Last Camping Trip of the Season

Originally Published 9/1/2017

The week before school started, we went on one last camping trip to a beautiful, high-mountain lake secreted in the back pocket of Burley, Idaho. My children were excited to go on this trip because we would be camping with our family friends. Lake Cleveland, Idaho is a gorgeous, high-mountain lake that is regularly stocked with cutthroat and rainbow trout. Its beautiful waters are also free of motorized watercraft, so the area stays free of noise and the raucous behaviors that are associated with thrill seeking on the water.
It is a place out of time and mind unless you live close by. The people of the eastern Magic Valley are protective of their little treasure and for a good reason. For it is a place where the muscles can relax, the mind can ease, and the kids can run around.
Unless you are Jesse and Griffin.
As Sarah drove up Mount Harrison, we passed through some heavy hail and slush on the road. Keep in mind this was the second week in August. The valley below was burning in the post-July heat, but on the mountain, it was still mid-spring. It was like going back in time a couple of months. Mid-August on the plain, late-April on the mountain.
For most of our road trip, I was reading a novel, The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex, out loud to the kids: the last of our summer read from our trip to Council, ID, so I didn’t notice the climate change. I just looked up and found myself in the wrong month. It was beautiful.
As soon as we arrived, the kids vanished into the foliage and left Sarah and me to set up camp. Everything was wet except our gear. The grass, the trees, the rocks, the air, the mud, not to mention the big lake that we had on our front lawn.
I decided to take my kids and one of our friends’ on a "nature walk" around the lake. We found a trail that circled the lake and it was difficult keeping up with the boys while slowing down for the girls. We had a good time enjoying the springtime beauty of the flowers and bugs. The only problem was that I had to keep an eye out for my rambunctious boys. Jesse and Griffin were on an exploring expedition. Each trying to surpass the other and arguing the entire way. I just wanted to take pictures the whole time. Imagine herding cats or better, human sized grasshoppers. (They would not stop jumping off the boulders.)

Griffin is just re-enacting his board-smack

Finally, we came to the access road and started crossing a little foot bridge when Griffin who was on a side path, tore up the side of the foot bridge and learned why one walks down the center of such bridges. It happened so quickly. The plank that he stepped on sprang up, cartoon-like, and smacked him in the face. I’m still not sure whether it was the surprise or the pain that made him cry. After I made sure that he was okay, the floodgates of my laughter opened. My laughing made him mad at first, but after he saw what was so funny, he started to laugh as well.

“The board popped up and hit me in the face just like a rake” he kept saying then he would force a loud laugh. It was both humorous and heartrending. Looking back, I can see that my laughter at his misfortune with my attempt to explain why I laughed changed what could have been a traumatic experience for him. He also learned to walk in the right places while crossing a footbridge.

Sarah floating in the middle of the lake

That night there was the most impressive thunderstorm. It rained a large quantity and we escaped the deluge by staying in our tent and by staying under the cover of the trees. After the kids were in bed, we adults caught up on some things while talking over the campfire. There’s nothing better while camping.

I took the boys up the mountain the next day and we had a lot of fun climbing over rocks and streams. I fell down and almost landed in the stream. Jesse took a tumble and chipped his brand new tooth. He wanted to know whether it was his lucky tooth. I wasn’t sure what that was but I thought at least he would know. It was in his mouth after all. I was mostly worried about what his mother was going to think. He was just sad that he had chipped his favorite tooth. (How does one come to have a favorite tooth? Don’t you want all of them? But my kids are weird, and I can’t blame them. They come by it naturally. They get it from their mother. Okay, okay. They get it from me.)

Chipped lucky tooth

We had a wonderful time. When we came home, it was sad when I packed up the gear for the winter knowing all the while that the Christmas tree had to move to the front of the closet while the tent had to move to the back.

I'm not sure what Griffin is doing here, but it looks funny

But I kept the tent in front, just in case I got the urge to leave for the woods in the spur of the moment. I probably won’t, but who knows.