We spent this last weekend camping in the wilderness. I've been camping oodles of times & always loved it. As a kid we were always camping, & I have lots of great memories from those trips. This was out 2nd family camping trip. Our first was more of a trial & error trip for us. We didn't go far...about 45 minutes away to be exact. This second time we traveled a couple of hours away & camped in the Yosemite National Park. I was terrified. I never had to worry or even think of bears or mountain lions while we were camping. The most I've ever had to worry about was maybe a coyote or two & snakes. Neither one of those could slash me to shreds with a swat of their paw. I'm so dramatic. haha So all of Thursday night I had nightmares & awful dreams about bears & camping. I swear I had a panic attack in my sleep. lol. We camped with a coworker friend of Mark's. He did all the cooking, & it was pretty tasty. Our campsite wasn't 'flat' as the name of the campground suggested. Our campgrounds were named "The Crane Flats." To me, I thought...oh maybe there are lots of cranes there & it'll be fairly flat. NO. Everywhere you went, you had to walk either up or downhill. The spot where our tents went was fairly flat though. That first day didn't go so well. I wound up with a massive migraine & was car sick. That's what about 7 hours in a car on winding up & downhill roads will do to you. The first campsite we tried to stay at was full. The second campsite....well, we didn't even make it to it. We were down this really long narrow road where only one car could pass at a time. And to make matters worse, the entire road was riddled with potholes, so we didn't go over 10 miles an hour. lol. Mark's friend, Glenn just zoomed down & met us halfway only to tell us it was full as well. We were wondering how long the road could possibly have been & why there weren't any signs up anywhere stating the distance. Just as we neared the beginning of the road, we saw the magical sign with the distance down to the campsite. 21 miles. Yeah, that's right, 21 miles of steep, narrow, pothole filled road. Glenn said it was a very nice site though, so I guess that's the pay-off. Anyhow, we were all grumpy, irritated, tired & in need of some serious limb stretching along with some yummy food. It took us about 20 minutes to get to the next campsite, & we lucked out with a nice big site. Thank Heavens!
That night, I was a stick in the mud that night, & went to bed the second the tent was up. I didn't eat & I didn't hangout & have fun with the rest of the crew. I couldn't even sit up without getting dizzy & all the awesome smells of the numerous fires was making me even more sick. You've got to love those migraines. Anyhow, I slept off my sickness & was good as new by the morning. I didn't sleep all night though. In the middle of the night I was woken up by a man yelling at the top of his lungs. He was yelling at his wife & telling her to get into her car because there was a bear! GREAT! Just what I wanted to hear! As if my anxiety level wasn't high enough, it just skyrocketed to outer space knowing that I was quite possibly sharing valuable airspace with a creature much larger & more powerful than me. I couldn't get to sleep for a while, but when I did, I slept great. We woke up when our tent was gleaming full of sunlight. I love kids. The second the sun cracks over the horizon they are up & ready to get the day going. I must say it was very nice to wake up early in the morning. The sun streaming into trees was beautiful. It was cold, & there's nothing like a nice fire to warm you up. The dirt there was like a magnetic force. It clung to everything. The kids would get dirt on their hands, try to wipe it off on their clothes & then eventually would wipe their face. The dirt just left a trail of evidence on everything they touched. It wouldn't have been that bad if there had been a shower. Yeah, that's right, there were 8 of us who were stinky, dirty & un-showered for a few days. It works out though, because bears like to find things that have a scent & that includes things like shampoo and lotion. I probably would have been terrified to take a shower, daring to use such a thing as fruit scented shampoo or lotion. hahaha. The bathrooms had no lights, so you had to take a flashlight with you. We stayed at the campsite on Saturday & just took a hike into the wilderness behind us. I was terrified the whole time. I kept myself on edge & was keeping a close tab on our surroundings. The boys were making me nervous as hell too. They kept wanting to run ahead and lead us on an expedition & Austyn would start to lag behind at times. I'm glad what I was doing was right, even though I didn't know it until later. Later that day, I read that small children should not run ahead or lag behind because mountain lions will target them, since they are small mammals. WHEW! I'm glad I was a nervous wreck & made them stay close-by! :) I guess mom's do know best, & it's true that you should always follow your instincts. That night we stayed up and roasted marshmallows after we ate our fancy dinner of t-bone steak, chicken, baked (or grilled I should say) potatoes, & corn on the cob. I'm telling you, we will hire Glenn to come camp with us just to cook! LOL. It was delicious. We roasted our marshmallows and listened to scary stories once Austyn and Ryleigh went to sleep. That night, we didn't hear anyone yelling or anything like that, but I did wake up to a very low growling/grumbling sound. Not cool at all! lol We didn't see any wild animals, other than some deer & a few chipmunks, so that's great! We also didn't see any evidence of having night visitors. We all had a great time & can't wait to go back. Yeah, I said WE can't wait to go back. Despite my migraine, car sickness & high level of anxiety, I had a great time & I would love to do it again. We will be planning more trips in the future because we purchased the year long pass for $40. If we go one more time, it will have already payed for itself. Here are the few pictures we took before the camera took a poop on us. We have no idea what happened. It was taking pictures just fine, and then BAM, from one picture to the next it just wouldn't work, and then when it did, the pictures were too dark to see. So, here are the pictures.
This was just a cool barn/shed/building that we passed on our drive, and I liked it.
A huge rock as we are driving through Yosemite.
The mountains.
Another view of the mountains.
A meadow area.
The boys on the 21 mile road. They needed a potty break.
The boys on the 21 mile long road, goofing off on some HUGE logs.
A view of the field behind the campsite.
Austyn enjoying a box of cereal.
Taylor doing the same.
& Miss Ryleigh doing the same.
Mark, hanging out and staying warm.
The sunrise.
The kids, Mark and Glenn's younger daughter LaRosa on a very big rock at the campsite. (You can see that here is where the camera pooped on us.)
Mark took this picture, and since I rarely post any, I thought I'd post this, since its the only proof that I have that I actually went camping too! lol
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