Chads Camping Trip
Friday at noon, Jonas stopped in my work to drop off the memory card from his trail camera. We caught some neat photos and videos of 2 young bull elk, and a really big buck still in velvet.
He then invites me to go camping early the next morning. So I call it a day at work, and head out to get my camper in order. Registration completed, I got a new water pump so the sink will work. Sean came over and helped me get the wiring completed, so that the driving lights will work properly. Later that night, Brandon and Jessica decide to come out with us. I was gonna take Sam dog as my buddy, but he got ousted so that Brandon and Jess could ride in the truck with me.
They showed up at 9:45 the next morning. We loaded up and met the Freemans and their friends at the gas station. Then we headed up and over Fernan Saddle, and cut through the national forest to get where we were going. About a 1.5 hour drive. Twisty dirt roads, awesome mountain top views, creeks and rivers.
Upon arrival to our private spot on the river, we unloaded the gear and set up camp. I got to break in our gift from the Rhodes. A nifty canopy that easily sets up, and helps keep
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that sun off us. After helping Brandon and Jess get their tent and cots set up, we grabbed our chairs and headed to the river. We sat out in the water where it was shallow, with a cooler of beer and a Red Ryder BB gun and had a good time competing for targets we selected in the water or woods. Sat there for a couple hours, catching some sun, and enjoying the beautiful river and the peace and quiet.
Jonas spotted a crawdad, and then we found ourselves turning rocks and catching crawdads for the next couple hours with the other guys that where there. Too bad for me, I didnt bring my flip flops, so my feet are currently tore up from the river rocks. I did manage to catch a tiny garter snake. I let these 2 young boys that were camping with us have it to play with, after teaching them to be gentle with him, and to release him when they’re done.
Then we headed back to the camper, where we made some chilidogs. After our lunch, we went down river to where there was a little beach. We brought the inflatable boat, and some chairs. Then we played with the kids, caught more crawdads, and paddled the boat around till the hot sun went over the mountain top.
We headed back to camp and struck up a game of horseshoes, in which Jonas and I were head to head on. I had one more point to land to win, and Jonas had 3. He lands a ringer, and wins the game. The rest of the guys take turns playing horseshoes, while we each took turn turning the home made ice cream maker. Vanilla with hand picked wild huckleberries.
We get the fire going, and Jeremiah and Alex are making some BBQ pulled beef ribs for everyone. We had some of the best eating that night. The ice cream was awesome.
When it got late, the guys all went crawdadding again. They are active at night, so all we had to do was walk along the shore and spotlight them. Then we would send on guy out in flip flops to catch em. We caught over 100 crawdads that day. Most were too small for eating, so Jeremiah kept all the good ones, and took em home for cookin tonight.
I wish I woulda got photos from that day, but it just slipped my mind as I was having too much fun.
Next morning had a lot of cloud cover, so it was a bit chilly. We got up and cooked eggs, hash browns, coffee and all you can eat bacon with the Freemans. It was awesome. Jeremiah, Brandon and I sat in our chairs with Red Ryder BB Guns and had a competition by bullseye’s on a cardboard target we hung in the tree. Jeremiah whooped us all. (see center target).
Then Brandon, Jess and I grabbed my Ruger .22 and took a walk to shoot some critters. On the trail out we spotted a prairie dog with his head pokin up out of the ground. Brandon was unfamiliar with my rifle, so while he fumbled trying to get the safety off, the prairie dog got away. We walked down the road for a while, and I managed to blast a squirrel. We were up on a ledge over looking an awesome meadow, and having fun shooting at the river. Jess shot the rifle a couple times, then ended up picking a bunch of huckleberries. They later turned out to be Sarvisberries. Not as good as huckleberries, so she tossed them.
We headed home around 3pm Sunday afternoon, and were lucky to catch a bull moose still in velvet crossing a creek in the Teepee Creek Wetlands reserve as we passed through. I just got home to find that a small window in the camper was partially open, so a ton of road dust currently covers everything on the inside.
I’ll unpack the camper and clean it up tomorrow. My feet are still sore from walkin on the river rocks barefoot.
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