Recovering from a long weekend is always tough for me. I was camping Thursday through Sunday, and I had Monday off work too, and I still haven’t unloaded the camping gear from the truck. The trip to Potter’s Ponds was about the same as usual, but fewer people showed up this year. Sam and Mark couldn’t make it, and a few other people who I expected to show up didn’t.
The forest ranger told us on Friday morning that there had been a bear in our campsite four weeks earlier, so after that we wouldn’t let Michael and Bradley play outside without very close supervision. Before anybody else showed up for the get-together, we took a drive to find some caches and to gawk at the place where they’re drilling into the Crandall Canyon mine to look for signs of the trapped miners. We couldn’t get within a mile of the drilling site, but we got close enough to check it out with binoculars and to take a few pictures. We turned in relatively early that night, and right before bed I walked out behind the trailer to take a whiz and saw the light from my headlamp reflecting back at me from two eyes in the trees. I ran back inside the trailer, with my belt still unbuckled, to grab my 4D Maglite and cautiously went back outside to find out it was only a deer.
We went for a drive with John and Julia up to Skyline Drive on Saturday, found a few caches, then returned to camp to do the poker run and potluck dinner. Traci and I stayed up ’til 1:30 in the morning with the rest of the “rowdier” crowd around the campfire.
We hid a new geocache with some friends on Sunday morning, then packed up and headed home. We unloaded only what was absolutely necessary, and I have simply been relaxing ever since. Traci started the fall session of preschool yesterday, and Michael started first grade today. I worked today, but luckily I finished the most difficult project of the year last week, so today was relatively calm. I’m going into the office for lunch with my team on Thursday, but other than that I’ve got no solid plans for the rest of the year (for once). I may go camping on Labor Day weekend, but that will depend on the weather. I’m hoping for cooler weather so we can hit the Swell in a couple of weeks, but it’s looking doubtful.