Mountain Music

As I mentioned before, we snuck off to the mountains for a night the weekend of the 4th of July. It's sad, but we hadn't been camping in almost a year! You see, we love camping. Before I worked weekends, we were always in the desert riding dirt bikes, camping in the mountains, camping at the beach, going to the snow, etc. But now, time is short. It's hard for me to take weekends off work and so we don't get around as much. In fact, my quad has been sitting in our garage for over a year and a half-- makes me sad.


As a last minute schedule switcheroo, I ditched my Sunday shift to take off with my boy for a night. We decided to head up to Star Lakes, which meant we'd have a nice 4x4 ride followed by a hike before we could stop at the lake for some fishing.

I loaded up my ipod with plenty of new country music. Dean Brody and Justin Moore were playing strong, and we headed out around 7:30am. We got to the mountains and started following the trails on the map, folding in our mirrors and holding back branches to get through. But soon our trails got worse and worse. Who would have thought we'd hit so much snow in July?!



Additionally, we kept finding our trails blocked by fallen trees-- which of course meant we'd be breaking out the chainsaw-- which we soon discovered had a dull chain.

(good thing we are total studs though)

We never made it to Star Lake, or Iron Lake, or any of the other 10 places on the map Brandon said we should try to get to... In total, we spent around 8 hours 4x4ing up and down trails, splashing through the mud, cutting down trees, and plowing through snow. It may sound boring, and trust me, some parts were, but we really enjoy the time spent together just cruising around. We finally called it quits around five o' clock and decided to set up camp. We found a nice clearing with a creek nearby and only had two cars pass by. We were pretty much alone out there with our truck radio playing country music while drinking wine and making smore's with Reese's by the fire. Life. Is. Good.


The next morning, Brandon was determined to fish. We pulled over by a river and climbed down to it. I had just laid out my blanket to do a little sunbathing and reading when another family stopped and came down right where we were. I couldn't help but feel a little annoyed. Like, really people? There's this big long river, lots of places to stop, like no one out here, and you decided to come down and see what we are up to? Really?! So, we decided to move a long, park the truck, walk up the road, climb down the cliff-face to the river, walk across a fallen tree, cross the river, and then finally find some peace and quiet. Bran headed up-stream a little and I laid out my blanket to enjoy some quiet time with my magazines-- because everyone who goes camping reads Better Homes and Gardens right?


All in all, Brandon caught his fish, I got to sunbathe in private, and we headed home to watch the fireworks for the fourth. It was a wonderful little getaway.



(yeah, Brandon likes Sushi)