Thursday, January 22, 2004

Baseball, the Caveman way...

On the second day of camping I woke at an amazing 7 am, despite trying to bury myself deeper into my sleeping bag for an extra couple of hours of rest. The outdoors just called to me. The sounds of birds chirping, the breeze in the pines, and the lack of human activity pulled me from the tent and into the world.

I made hot tea over the fire, pulled out the broken cookies I had saved, and sat back wrapped in a blanket with my book. It wasn't long before the chipmunks decided that something in my vicinity smelled good. The first of my little visitors wouldn't venture too close, but after awhile they were sitting on my shoes and even on my lap. :) I couldn't believe how many there were, across the meadow I could see hundreds hopping and dashing to-and-fro!

The rest of the brood woke up at about 9am, and dragged out like zombies. Some of them didn't sleep as well as I did during the night it seems. :)

We enjoyed pancakes and eggs for breakfast, did a group clean-up, and went our seperate ways. The day was spent in blissful laziness. David, Patrick, Mitchel and Yann were absorbed in carving and whittling. Yann had a huge branch, and nobody knew what he was making until later, and it turned out to be a baseball bat! And what a great bat! Later that day Kimberly and Jordan arrived and we decided to play Neanderthal Stickball. We hacked out a huge ball from wood, used our homemade bats, chose tree stumps for plates, and re-wrote the rules so we could play. What a great game!

The day came to a close, and we enjoyed a light rain under the tarp. It was surprisingly fun to sit by the fire with the rain drizzeling around us. Another day gone, the last day ahead of us, and so far it has been great.

Wednesday, January 21, 2004

Camping at Jacks Creek

Wow what a camping trip! I have so many photos that I am going to have to dedicate several entries to them, I think. We started out Friday and went the back way and up into the Sangre de Cristo Mountians. (Which is spanish for Blood of Christ) ThroughPecos (small town in the Pecos Wilderness) , past the Benadictine Monastary and the Fish Hatchery, up past the small general store that stands where the road splits to go to Holy Ghost or to Jack's Creek, through Cowels. From Cowels it wasn't twenty minutes until we found the campground, and a great campsite. Ten dollars per car per night gave a us a site where we had more room than we knew what to do with, nestled under Ponderosa and Blue Fir Pines, Aspens and other gorgeous trees. Two thick and large picnic tables sat near the road, but we put our tents up the hill overlooking much of the campground, but giving us a modicum of privacy. The woods stretched wide and deep in every direction.

There was so much to do... hiking, playing in the water, praticing knife throwing and carving skills. I read books and took photos, Brian prowled the woods searching for wildlife. The boys enjoyed the woods for the sake of running and being wild. Keri and Aude took long lazy walks and naps. We played a Neanderthal Stickball (more about that tomorrow) and tag in the woods at night with glowsticks. We cooked good meals, annd enjoyed each others company. It was wonderful. :)

I'll leave ya to the photos for today, and will follow up with more pics tomorrow and day after. Enjoy!