Susan and I like to camp but we don't get the opportunity very often...perhaps once a year. This past weekend was that "once".
We left work early on Friday and headed north to Sullivan lake. It's a small mountain lake located about 100 miles from home, near the towns of Ione and Metaline Falls.
We loaded the car and left town by 5:30. I had not made reservations for a camp site because I figured this was not going to be a busy weekend. Next weekend, Labor Day, would be the big weekend. Also, I could not find any information anywhere, phonebook, on-line anywhere, to make a reservation. That turned out to be a bad thing for us.
We arrived at the campground and they were full. They told us that there were some openings down the road at Millpond Campground. We skedaddled to Millpond but we apparently didn't get good enough directions. We ended up deep in the woods on a narrow gravel road as we passed several primitive campsites. By primitive, I mean they were just a clearing in the woods. No water, no bathroom. We came to the conclusion a couple of years ago that we are too old for that much rusticity in our camping lives.
By now it was getting dark and we had to find a spot, rustic or not. We found a site that was open and hurriedly put up the tent in the helpful beams of the headlights. That's a lot of fun when it's been over a year since the last ime you set up the tent. It was getting very very cold as it got darker.
I got a fire going and we cooked some burgers and commenced to drink heavily.
We got up early the next day and broke camp. We returned to the first campground and learned that there would be some openings in a couple of hours. We made arrangements for Camp Site #18 and then drove to Metaline Falls for breakfast.
As we drove down the road towards Metaline, we passed the Millpond Campground. We weren't even close to finding it the night before.
Anyway, we had breakfast at Cathy's Cafe and got some coffee for the next morning. Neither of us thought to pack coffee. We returned to our new camp and set everything up and then we let the camping experience begin.
It was very nice weekend once the drama of securing a camp site was behind us. We napped, read, ate, drank, hiked and canoed.
Upon our return, we stopped at the Pend Orielle County Fair. We spent about an hour and a half there, looking at animals and displays and then continued home
Ah, Home. It's great to be back.
By the way, we still have skunks!
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