Last weekend we went camping at what used to be our favorite place: Canyon Creek. It’s this middle of nowhere camping spot hidden behind gravel roads, pot holes, and fallen trees, just east of Chelatchie Prairie. We usually find this place peaceful; it’s nestled in the forest and you can hear the sound of the creek flowing by. But not this time… people were seriously living at this place, we didn’t have a gun like we should have, the Hill-Billies had a little too much Bill, and there was way too much head knocker music to call this place peaceful. All this might have been tolerable except that Allie needed to have been just a little bit younger where she didn’t scream to be down in the dirt and mud, or a little older so that she could just walk. It was exhausting trying to keep her occupied when she wouldn’t just be happy with her toy tent, wagon or really ANYTHING! Malia was no problem, well, until she fell in the fire. But… she’s okay, we got her out fast enough. It’s all in the experience right???
We love that you don’t have to reserve or pay to camp here. But… I guess you get what you “pay or don’t pay” for. At least it’s pretty here.
We love that our girls are getting an early exposure to camping so that they can be super campers the older they get!
A short hike from camp takes you to a rock bed next to the creek where Aaron likes to fish. Now, I am only throwing this story in for memories… but long story short, I got upset at Aaron because he accused me of finding a treacherous route down to the water. After carefully helping Malia down this small drop off, I safely climbed down and turned around to grab Allie from Aaron so that he could get down. After handing her to me, I was irritatingly speaking the words: “Why don’t you just trust me?” as I turned to walk the incline down, slipped, lost my balance, and feet, and fell smack down (equally thankfully) on my head, back and elbows. Allie started screaming, I was spinning in pain, and I heard Malia say “Oh no mommy! Allie hurt her head on your boob!” Phew… so glad I held so tight to that baby, but ouch! My ego AND body was sore.
It was fun camping with just ourselves. First time ever!
Nothing beat nap time, the smell of a fire, and a good book.
Why Allie wouldn’t just play IN the tent, I have no idea. We had to barricade her in!
You could tell Malia was a little bored having only herself to play with, but she had fun pretending to be Dora and exploring.
On Saturday we went on a drive to check-out where some of the forest roads led. It was a bumpy ride… keep reading… but we found some pretty hills covered in flowers and Aaron says, “Hey… if you wanted to kill your family and get away with it, here’s a good place.” Then he grabbed his big axe out of the back of the truck. Umm… ok… that was a little creepy!
So, here’s another good story. After driving a bit I ask Aaron “So, how is it that bumpy roads like this don’t cause flats? Maybe we should turn around, we’ve driven pretty far from camp.” I didn’t knock on wood and of course Aaron says that we will just turn around at the NEXT mile marker when all of a sudden we BUMP and… HISSSSSS. Seriously??? A flat? In the middle of freakin’ nowhere with no sort of cell reception? After 30min of trying to figure out how to get the spare cranked down and having no luck, a nice gentleman from Battleground pulls over to help after already having helped another guy down the road with his flat. Apparently this gentlemen had been driving around all day in search for a lake down some forest road and as he is leaving he says “well, I hope I don’t get a flat, I don’t have any of the tools with me!” We all laugh it off and drive our separate ways. After several hours we see the guy walking around our camp and ask “Hey stranger! Are you just checking the campsites out?” He answers, “No. We got a flat miles up the road and were hoping we could find someone to help us!” Of course Aaron offers to return the favor and gives him a ride up to his truck to see if our tools will work. They don’t so the guys says, “ok, hold on”, and grabs a rifle out of the bed of his truck. Aaron said for a minute his heart skipped a beat but knew the guy was too nice to use it on him. Ha, ha… he just wanted to hide it so that when someone broke into his truck, they wouldn’t take the gun. Anyways, long story short, Aaron headed out to drive the guy back into an area with cell reception (meanwhile, I am all alone with the girls and the other crazies in this camping area) when they just so happened to cross paths down the road with this guy’s neighbor who came out looking for him since his wife was worried, yada yada yada… Anyway, moral of the story: don’t help too many people with flat tires in one day or Karma will bite you in the butt.
After the flat, we headed to the waterfall that we were originally headed for when we decided to keep driving and go on an adventure.
It’s a very beautiful area.
While Aaron fished, we made silly faces for the camera.
Love this girl. In the top picture you can see her upper tooth coming in!
Malia is quite the adventurist. She is rock climbing in her rain boots!
We found a beachy area for Malia to dig while Aaron fished (again) later in the day. This was definitely an Aaron trip… my trips are the one’s where I get to wakeboard and HE watches the kids!
Good thing the tree didn’t fall on Malia…
While waiting for Aaron to catch just ‘one more fish’ (like 20+ wasn’t enough for the day) I got tired of hearing Allie scream to be put down. So I let her play with the biggest rocks and Malia is freaking out and yelling “Don’t let Allie fall in the water!” Really Malia? We are not even CLOSE to the water! Crazy girl…
And here’s our truck loaded down with all our camping CRAP. (It poured the Sat night and Sunday morning.) It makes you wonder how we camped before the truck?!? Kids… they have just too much stuff!
This was fun… lots of memories, but who knows if we will make it back out to Canyon Creek… only time will tell!
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