I’m back and finally winding down from the weekend’s camping trip. I normally take time off work for these geocaching/camping events so that I can stay an extra day or two, but this time I just stayed Friday through Sunday. I actually did take Thursday and Monday off work, but only so I could pack and unpack all the camping gear without stressing over it.
The event was a lot of fun, as usual. There were even fewer people than last year, and last year it seemed that there were fewer people than the year before. The usual suspects showed up, however, and a few others who were a lot of fun to hang out with. The family and I spent Friday setting up camp and doing some geocaching, then as other people arrived we started hanging out with them around the campfire. I went to bed early (1:00 a.m.) and got up early the next morning.
We spent the first half of Saturday just lounging around camp and visiting the few others who showed up just for the day. In the afternoon my family set out with my sister’s family and our friend Chris for a hike to a geocache. The hike was supposed to be pretty simple, but it turned out that we were approaching from the wrong side of the creek, and there was no easy way through the bottom of the canyon and across the creek. We hiked back to our vehicles and then stopped for a geocache on the drive back to the campground. We ate a nice potluck dinner, and then several of us had a few drinks. Twice I went through the forest after dark to find the night cache. The first time was with Traci, my niece, and another couple’s grandson. We found the cache easily, despite having to cross a creek twice. The second time I did the night cache, it was with everyone who had been drinking (myself included in that group). A couple of the guys were absolutely shitfaced, so there was a lot of stumbling and loud laughter–I’m surprised the campground host didn’t come to investigate. I still went to bed relatively early at 1:30 a.m.
We all put together an impromptu potluck breakfast on Sunday morning, then slowly everybody packed up their gear and headed out. We got home early enough that Traci and I were able to unload everything from the truck and camp trailer before dinner, so we had some time to relax that evening before bed.