Time To Shake Off The Natural Man:  

Saturday, May 17, 2008


To start this funtastic story I have to give you a little back ground. It rained this week ,not much, just enough to put a slight dusting of snow on our beautiful Sky Island Mount Graham. By the way in case no on noticed it's May and we live in Arizona, snow is never included in that equation. So this week was our annual ward Father Son Camp Out which just happened to be at the top of that beautiful sky island, pause for dramatic gasp. You got it all week long that great creation rising from the desert floor was assaulted by wind and rain and snow. Let's just say Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday I kept glancing up at the summit thinking to my self "am I really going up there in this?" Friday morning came and the promised sunny weather did not arrive the top 3000 feet or so of the 10000 ft tall Leviathan could not be seen due to dense clouds. Might as well have been the Scottish Highland. UGH! again I think "Am I really gong up there in this?". However the day turned brighter and the hour long drive up the winding road was both refreshing and relaxing. I watched the outside temp gauge dropping as I climb though.

Arriving at "Treasure Cove" the 3rd one there I had my choice of spot which actually turned out to only be 4 or 5 since the road was a little washed out. Not to fear though I found one of the only level spots in there with a fire ring in front. Bammo Zamo my great instant pop up tent worked great (except it is now missing the rings for stakes, plastic does not do well in storage apparently). I set up camp and got to build a nice cozy fire while the ward fathers trickled in. There was a great big group bon fire, however it's just not camping if you don't have your own fire. Supper was cooked for us and we had delicious Indian Fry Bread with chili beans, lettuce, cheese, tomatoes and hot sauce. And for dessert Indian Fry Bread with butter and honey. MMMMMMMMMMMM
delicious! Well as the sun dropped so did the temperature. By about 9:30 it was probably 40 degrees (To those in colder regions this is cold in AZ). Some of my fellow campers and I stayed up late talking and shared some hot coco that I whipped up (thankfully they had some at the gas station on the way). Bed time was an adventure, thanks to some great foresight on my part I brought 2 sleeping bags for moi' and a nice 3 inch air mattress. So it was time to snuggle down and stay warm off the ground ( no rocks or pine cones) and go to sleep. NOT! Some one forgot to turn off the lights,LOL there was a full moon last night and it was like some one had their flashlight pointed at my tent. Finally I drifted off to little camper land and woke up around to 35 degrees at 6 am. We had some more hot coco while breakfast was cooking and then chatted for a while. I left about 9:30 and took my time driving down stopping to pick some wild flowers and pine needles for Mrs. Smeag to scrapbook about and also found a little stream trickling down the hill with moss growing all over it. She loved the moss more than the flowers ( Note to self : Future mothers day gift).

So I am home now after shaking of the "natural man" smells that you get camping I can tell you that showers are so cool! What would we do with out them.

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3 comments: to “ Time To Shake Off The Natural Man:

  • Tangie Baxter
    May 18, 2008 at 10:35 AM  

    So glad you had fun honey! And YES the moss was sooooooooo fabulous!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Ali P.
    May 19, 2008 at 8:05 AM  

    Been a while since I've been here Dave - great to hear about your goings on. I don't like camping when it's cold. I've never understood this Scout Klondike thing Nolan does where they camp in the snow - say what?

  • Amy
    May 19, 2008 at 2:36 PM  

    Sounds like fun. next year you should take one of those tinfoil-like emergency blankets. We slept with those in Romania when our landlord decided to turn our furnace off (probably because he thought hanging our clothes out to dry made us look like gypsies....although I'm not sure how else we were supposed to dry our clothes) anyway, I digress...those emergency blankets kept us pretty warm, although they are noisy if you move around in your sleep.

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