As worded in the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English the meaning of the phrase “When the Smoke Clears” is as such: when things have stopped happening and the results can be clearly seen.

This phrase can be used for different purposes. I’m going to use it in regards to my life. Yesterday I went on a hike. I know, what an unsuspected thing for me to do! I needed it for a few reasons, one I am a single mom, a mom period, and I needed to clear my head, two, the business that my best friend and I are building, I needed to do “research”, and three, I need to get in shape for the upcoming trail clean up that I volunteered for. Montana has literally been in a cloud of smoke for several weeks now due to fires, and with many in the area that I reside, it has caused potentially dangerous air quality. I went on this hike none the less. The mountains called and I needed to go.

The trail I was on was St Mary’s Peak outside of Stevensville, MT in the Selway-Bitterroot wilderness. It was a 3.8 mile trek to the lookout, and with a 2500 ft. gain in elevation, it was a good workout to get up to the

elevation of over 9,300 ft. It was a beautiful hike all of the way up, but my lungs could feel the smoke in the air. As I sat at the top and looked out into the wilderness I was so glad that the smoke did not keep me away. The eerie sight, although cloaked with sadness due to the two lives claimed by the flames, beheld a beauty that only nature, and its unrelenting anger, could provide. This trail is known for it’s views, but with the smoke those were limited. I look forward to returning to the same spot and seeing what beauty it possesses on a clear day.

My husband, God rest his soul, never waited until the smoke cleared. I was always the one to step back and over think everything in the fear that one step might make a turn that was undesirable. I wanted the smoke to settle, I wanted clear answers. In my defense, in the 14 years we had been married things never stopped. Moves, rough patches in our marriage, a child, a logging accident, recovery period, business en-devours, another kid, a separation, and then cancer hit and tragedy. I was forced to move through the smoke no matter how hard I fought it. Looking back, I realized how I let the smoke, or those unclear answers, keep me from living a life that I desired. I let the smoke keep me from reaching my goals and from seeking that adventure that was pulling at me.

I can’t say that I never step back and wonder if I am making the right decisions, if I am brave enough to try out this new trail by myself, if I am capable of riding my bike on a trail without making a complete fool of myself, if I will survive taking kids out to find adventure in mountain biking or camping, if I am brave enough to get through the EMT course coming up in February, or if, just recently, the decision I made to make the move and put in an application to be a Volunteer firefighter. Sometimes fear grips me and I have to put my big girl panties on and walk through the smoke. I have come to the conclusion that if I waited until the smoke cleared, I’d be waiting forever. Nothing in life ever really stops and there are never any clear answers. If I really stop and think about it too, what fun would life be if there were clear answers all of the time? What fun would it be if I didn’t make a fool of myself here and there? I have been on some amazing adventures in the last couple of years. I’ve seen some amazing country on my bike, had an overnight camp trip with my best friend after we biked into the woods with our gear (and even some hula hoops), sat on the beach and learned how to relax on a complete whim. I got to understand the beauty that the screen of smoke in my life is, the beauty of the unknown, by seeing the mountains that I love so much covered in it . I am taking a page out of Jeff’s play book and I am going to live this life through the smoke.

 

Make many small changes over a longer period of time instead of big changes quickly if you want them to last. This is some of the best advice you can follow when starting a new work out routine or diet. Often times, usually around New Years, people make big resolutions about changing their lives, getting fit and eating better. The gyms are packed all through January and then it tapers off around March. Why is that? It’s because large lifestyle and habit changes can’t be made all at once. It becomes overwhelming and you are bound back slide no matter what you’re doing. Often it’s at this back sliding phase that people give up. They don’t have the support or energy to continue and it’s easier to do what they know and are used to.

To understand this better let’s look at the Transthoretical Model of the stages of change. It’s important to note that these stages are cyclical, meaning you may move back and forth between any stages. Once you progress to stage 5 doesn’t guarantee you’ll remain there forever. The stages are as follows 1. Pre-contemplation 2. Contemplation, 3. Preperation, 4. Action 5. Maintenance.

In the pre-contemplation stage you aren’t thinking about changing anything or aware there might be a need to change. The contemplation stage is where you are now aware a change is needed/wanted and are thinking about it. Once you’ve thought about it hopefully you move into the preparation stage. Here you will begin getting ready for your change. You might get a gym membership, look up healthier recipes, or buy any equipment you will need. This is an exciting stage, you are full or hope about your new beginning.

Now comes the hard part, Action! In this stage you begin doing what you’ve set out to do, exercise and eat healthier. You go to the gym, and make healthy new meals and everything is going great. You are healthy and glowing!! Then after 2 weeks it you’re sore and your kale veggie burger with a side of seaweed chips isn’t quiet filling you up, you walk into Wal-Mart and buy a bag of Oreos and order a pizza on the way home. And they taste sooo good! And then you skip the next day at the gym. Now you feel guilty and wonder why you even tried in the first place. Did you fail? Are you destined to never be able to get healthy? No! Remeber that these stages are cyclical. People in the action stage are at the highest risk to back slide. You moved back but you can also move forward again!  It takes 21 days of doing something consistanly to form a new habit so the first month will be the hardest but keep going!

The action stage generally lasts for 6 months. The new activites are being done consistanly and you are seeing the positive outcomes of your hard work.  After that you move into the maintenance stage! Here the new habit or activity is well ingrained into your life. Although backsliding is possible at any stage it is much rarer once you’ve come this far!

Making lifestyle changes can be stressful. This is why it’s important to make small changes one at a time. Say you want to eat better. That’s all encompassing and not very specific. Its a great goal but you need small specific goals to get there. So say for the first month you want to stop drinking soda and drink at least 3 glasses of water a day. To do that you make a plan of how much soda you will drink and have it taper off until by the end of the month you aren’t drinking any soda.  You increase your water intake as your soda consumption decreases. That’s more specific and reasonable. When you first start drinking water it can taste bland. To help add some flavor add 2 drops of Doterra Lemon oil. Cutting soda out of your diet contributes to your end goal of eating healthier with out being too overwhelming. Once you have soda out of the picture you can pick a new area of your diet you want to work on. These small changes will over time lead to major lifestyle transformations.

Remember small step climb mountains!

 

“Think Positive. Come up with positive affirmations that you can repeat to yourself every morning in the mirror.  How bold are you going to be today?”

doTERRA Living Fall 2016

This is what I look at in the mirror in the morning….. The thing is, that this is not an abnormal look for me to have throughout the day. I have to laugh at myself. I am a mess. In a previous post, it was mentioned that Sierra and I had learned to love ourselves. That includes all of the crazy. For a long time I didn’t really care for what I saw in the mirror. My hair is messy, my face is not flawless, my body isn’t like so-in-so’s. There are so many things you can point out about yourself that you don’t like or would like to change, and not only the physical attributes. My positive affirmation had to turn to picking those same flaws out and loving them. I love that my hair is messy. It means the time it would take to do it was spent doing something else: painting, reading, riding my bike, finding a new adventure with my kids, etc. I love that my face isn’t flawless.  It’s a face that is just mine and no one else has it. It is a unique face. My body is not like the other ladies in the gym, and that is ok. It’s a body that has carried and delivered 2 babies. It is a body that is strong and capable of anything I work for to accomplish. It is a body that I am proud of.

Reinforcing regularly that positive attitude, it did not take long for me to look at myself differently, to love what I was looking at. After getting through all of that, I needed to affirm myself in other ways including letting myself find out who I am. I love the way that Sierra has done this for herself and in a way I do this as well,  but her words are better. “How bold am I going to be today?” That is perfect. She said she would ask if she were bold enough to get the laundry done today. Then, the day she made the decision to go to college, she asked herself “How bold am I going to be?”. She was very bold. With two kids, a husband working out of the state two weeks on and two weeks off, and then tragedy struck. It changed so much in their household with the death of her mother-in-law, taking on two teenagers and on top of it all, she went all of the way through school. On the day of her graduation, we were all there cheering on her boldness! I have asked myself on several occasions, “Am I going to be bold and take my bike out on a trail that I’ve never been on before by myself?” “Am I going to be bold and have an adventure that takes me across the country with my kids to learn what it is that we are capable of?” It is amazing how bold you truly are when you let yourself see it in the mirror.

How bold are you going to be today? Do you need to love yourself? Do you have goals that keep getting set on the back burner? Whatever it may be, WAKE UP, tell yourself that you are bold, that you can accomplish your goals, that you can make a small change today that can lead to reaching your goal, that you are beautiful!

Erin

I like to refer to myself as an adventurer, but in my domestic position you might call me a chef. I have been working in a kitchen for many years and I have always had a love for food as well as art and you combine those two and look out! It is very easy to lose yourself in indulgences more often than you should. It might seem strange being around food all day and still I would take the time every morning to not only prepare my food, but also the lunches for both of my kids every day. I loved how one day one of my son’s teachers cracked up at what I put in his lunch, mind you I lived in the south for his first year in school so eating habits there compared to here are very different, I had sprouts in his lunch. Not in a sandwich or on anything just a little container of sprouts along with meat and cheese and some veggies. My kids love sprouts. What can I say. Me personally I love them too but I don’t just eat them plain. I like them with a salad or in a sandwich pocket. It makes me proud that they are for the most part very good eaters!

“Preparing Meals can help you take charge of what you eat, along with taking away the temptation of going out.” doTERRA Living  Fall 2016

When I work in the kitchen it can be like going out all day long. You have all this food that is very rich and tastes so good right in front of you. It is very easy to put on several pounds with this as your job. It is not bad to indulge here and there. In fact it is actually good for you. If you are always telling yourself no, you can do more harm than good but every day indulging, not so much

A good meal plan will keep you on track and keep you healthy. Keep it simple the simpler, the better. I like the suggestions in the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute website https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/educational/lose_wt/eat/calories.htm Given my background with food, it is easy for me to come up with creative solutions to change things up a little.  I understand that is not the case for everyone. Here is what I do and it is so nice and easy for a busy single mom of 2 kids:

Breakfast: (largest meal) 2 eggs scrambled, poached, or over medium (whatever I am in the mood for) with a good amount of sauteed veggies, very little avocado oil or coconut oil and half of a baked grapefruit.

Morning snack: 1/2 c. of cottage cheese sprinkled with sunflower seeds and a handful of blueberries, strawberries, or pineapple.

Lunch: a salad with a portion of salmon or chicken lots of veggies and drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. (keep in mind that your choice of dressing is where a good deal of you calories come from)

Afternoon snack: an apple with a tablespoon of peanut butter

Dinner: A hamburger with no bun and lots of veggies on the side. This meal tends to be the smallest one.

Keeping your refrigerator stocked with fresh fruits and veggies will help with keeping you satisfied. If you are grilling out one night, throw a couple extra pieces of chicken or fish on the grill and use those in your meals during the week. Getting bored with your veggies, throw those on the grill as well and that will change the flavor and make your taste buds happy without adding fat. Again keep it simple. We do not need to kill ourselves preparing food or stress ourselves out with it. Protein, fruits and veggies and some good fats and lots of water. Find the time that works best for you to set yourself up. If you like to do it daily, in the morning or before you go to bed that is great. If you like to, do it weekly and spend a Sunday evening getting it all ready for the week. Whatever works best for you. There is no right or wrong way to set yourself up with a plan. The goal is to give your body the energy it needs to get through the day. Stay within the suggested caloric intake for your body and eliminate the temptations of all of those quick meals that don’t give your body what it needs and makes you feel sluggish throughout the day.

Erin

It’s river day!! The first float of the year!! Its a bit late in the year for our first float but we had more rain than usual in June and the rivers weren’t floatable. You can’t float when the river is high and full of run off. Multiple dangers await in the fast, murky water. One of the biggest is snags. These are trees or big branches that get swept down stream in the spring run off and get stuck in the river. Sometimes you can’t see them under the water until the last second because the water is brown from debris and the churning of the river.  Your raft can run over a snag and get punctured. Or when the river is fast you can get swept into a large bunch of trees as you round a bend. Your raft risks puncture as well as it being extremely difficult to get the raft unstuck. If things go very badly your raft could be flipped as it’s sucked into the stack.

Once the water level comes down a bit and the river slows you can easily avoid snags. However there are other types of ‘snags’ we encounter on this trip. Our usual route is to put in at the Stevensville bridge and take out at the Florence bridge. Scouting the night before the float we discovered that the Stevensville bridge has been closed due to concerns of bank erosion. The next available boat launch is at Bell crossing. This adds a considerable amount of time to the float. Well we decided we had all day to float so it wouldn’t be a problem.

Our rafting party consisted of two rafts, two small kayaks, eight adults and six kids. We loaded up coolers full of food and drinks, sunscreen, bug spray, life jackets and an inordinate amount of enthusiasm.

The float got off to a great start! The kids bounced from raft to raft. I bought my husband a waterproof blue tooth speaker for Christmas so we had our own summer theme music playing. We stopped to play and eat on sandbars. Along the way deer, cranes, a bald eagle, a beaver, ducks, and geese were common sights.

The weather was hot and clouds rolled over giving temporary refuge from the sun. The water was cool and crisp. Perfect to drip into when the clouds were at bay.

Our journey hit another ‘snag’ in the late afternoon when the pizza had all been eaten and granola bar rations were running low. Due to us having put in farther up stream we were still a fair ways from the take out spot. We floated on and as we neared the take out spot I began saying it’s just around this bend slightly too soon.  We went around at least 6 bends before we got to the last one. In my defense it’s a VERY windy river. At any rate we made it to port.

A beautiful day, and friends and family made the first float of the year aweome in spite of a few ‘snags’.

Sierra and I have been active for the majority of our lives. This is something that comes naturally to us and we have both learned to love our adventurous souls and that sometimes stepping out of our comfort zones leads us to things greater than we knew we could even accomplish.  Your life journey has ups and downs and maybe you are looking for a place to step out of your own comfort zone and you’ve stumbled upon our blog. Well each week we will focus on one or two tips to encourage you to step out of your comfort zone. Being fit and eating healthy and having the courage to climb a mountain are not changes that occur overnight . It is a process that can take months or years and should start with small changes to ensure that they stick.  Forty wellness tips sounds like a lot but when we break it down one by one, week by week they will become doable.

So far our blog has introduced us to you and allowed us to share  some of our adventures and hardships with you. Our goal in sharing is to get you out of your comfort zone and to get you onto a path where the world opens up to you. We are goofy and our adventures lead us into good and challenging situations and change on the regular. We want to share our struggles as well as the things we find not so difficult and the silly things that end up happening because in our world, things never seem to go as planned!!!

We found these tips out of the doTERRA Living Fall 2016 magazine and we love them so we would like to use them and expand with our thoughts on each. Both Sierra and I use these products on the regular and you will hear about how we use them throughout the blog in our first aid kits and more.

Tip #1

“Design your program: consider your body type and the choices you’re making Think about what you like and where a good starting point is for you, don’t compare it with where others start. This is for you”

Sierra and I enjoy doing a lot of the same things but we also have other things that the other may not be as interested in. Myself, I enjoy lifting weights and Sierra enjoys yoga. We both stay fit doing different things. Both of our bodies are very different from each other. The biggest thing we have in common is that we both have learned to love ourselves for what we have been given. We’re aware we don’t fit into a mold of someone else. Letting go of the media’s idea of what we should look like and allowing ourselves to see what we could become was an incredibly freeing moment.  We can appreciate and celebrate each others differences. Staying active doing the things we enjoy is more important than looking a certain way. By focusing on a certain look you can’t see yourself for what you are made of. Doing things you enjoy to reach your health goals which is likely what you were seeking in the first place, this also leaves the stress out of trying to be something you’re not. When you are doing what you enjoy doing you will not only reach those goals but you will learn more and more about yourself as you move forward in this journey.

When thinking about the choices you’re making, it is important to identify things you want to change.  Write them down.  We challenge you to pick one thing and make a small step towards that change this week.  This could be as simple as substituting a salad for fries at one meal or taking the stairs instead of the elevator at work.  The goal is to create small new habits that will end up adding up to big life changes.

When was the last time you walked? Just a minute ago? Did you think about how easily you stood and began to walk. Did you marvel when your leg supported you when you put your full weight on it? Of course not! I never have given it a second thought either. Yet the last few weeks I dream of walking almost nightly. It has become my deepest desire. The last time I walked normally was April 28th. I went bouldering and fell from the top. I was at an odd angle when I fell and didn’t get my right foot under me properly. I landed on the side of my foot and my ankle rolled out. I desperately hoped it was just a sprained ankle but knew deep down I had done more. I had broke my third metatarsal at the very top.

My prognosis was good. It was a clean break and would require no surgery. I was instructed to wear a silly boot and keep my foot elevated and put no weight on it for six weeks Oh yea and no driving for 4 weeks……  Thats a long time to sit still. I don’t sit still. I have way too much to do. Yet sit still I did. Well mostly…..

The first week and a half wasn’t too bad.  I spent it in Georgia and Florida with my bestie having adventures modified for my crutches. Once I returned to Momtana and was spending most days by myself at home my world felt very small. I cried sitting still, I watched countless hours of Netflix sitting still, I made a quilt sitting still, I read 4 books sitting still and I napped alot with my dog.

But I couldn’t sit entirely still. I modified my work out routine to focus on my upper body and used my hot tub as a base for my knee and modified my hula hooping.

My husband would drive me to church on Sundays and over memorial day weekend we went paddle boarding.  I didn’t stand but I could sit and paddle around! It was great!!

I learned to reach out and rely completely on the kindness  and love of my family, friends and church family.

Since April 28th I have returned to driving, putting pressure on my foot and have slowly begun walking again. I have to be careful not to do too much too soon.  I will never take walking for granted again. I will never complain about running no matter what the weather is like. Because if I am walking or running it means my foot is healed!!

 

“Your Ticket is booked” some of the most exciting words uttered out of my mouth! My best friend is heading to Georgia for a trip of a lifetime. Our planning started before the ticket was purchased but the serious planning started immediately after.

The Appalachian trail a 2,190 mile trail spanning 14 states from Georgia to Maine. It is the longest hiking-only footpath in the world! What hiking enthusiast wouldn’t want to set their feet on this? In the months leading up to the adventure we prepared physically and mentally with workouts consisting of both cardio and weight training, we practiced with our backpacks loaded and on during hikes, we read blogs from other hikers who have been on this trail as well as talked to hikers who have finished it in its entirety. Although our intention was to do a small section at this time we even read articles about being mentally prepared for through hikes. Given the differences of Montana to Georgia my hiking experiences here gave me the ability to share information with her to get her prepared. I would go for hikes and text her almost all of the way as I thought of different things that we needed to take note of. Given the fact that Sierra is much more technical than I am making sure she had this information would help the both of us to get ready! I say this in jest and also in all seriousness about my own short comings as far as preparations go.

Just days before the flight we were so very excited. It was hard to focus on anything aside from the six and a half days we were getting ready to spend on the trail. 109 miles was our goal in just under a week. We had shuttle rides planned we were getting her off the plane and heading right to where we would begin the trail. I had bought a book and sent it to her. Its a fantastic book and I recommend it to anyone who looks to get onto this trail. We did not want to rely on electronics so having something to have in our packs was a must. Our packs had been packed, unpacked and repacked multiple times. We were ready.  We were confident in our ability to do it too. All of our planning did not prepare us for what was going to happen….

The morning before Sierra was to get on the plane she called me up. Through her sobs she had to tell me that she was pretty sure that she had broken her foot while climbing the night before. She was going to go into the doctor to find out for sure but she assured me she was getting on the plane.  After the doctor confirmed a break we were both so disappointed.

All of our planning and excitement we can’t say that it did not hurt a bit. We made a new plan. We were going to go on the trail crutches and all to where we would find a nice little camp spot and just enjoy some peace and quiet for a few days. So I got her off of the plane we got our bags secured and ready for the trip and we got to a different part of the trail where we found in the book had some water close off the entrance. And set out. Sierra is a brave soul and I can’t see my life without her as my partner in crime! She made it .3 miles in and out she came to a rock that we were going to have to climb over and it defeated her…. It was there I said we should just go to the beach. She agreed. So we hiked out loaded our bags back into the pickup and set out for Florida. No stops aside from getting gas and we did find a state park where we could throw our hammocks up to sleep.

Had we been able to hike that trail like we had planned we would have never found the gem of a place called Providence Canyon state park in Georgia. It was beautiful and to think it had been formed by poor farming habits in the early 1900s. The night before we hiked around that area was a night we will never forget. Setting up our hammocks by light of the headlights of my pickup was successful but given all of the noises of the south and not having been able to see the surroundings of our chosen campsite neither Sierra or I were able to sleep. At 5 in the morning we started to get a sprinkle of rain, so with no sleep we got up and called it a night had some coffee and set out to see the canyon and then on to the beach.

Who knew what this adventure would bring us. Who knew that one slight slip of the hand would actually put us on a path to a great lesson in relaxation. We were forced to relax. There was nothing we could do about that. There is something to be said about the spontaneity of it all too. The time we got to spend giggling about our misfortune that turned into a marvelous adventure was medicine for our souls. We forget in the hustle and bustle of life to breath sometimes. That spontaneity is an adventure in itself. That no matter what we did we got to be together and that was all that matters! From now on we will have a wonderful life experience that she and I can look back on for the rest of our lives! And who knows we have a plan to return to the Appalachian trail spring of 2018 we will see what that adventure brings when the time comes.

 

 

We were graced with our first snow of the season December 1st.  It was like mother nature was getting into the Christmas spirit with us.  Fluffy snow fell all through December and we woke up to a completely white Christmas. It was magical.  Our house in the valley had over 3 feet of snow by the 2nd week in January.  While the temperature stayed low, the snow kept falling and falling.  February rolled around and what is usually a dreary, blandish month marked by the melting snow exposing the dead grass beneath it, the month was still quiet white with no sign of change.  Now I’m thankful for the snow.  Good snow pack in the mountains means fewer fires in the summer.  However, the novelty of bundling up in multiple layers to go hike or run or even get to the car was wearing off.  It is now the 2nd week of March and in the last 4 days we’ve gotten at least 10 inches of snow followed by rain, followed by snow.  I’m soggy to say the least.

I rock climbed when I was in high school but since having kids had not had time.  I wanted to get back into that and get my kids climbing too.  Its a great whole body exercise and they love climbing trees so I figured they would take to this quickly, which they did!  My kids were restless too so I found an indoor bouldering gym in the valley!! I signed the kids up for lessons and found my old climbing shoes.  The first time we went, the kids had fun and left with blistered hands, I left being brutally reminded how old and out of shape I am.  The last few weeks have been awesome.  We go Mondays for the kids lessons and as I’ve climbed more and began training my upper body have greatly improved as well.  The kids love it so much we go at least one other time during the week that isn’t a lesson night.  I’ve been so impressed with my kids perseverance, determination and hard work when climbing.So let it continue to snow, we will be hiding in the bouldering gym until spring decides to arrive!

We did it!! The weather held for a bit and we were able to get out for a night up Bass Crk.  We packed up and got to the trail head around 10 am.

We decided to camp at the beaver pond up Bass crk.  Its not a super far hike (2.1 miles) but we wanted to be close enough to the trail head if something happened we could get out fairly quick.  Its pretty steep up Bass crk and we changed about 1000 ft in elevation.  We made good time and got to work setting up camp.

 

 

 

There had been campers up here last weekend and they had a pretty good spot for a tent stamped out but we had to expand it a bit for my tent.  We had a great time using our snow shoes to scrape and stomp out the spot for the tent. As I got the tent set up my friend got the fire spot cleared out.  The campers before us had brought over a bunch of green trees that we had to move out of the way of the fire pit. Once we got camp set up we decided to hike a ways up the trail.  I wanted to check out the falls where I’d been ice climbing a few weeks before.

On the way we found a small trail that veered off to the right and decided to follow that for a bit.  We thought we were just following a game trail but found a research game camera instead.  Those poor researchers are going to have fun when they see our silly faces on there.  After pretending to be wildlife we continued up to the falls

There were more cracks in the falls this week.  I didn’t get up to where we had climbed.  You could see where there had been snow and ice falling from that canyon and didn’t want to get hit.  You could hear water falling behind the ice and see it streaming down the rocks by the falls.

On the way down we found a LIVE spider in the snow.

After that terrifying encounter with wildlife we made our way back to camp. We stopped and collected wood and moss to start a fire on the way back. We worked HARD on that fire.  I brought those fire starters again but we had to use 5 of them. We got it going but due to how wet the wood was we had to go back out and try to find dead trees that weren’t too covered in snow or wet. My friend is awesome at finding good fire wood in the snow.  She says to look for trees that are dead and standing but grey.  That’s a good sign for dry wood.  Also she says that if the tree has “bonus branches” it’s a super good find. You can use the branches for kindling.  Here’s the fire queen with her awesome fire!

We boiled water and mixed up our MREs and had a nice dinner by the fire.  Here is where we made a mistake that had us up in the middle of the night but I’ll get to that later.

Our fire resources exhausted not too long after dark.  We were warm and full from our yummy dinners.  Even though it wasn’t too late we figured we’d be up early since my friend had dinner with her aunt the next day and we needed to be back in time.  After some tent selfies we hit the hay.

Earlier, I mentioned a mistake and around midnight I woke up THIRSTY.  I reached for my water bottle and it was empty.  Then I got to thinking that I had another but it was out by the fire and I had used the water in it to make our dinners….. I bundled up and got my flashlight to go out and  get it and lo and behold it was about a quarter full.  I took a few sips and have rarely been that thankful for water.  I took the rest back for my friend.  We finished off that little bit and tried to go back to sleep.  About half an hour later I had to pee.  My friend wasn’t sleeping either and we both were still super thirsty.  We got up, got my stove out, rounded up all our water bottles and pot and headed out to find a good patch of snow away from camp to get snow to melt.  It turns out it takes a lot of snow to fill one water bottle AND it takes a long time to get water to boil when its 10 degrees out.  Also, you end up with pine needles and other crud in your water no matter how ‘clean’ it looks when you’re gathering it.  We picked out what we could and then used our french press coffee mugs to filter out the rest.  That worked great!!  The screens on the french press got all the crud out.  We let the water cool a bit after boiling it but I have never enjoyed warm water as much as I did that night.  We boiled enough water for our two water bottles and went back to bed.  Lesson learned, Make sure you have your water situation taken care of  BEFORE bed!!

We pulled our sleeping bags over our heads and crashed. We vented the tent and didn’t have the condensation problem this time.  We put space blankets under our pads and that helped keep the heat in as well.  We used the same sleeping bags as when we camped in my yard.  We slept with our snow pants, sweatshirt, had and socks and stayed warm.  When I poked my head out expecting it to be dark, the sun was fully risen.  We’d slept till 9:10 am!!

Good morning, hows my hair?

We popped hand warmers in our boots to warm them up and finished taking selfies. Once our boots were warm we got up and started making coffee.

As we were enjoying our coffee my friend checked to make see what time dinner at her aunt’s was.  Turns out dinners at 3:00 pm!!  It’s about 10 am now and we have at least an hour of tearing down camp, 45 mins to the truck, then the time it takes to drive home and get cleaned up and drive the hour out to her aunts house.  We kicked it into high gear and got going.

We had great trip!  We survived and found things to do different next time.  I think each trip will get better and each time will present different challenges we’ll have to adapt to.

 

Good news she got to dinner by 3:00 pm.