Today we went to Big Meadow with Ryan, cousin David, and Jesus M. Ryan needed to finish up a few things on Troy H.'s Eagle Scout project. The project was rebuilding the cook shack. David has a picture of it in its leaning state somewhere. It was getting pretty bad. The snow was so thick this year it's highly likely that it would have collapsed. Here it is, all shiny and new and extremely sturdy with poured concrete footings and a welded metal frame. The US Forest Service wanted it to look the same as the old, so the original outside logs were reused. It was also re-sized for building code.
The kids had a blast. I was a little nervous that they would get bored, and they did toward the end, but it wasn't so bad. I only lost Ed once, and that was because we was in a honey-bucket doing his business and hadn't told me he'd left. So, because the kids were all responsible for themselves (not getting lost and all), I am now ready to take family camping trips. But, I may need a truck first, as any place accessible by Mazda might be too inhabited for my camping pleasure.
Some of the camp looked a little swampy. The entire meadow to one side was impassable on foot. Where the ground wasn't submerged, it was very soft and your footprints would fill with water. Considering there were still 5 foot snow drifts in the shade just 10 days ago, we were doing pretty well. (If you are going up in the mountains this summer, bring the bug spray. The mosquitoes are going to be killer this year!)
We were able to go to one side of the meadow (not too far, because of the water). So beautiful!
Isn't it fun when your child goes through the “tough man” photo phase? I hope it doesn't last long... same with the camo lanyard/necklace thing and wearing a hat backwards while dancing. Hat stays forward all other times, but goes backward for dancing... oh, Will.
No trip to the mountains is complete without some kind of excitement. A flat tire on the way home was our excitement. We also stopped for some people who listened to their GPS and ended up headed for a cold night lost in the mountains. They were MILES from where they needed to be. Ryan got them straightened out and headed back for civilization. We were able to find a decent place to change the tire. Then, we went to our favorite pizza place ever on our way home. We made the excuse that Ryan's birthday was tomorrow, when really, we need no excuse to eat at the Pizza Barn in Kernville, CA. We love that place, and anytime we are in that area, we eat there. Since we were mountain filthy, we ate outside in the perfect weather.
All in all, it was a great day. The kind where you come home with a full belly, get cleaned up, put your jammies on, and fall asleep as soon as your head hits the pillow.
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