This weekend we had our second annual trip with friends up to South Skookum Lake. True to form (we will see if this repeats next year!) we had a small hiccup early on^[1] that caused our plans to shift somewhat. When we arrived at South Skookum Lake on Friday evening, it should have been closed, it was not. The camp host was still on the grounds and she insisted that we could not camp there. This is not technically true since you can always camp in National Forest campgrounds, whether the road to them is open or not. This is why we camp there, we have the place basically to ourselves and the only cost is having to hike in our stuff. As we spoke to her the truth of why she did not want us there came out, it was her birthday and she had friends in the grounds for a party. At this point we were tired of arguing (and I for one did not want to be kept up all night by some drunken birthday party) so we left. Next year we are going to see about obtaining permission directly from the forest service so that that does not happen again.

We ended up drove a couple miles up the road to North Skookum Lake, which, while it is private land, also has a campground. The group campsite had been reserved but the party who wanted it had bailed at the last minute so we were able to get it (luck or fate?) and it was quite lovely. We set up camp, lit a fire and Andrea made everyone tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. On the first night we had four groups up there, Michael, Damian and myself; Andrea and Peter; Shannon and Rachelle; and Issac and Mireille. Mireille is Rachelle’s friend and Issac is her older brother (I think he is 12?) They rode up with Shannon and Rachelle.

On Saturday I awoke to squirrels pelting our tent with pine cones and more importantly with the urgent need to pee. Yes I am aware that this is probably too much information (feel free to skip the remainder of the paragraph,) but it might be amusing to anyone else who has been pregnant. You see, I refuse to get up at night while camping to pee, not because I wake and ignore the urge at night, but I seems like a have a switch in my brain that turns off the reminder to pee. At 27 weeks along apparently this switch still works but I had definitely had to waddle/sprint (as only a pregnant woman can) upon waking to the restrooms. I admit I might have envied penguins able to slide downhill quickly on their bellies at that moment, or just wished I had a freshette and a bush (yes, I’ve used one before and yes, they are awesome.)

Bladder relief aside, I was on breakfast duty that morning. My cinnamon pancakes, fruit and gobs of bacon are my camping staples and this day was no exception. The nice thing about having some older kids around is that they can be sent out to collect deadwood for the fire, and smores offerings are more then enough motivation to get even the most reluctant preteen moving. Us adults had our treat too, Andrea always makes mimosas for the +21 crowd (champagne and orange juice in the wilderness, why not?) and in her infinite wonderfulness brought your’s truly sparkling cider so I didn’t feel left out, baby+booze=bad ya know. ♥ Andrea.

I have to admit the photo of me drinking while flipping pancakes may look somewhat incriminating but it is not nearly as bad as this one with Damian trying it. The jury is still out on what Damian thinks of sparkling cider, he loves plain apple cider but I think he was less then impressed by the sparkling aspect in this bottle’s equation.

After breakfast and cleanup, Shannon and the older children went down to the lake (where Rachelle fell in, other then being cold, she was fine though,) Andrea and Peter wandered off to do something exciting (that sounds way dirtier then it actually was,) and Michael, Damian and I went for a little walk around the campground. There were a few RVs and tents scattered throughout but it was pretty empty, one of the joys of camping off season. Damian rode in his wagon most of the way snacking on trail mix and leftover pancakes but ultimately Michael’s shoulders proved to offer a much better vantage point for him. (Notice how Michael’s braid makes Damian look like he has a tail.) No chupacabras^[2] were spotted this year.

One our way back to camp we ran into Mikcos, Michelle and Nathan, another family we know who had expressed interested in joining us this year. It is a small miracle that they found us as there is no phone reception whatsoever in the area so we couldn’t tell them that we were switching of campgrounds. We returned to camp for lunch (oh yes, we also bring brie and wine with us when we go camping too.) Damian took a nap, Nathan went squirrel “hunting”, the children collected more firewood and went down to the lake again for a swim and the rest of us sat around chatting.

After Damian woke, Issac, Mikcos, Damian, Michael and I went geocaching. I love my father-in-law’s definition of geocaching as using “multi-billion dollar military satellites to find ammunition canisters full of children’s toys in the woods.” We found two caches, Mikcos spotted the first and Michael found the second. I stayed back at the van for the second as I was too pooped from wandering through the underbrush by that point to climb up a steep heavily wooded hill. Michael took photos for me though and I enjoyed chilling with Damian in a wildflower field.

We were all starving by the time we got back to camp and chowed down on fried polenta, chicken, roasted corn-on-the-cob and probably a ton of other stuff (there is never even the threat of hunger on our camping trips!) provided by previous leftovers and the lovely Andrea. Mikcos, Michelle and Nathan were only staying for the day so they left after dinner and then so did Shannon and the older children. Rachelle was not feeling too well and Mireille wanted her mommy (something I can totally understand not wanting to deal out in the woods.) We missed them though! That just left us and Peter and Andrea (who I think look adorable together for the record:)

We stayed up late talking, Damian fell asleep on my lap and the fire burned low. Eventually we all went to bed, or so I though…

I had a very strange dream that I saw alien lights outside of my tent and then was abducted by one of them through a bright light in the top of my tent. They took me to the lake to be baptized by a teenager member of the Aaronic priesthood who owned his own planet (which is where the aliens were from.) Luckily some Quakers rescued me by materializing a bridge across the lake though.

Yes. Weirdness.

Telling everyone about it the next morning I found out at one point Peter was wandering around outside with his bright LED headlamp and Michael had a dream the tent was falling over so woke up and shone his flashlight at the top of the tent to make sure everything was kosher. Mix that with our conversations earlier in evening and apparently that equals LDS alien abduction for me.

Anyhow… It was breakfast duty for me again. Rice and gravy! My favorite! And Michael made the cobbler we forgot to do the night before. Since Shannon is gluten-intolerant we bought gluten-free cake mix, which didn’t work nearly as well as the regular stuff. I think we will stick with the traditional way next time and just leave her some fruit on the side.

Breakfast cleanup came after eating and then the worst part of camping by far after that, packing up to go home. I love the Skookum area so much and I swear it gets harder to leave every time.

Oh well, until next year!
(Lots more from Skookum photos can be found here.)

1. Last year was our first time camping at Skookum after Labor Day and we arrived to find the main gate closed. We just hiked in though, hence the discovery that it is wonderful to have a campground to yourself and a friend with a manual water filter pump.

2. The Chupacabra is a cryptid rumored to inhabit parts of the Americas. It’s name aptly translates to “goat sucker” due to it’s reported habit of attacking and drinking the blood of livestock. You can refer to the 2008 Camping Recap if you want to know why the heck I am referring to this creature.