stomach aches and "diaresea" from gorging on my mom's homemade,and baked in the campfire,just picked berry pies. Then there were the skinned knees and air mattresses that went flat. So many memories. And I would go back and live it all over again if I could!!
I am thinking this will go down as a story to told and retold for future generations!! Sounds great even through all the extremes! Lori
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