In the woods
Camping. Hiking. Awesome.
With the freedom given by the cafe not being open yet, Ell has wanted to go camping for a month or so. Friday night we went down to the local State park, Beaver Creek, and set up camp. Just us and the woods and the critters that live in them. So refreshing. We woke up Saturday morning to the sound of birds and bugs and ate a breakfast of pancakes and eggs. We relaxed for a while and then packed a lunch for the afternoon. We hiked down into the the main part of the park on a treacherous trail. I'm pretty sure we were the first people on that section of trail in the past couple months. It was really overgrown and not taken care of very well at all. But it was good practice for our big trip in a few years.
Once we got down into the park, we crossed the river on this old metal bridge. I always look for fish whenever I'm close to water, and we saw a lot this time. As we looked down into the water on the downstream side we saw six carp. Each one was at least 18 inches long, with a couple well over two feet. One of them swam upstream under the bridge and so I crossed over to see where it was going. But my eyes saw more than just that carp. On the upstream side, facing into the flowing water, were at least 100 to 200 fish. It was amazing. It was easily the most fish I've ever seen in one place in the wild. At first they looked like catfish, and then like smaller carp. Some old guy said they were, "Just sucker fish." What, like the ones we had in our childhood fish tanks? I looked in the Ohio State Freshwater Fish Identifier this morning, but I couldn't find anything that looked the same. Whatever they were, it was one of the most impressive displays of nature I've ever seen.
We had our lunch of crackers and cheese and then headed back up the rocky trail. In all we hiked close to two miles. We spent the rest of the afternoon reading and napping. Our friends Grant and Jess came out to spend the second night with us. We made dinner with them and then settled in around the fire. Some other friends, Chris, Kate, and their baby girl came out for a few hours too. Nothing like staring into a fire and hanging out with good friends. It was fun. After another great breakfast, we packed up camp and headed home. Weekends like that are few and far between, and this was a good one.
With the freedom given by the cafe not being open yet, Ell has wanted to go camping for a month or so. Friday night we went down to the local State park, Beaver Creek, and set up camp. Just us and the woods and the critters that live in them. So refreshing. We woke up Saturday morning to the sound of birds and bugs and ate a breakfast of pancakes and eggs. We relaxed for a while and then packed a lunch for the afternoon. We hiked down into the the main part of the park on a treacherous trail. I'm pretty sure we were the first people on that section of trail in the past couple months. It was really overgrown and not taken care of very well at all. But it was good practice for our big trip in a few years.
Once we got down into the park, we crossed the river on this old metal bridge. I always look for fish whenever I'm close to water, and we saw a lot this time. As we looked down into the water on the downstream side we saw six carp. Each one was at least 18 inches long, with a couple well over two feet. One of them swam upstream under the bridge and so I crossed over to see where it was going. But my eyes saw more than just that carp. On the upstream side, facing into the flowing water, were at least 100 to 200 fish. It was amazing. It was easily the most fish I've ever seen in one place in the wild. At first they looked like catfish, and then like smaller carp. Some old guy said they were, "Just sucker fish." What, like the ones we had in our childhood fish tanks? I looked in the Ohio State Freshwater Fish Identifier this morning, but I couldn't find anything that looked the same. Whatever they were, it was one of the most impressive displays of nature I've ever seen.
We had our lunch of crackers and cheese and then headed back up the rocky trail. In all we hiked close to two miles. We spent the rest of the afternoon reading and napping. Our friends Grant and Jess came out to spend the second night with us. We made dinner with them and then settled in around the fire. Some other friends, Chris, Kate, and their baby girl came out for a few hours too. Nothing like staring into a fire and hanging out with good friends. It was fun. After another great breakfast, we packed up camp and headed home. Weekends like that are few and far between, and this was a good one.
posted by Sam at 9:46 AM
3 Comments:
I remember going to Beaver Creek when I was little.
One time a skunk ate a whole bunch of our food. My dad was too scared to go out of the tent and scare it off. :p
Another time, he had our dogs in the back of the truck and the ranger was going through a list of a million questions. Do you have drugs? Do you have alcohol? I don't know what all. Apparently, my dad got in zone mode...no, no, no, no...
Well the last no was in response to, "do you have any animals with you?" The guy got furious and was yelling and stuff.
We didn't go much after I was about 6 or 7 though, too many kids I guess!
But, back to you! It sounds like a good weekend - glad you had some fun after that stressful audit!
I've never been one for camping... But the whole relaxing part of it sounds awesome. (Check your toes for ticks.)
Glad to hear you got a chance to relax. Miss you guys
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