Camping, Day 1

[elfs]

Girls in the Mist and Snow

Girls play in the Snow

Car in the Mist

Our annual camping trip started out with the traditional Burger King feast, a fateful reminder of what we were not to endure for the next six days. I had the new "XT Steak Burger" and it was awful. It tasted fake, as if they were trying to put one over on the diner. After a fast drive through Rainier Valley, down through Black Diamond to Enumclaw, I turned eastward onto 410 into the Rainier National Forest. All along the way we tried to find Thomas Guides, as I'd forgotten the one we had back at home and it was way out of date anyway. We were short a few flashlights so I bought some at Enumclaw, along with some new sunglasses-- I'd broken the old ones.

At the top of Cayuse Pass, we stopped to play in the snowpacks. The day had been cloudy all the way through the valley, and up here it was misty in that cold, Twin Peaks kind of way, but despite the mist and snow it was all quite beautiful.

We drove down into the Ohanapekosh Camping Area, 260 campsites in eight "loops" situated along the Ohanapekosh River, and found ours. We must have gotten the smallest campsite of all. There was only one place to put the tent, and it was less than six feet from the fire ring. We practiced tarpaulin origami to create a proper "tent footprint," as we'd been taught at REI, folding the tarp under itself so that if rain fell off the tent's rainfly it would fall on the ground and slip under the footprint, keeping the occupants warm and dry. We unpacked my sorely overburdened car; that clamshell is heavy even when packed only with the bedding, blankets and tent, and we had trouble maintaining even the lower speed limits along the twisting mountain roads. Along the way we cataloged that we'd forgotten beer, batteries, hot dogs, and tomatoes. Fortunately, on this side of the mountain there's a small town not twenty minutes away.

Omaha, the fire goddess herself, made a great fire and in no time we had pizza loaf for dinner: garlic bread sliced in half, filled with pizza sauce and shredded cheese, then wrapped in foil and reheated over the fire. They were a little blackened, but otherwise delicious.

Getting Ready for Bed

Getting ready for bed in the dark is fun; stumbling around, "where did I put my toothbrush?", discussing how much pajamas and blankets will be necessary. It was never warm at night in Ohanapekosh, but never frigidly cold; I slept great in a pair of sleep shorts and a t-shirt. The girls preferred their usual pajamas, and Omaha wore her usual lovely jammies.