First Camping Trip of the Season!
The first weekend in May, we took Friday off work and went camping with our friends the Brinkmans. We’d been eager to try out our new tent somewhere besides the front yard, and the weather was going to be perfect for camping. Dave and Greg had softball on Thursday night. (The game ended in the mercy rule, so the Marauders’ season can only go uphill!) We left about 10:00 a.m. on Friday morning after stopping for breakfast and to get some more fuel for the camp stove. It’s remarkable how much stuff we need to be away (and comfortable) for two nights. I felt like we’d packed half the house into Luna! Dave did his usual expert packing job, so we could see out the back window.
We were headed to a campground called Ruby Ridge, near Buena Vista, which is where poor Taco broke down while we were camping with the Johnsons last year. This time we had no car trouble!
It’s only about 2.5 hours to Buena Vista, so we arrived at lunchtime. The Brinkmans beat us by a few minutes and had already set up their tent.
Dave set to work putting up the Nemo while Phoebe and I ate lunch.
After lunch, we played in the rocks and looked at the river.
The Brinkman family are all fisherpeople, so they were eager to follow some old man from the fly shop’s instructions to walk to a good fishing spot near the campground. We put the babies in backpacks, with some question about whether John (who’s 3) was going to walk or ride. He insisted on riding. so Emily wrapped Thomas up in the Moby, and we were off. We hiked around the edge of some private property and found a footpath off the main road. We hiked up, and up, and up the path. John kept saying “we’re at the top!” We could see a trailer park, but no river. We found a dry wash, but it didn’t seem to be leading us to the river. After hiking for a while, we decided that maybe the old man was far more spry than we were…he’d apparently made it sound like a short walk. We ended up heading back to the campground—up, up, up, and then down. When we got back, the babies played in the rocks for a while before it was time to start the fire for dinner.
We had a delicious dinner of hamburgers, hot dogs, and chips, and then we got to make s’mores! John was so excited. Emily found a really cool marshmallow stick with points that curve backward for safety, so John was able to toast some of his own marshmallows. (Did I say “toast”? I meant “burn up.”) Phoebe tried her first toasted marshmallow too.
At 8:00 p.m., we put Phoebe to bed in the new tent. She wore fleece footy pajamas and a snowsuit, and we covered her with a fleece blanket. When she got up in the morning, she made sparks! The grownups hung out around the fire until about 11:00 p.m. Dave and I were excited to sleep in our new tent, but we’d only been asleep a short time when I woke up, not feeling very well. Although our tent has two doors, Phoebe was sleeping next to one, and I was in the middle, so I had to crawl past Dave to get outside, where I promptly threw up. I threw up three more times during the night, and Dave threw up once. We think we might have poisoned ourselves with our water jug, since the Brinkmans all felt fine and we all ate the same food.
Dave usually cooks breakfast while we’re camping, but he couldn’t get out of bed. Whatever bug we’d picked up had worked through my system already, so I cooked eggs and bacon and we all ate. The Brinkmans wanted to do some fishing, and there was a big hatch nearby on the Arkansas that day, so they debated about going toward the crowds or going somewhere less busy. We followed them in the car, heading into Salida to get a drink and relax. Phoebe flirted with everyone at Bongo Billy’s while Dave and I tried to recover. Our stomachs still weren’t in perfect condition. When we got back to camp, a guy standing by the boat launch that was right near the Brinkmans’ tent showed us a three-foot snake going by. Pretty exciting! We were feeling a little better, and we managed to eat some dinner. The second night in the tent went a lot more smoothly.
Phoebe was a little cold in the morning, so she crawled into my sleeping bag. Dave got up to cook more eggs and bacon. There’s nothing like a breakfast burrito with Cholula when you’re out camping!
Dave and I had brought our bikes, so the Brinkmans offered to watch Phoebe while we went out for a ride. We rode up a dirt road and never made it to any cool singletrack, but man, was it fun to go out together without having to worry about whether Phoebe was getting bounced around too much! We all put the finishing touches on packing the cars and then headed into Buena Vista for lunch at the Eddyline Brewpub. Greg still wanted to do some fishing, so we went down to the river, but there wasn’t a good spot available, so we said our goodbyes and headed home. A great first camping trip for 2011!
