Camping

We are on a quest to help Brandt get his Eagle Scout ranking before the end of the year.  We are close.  So close!  He only needs four more merit badges and to do his eagle project, and we've made headway in all four merit badges.  He needs to finish Sustainability, Cooking, Camping, and Swimming.  Part of Camping is to camp twenty nights with your troop.  Twenty!  If we weren't trying to push through before December, this wouldn't be such a problem, but we're hoping to get done, which means camping must happen.  So, knowing that we were going to be at Payson Lake, and knowing they have a campground there, and knowing that I'd already be packing a bunch of stuff for a day at the lake, I suggested we pack a bit more stuff and stay overnight.  Kent agreed this would be a good idea, even though he doesn't like to camp, and we invited Paul Moreland to come, as he is also trying to get his Eagle and has even more days he needs to camp.  

If you want to stay overnight at Payson Lake, you can make a reservation, or you can try for a walk-up spot.  All the reservation areas were full, so we said a little prayer that we'd get a place, and before we went down to the lake, we checked to see if there were openings.  There were.  Hoorah!  Having secured a place, we spent the day at the lake and awaited Kent's arrival in the car with all the camping gear.  When we pulled out tents, we discovered that we had all the right parts for one tent, but the wrong poles for the  second tent.  Three poles for our three-poled tent, just not the right three poles.  Brandt quickly claimed the properly set up tent for him and Paul, leaving Kent and I to make do with a tent that was three feet high, if that, at its highest point.  It looked so ridiculous, and when we climbed in to go to bed, it was completely ridiculous.  It felt like sleeping in a blanket fort you'd make with chairs and the back of the couch.  We had extra sleeping pads which we used to prop up the sides of the tent so they weren't across our faces.  We slept fine, it was just silly.  

Part of the Cooking merit badge is to prepare three meals and a treat/snack while camping.  I had Brandt select what we would eat for lunch, dinner, and breakfast, then help with the buying and preparation of the food.  We had sandwiches for lunch, tin-foil dinners and corn on the cob for dinner, and eggs and bacon with muffins he made Thursday evening for breakfast.  It was all adequate.  He prepped and cooked and passed off big requirements.  Another Hoorah!

We sat around the fire a bit, read, talked.  Brandt axed away at a long behind their tent, and when it was time to go to bed, he and Paul played cards in their tent.  Our tent sort of collapsed more when we climbed into it, so Kent had to get dressed again, then go out in the dark and, with light from our lantern, try and prop up the tent poles with a large rock and a log.  I laughed and laughed at the whole thing.  

This shows how low the tent was.  

Kent was lying down, going to sleep.

That's the tent on his head.

 He and I both used a pad to prop up the side of the tent so it wasn't on top of us.

But speaking of things on top,

my head is brushing the top of the tent.

I'm sitting on the ground.

The campground was beautiful!

All around us were aspens and pine, with skunk cabbage and wild flowers.

Brandt making breakfast.

When all was said and done, and we were home and had put everything away, I was counting up Brandt's camping nights.  I was happy to discover that he has camped eighteen times and only needs two more nights.  The ward campout is August 16th and that will be one night, so we need only figure out one more night.  One more!  Hoorah!!