Beginnings of the Holiday

wild flower near our camp

Okay so our holiday started last night because I had today (the 3rd off). I love the fact that my work gave me the 3rd as the holiday time off in observance for the 4th. I was trying desperately to convince Dave that Car side Camping was just as good as backpacking. He wanted to do something new, I did too, but I also had got us a fire permit and really really really wanted to do a campfire ( i love the way my hair smells afterwards) and all that fun stuff, so I told him my plans. We got it all situated and I even made sure I had our backpacks packed Wednesday night and that everything was situated so we could just load the car when I got home from work Thursday and head up either I80 or HWY 50, which ever one we wanted. When I left for work we were going to go up to a place off 50 and I was getting excited about it because I LOVED the name... Bloodsucker Lake... sure it's probably named as such for either leaches or mosquito's... but... in my world it automatically conjures images of Vampires... and would have been a wonderful setting for me to work on my book... which was going to be in the car with us. Well when I got home and Dave was still getting the GPS set up so if we got lost we'd know where we are, where we aren't, and how we got there, he suggested we go up I80 instead towards Reno. I wasn't toooo picky because we have two favorite grounds we have hiked to.... Long Lake up 80 and Cody Lake up 50, so either route we went would take us near our usual spots so we would have a fail safe to fall back upon. We left the house around 4:30pm set for Emigrant Gap. There's a little camp ground there ($20/night) that we have often walked through because there's a place that has two big swimming holes right next to each other with a waterfall that dave liked to jump off of (men are so weird). We were going go near there and try to find somewhere near the water but not on the camp ground because honestly to pay to pitch a tent is a bit stupid to me. I can see using their Chucks... (outhouse, latrine, ...Chuck is what we call it at our Stake Girls Camp)that requires maintanence and the fire pits, but you can legally make a fire pit anywhere in a National Forest unless the specific area says otherwise so long as you have a fire permit. We stopped in Rocklin just past Roseville and got some McDonalds (wanted ketsup packets to go with the hotdogs i was taking up for dinner to roast on the campfire) and some water and some Ice (to keep the dogs, sausage, eggs, butter & i think that's it frozen/cold till we got to our destinateion)oh yeah and some gas at the Chevron at the same spot, then off we went.

Traffic was bad up through Roseville and Rocklin but not too bad up through Auburn and Colfax. I was driving and so I was happy because condensed traffic and what not makes me nervous when someone else is driving. We made it up to the desired start location around I have no idea what time. And here's what the desires were... Dave wanted somewhere that he couldn't hear people and couldn't see the car. I wanted somewhere near the car so we didn't have to carry everything on our backs in one trip so we could have pancakes, scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, oatmeal, hot chocolate etc for breakfast and of course hotdogs and smores for dinner. We both wanted something near the water. Normally we go with Dave's method and carry everything, eat dehydrated backpacking meals that we boil water on a backpacking stove for and hike to our camping location over 1-2 miles. The only time we've ever had a fire when out has been on the beach....

Here's what we got... We got about -you know i'm not going to even guess the distance, but we go a bit away from the car and found the river (north fork of the north fork of the American River... so many forks, but no spoons). Then Dave's hips started bothering him and causing strain on his neck from the pack making everything from his shoulder's down go numb. Don't panic this happens all the time and we have to adjust the pack... but no mter what I adjusted it wasn't geting better so he shed his pack and sat down on the log. We could still see the car... I had a headache, I was irritable soI set down my stuff and headed down the trail letting him know that I'd scout out and see if I could find anywhere decent. I would have been fine going home too. Well just around the bend I found a spot PERFECT for our tent. Seriously the tent fit just perfectly (I suppose you could say barely but that's so none optimistic, it's like saying the glass is half empty). I told him to come check it out... and so he did... and so there we camped. We couldn't hear any one else, we couldn't see the car, and we were so close to the water that you could hear the rushing river. I totally prefer camping next to a river over next to a lake. Lake's too quiet and my mind drifts off to plots from my thriller stories or the stupid horror movies that I shouldn't watch but do (but hey it'll pay off, according to the face book quizes if I am ever faced with a maniac killer or a horde of zombie's I'll survive!). Dave set up a nice little fire pit for us and we did our hot dogs and then our smores. Mmmmm it was nice... so far only had a headache for a day in consequence of it but that's probably because my insulin was allowed to go wacky because I forgot my medicine. It was worth it. We'd never ever had more gooey marshmallows ever.. seriously once they were done if you didn't pull them off right away they'd slide down the whole stick!

Then we played some laser tag with the guns dave got for his birthday from his mom. They were fun but really loud and it was dark so I'm like not wanting to break my neck on logs or rocks in terrain i'm not familiar with. I can maim myself just fine without the help of the dark.

We ended up sleeping increadibly well. I dont' know if ew've ever slept that nicely on an outing. Usually Dave gets so cold that his back starts to hurt and then he can't sleep or even lay down and I end up trying to snuggle (oh darn) and it maybe helps but he doesn't actually get any rest. I typically sleep like a log. Last night he was warm, and comfy and even though he says he only got a few hours of sleep they were good hours and the rest he just couldn't sleep (which is normal for him.) We got up dug a couple holes then wandered down to the water and then up to what we thought was a fire road, but after getting up to it we believe it may have been a wagon trail for hand carts. It's too narrow to have ever allowed a car, but a hand cart would have been just right for it. After that we went back to camp and started breakfast. Scrambled eggs worked well, as did the sausage and bacon (bacon was precooked) and the oatmeal did great (hard to mess up boiling water though we did have to keep pulling bugs out of it). The pancakes tasted okay but they stuck to the pan. We managed two decent ones and the syrup was great. Then we packed that up and Dave went swimming while I got camp taken down. This was fine because I'm just finicky about where I swim. I liked swimming in Salmon River adn I like swimming in pools, but i'm still a little iffy about anywhere else.

Dave caught what he thinks was a water snake.. it didn't like the sun or rock and kept going back into the water, it had a bulge in its tummy so we're 99% sure that it had just eaten either a very large grasshopper or maybe a very small lizard.

We eventually got everything loaded back into the Car. Dave carried almost everything for me and then we were homeward bound... dave showered whiel I got things situated and the kitties were so happy to see us home (even though we were only gone for one night... what will they ever do when we go to visit Mom & Dadin DC? (Mom=Gail=East Coast Mom=Dave's Mom... er my mother-in-law and Dad=Don-East ocast Dad=Dave's Step Dad my second Father-in-Law).). When dave got out I dragged him down to our apartment's pool as it was devoid of human life (yay). I had a nice swim mainly do get a workout for my arms and then we came back and I showered and then sat down to write this... well actually I came to download the pictures we took off the camera and opened my browser and this opens automatically and so I figured I should do something with it...

I'm going to toss in a few of my girls camp pictures because I didn' post anything about that... Girls camp was totally awesome this year despite my short cut (yeah don't ask took me from 9am-2:30pm to make a two hours trip). I was teaching Archery and made it competative this year. We had low turn out on Wednesday with 5 girls, that night I gave out the first award for the most bullseyes in one day and the next day I had 20girls and 2 priesthood. The last night we had I dont' know how many but it was awesome and the girls were great. I didn't even maim myself and there were no injuries save for a minor bruise from a string smack. AND the girls adored my book that I read to them. I had to laugh because everyone of course is very appreciative of Edward Cullen (From Twilight for those who may not know) and think he's just the best hero leading man there is and yeah they drool for him. Well the YCL's (Youth Camp Leader) were doing a skit and had a full size Edward Cut out from a movie promo and yeah... that night I read the first part of the story to them... after that they could have cared less about Edward, they wanted to know more about Andrew... the hero in my book. was kinda nice.

Anyway... below are the pictures:

David Standing on the rocks by the river.

Upstream

Our Tent.

Another Wild Flower by the River.


I enjoyed the wild flowers :)


Didn't quite recognize myself in this picture, I had just woke up.


He didn't know I was taking the picture... best yet-he doesn't know I'm putting it on the blog (he never comes here)


David making our ring of rocks for dinner and one of the rocks he pulled up had Ant Larva on it so he put it back after he took some pictures.


I know it looks like i'm walking here but i"m not, i am posing, seriously dave kept having me pretend to be in motion.

Another of the cart trail.

Me posing next to the rock wall supporting and keeping the trail in place

This is what we think was a Hand Card Trail

Me cooking... well obviously it's me, it's certainly not David. He is lord of the flame... very good fire tender...i'm holding a pan of sausage and on the rock beside me is bacon.

Better shot of me looking forward over my primitive stove.

Our morning Campfire w/breakfast cooking.


My and my floppy hat...

I have absolutely no idea why Dave was taking this picture...



Better one of me though the sweatshirt makes me look fatter... and the hair i should have done something else with....but I do have a neck curve... it's not straight anymore.


Another flower, :) but this one's purple!



Bobkat was so happy to see us that she did not hesitate to resume her typical position.

David was VERY tired after watching me swim...


That's it for our camping trip the Girls Camp photo's are below here :)


More of my lovely girls...they aren't supposed to use the quads...what is she doing!?lol
Ah...there we go...yes off, get off the quad...but stop it first.

My girls and Pres. Treadway retrieving their arrows (and one of my girls remembering to keep her arrow down)
arrows retrieved...now... get behind the line and fire at Will... or John, or Steve or whatever you want to call the target:)

Leaders Waiting their turns