My day in the woods
Oh, it was beautiful! It was rainy, but beautiful! I quickly figured
out why I was longing to go up there again. All I can say is that it is
simply beautiful up there.
...to get to Whistlin’ Jack Lodge. We were there a little early, and Hubby had never been up there, so we took a little walk around. We then went inside the restaurant to get a cup of coffee/tea and wait for my folks to arrive. We were only going to get something to drink until he saw the breakfast special. “Chef’s signature French toast”, which is 2 slices of French bread, crusted with coconut, grilled lightly to perfection, with a Boston crème filling, and strawberries/strawberry sauce on top. It came with eggs and ham bacon or sausage. So we ordered that to share. It was scrumptious! Mom & Dad showed up a few minutes later and joined us.
Heading out, my dad looks at me smiling and asks, “Had your Jeep in four wheel drive lately?” “Why?” “Oh, it’s a little muddy up at camp.” With a small smirk on our faces, we each get into our own Jeep and get moving.
Fifteen minutes farther up the highway, we turn onto a road and head “up into the mountain” to camp. Driving along, I am searching my memory, wanting for something to trigger that spark. Nothing is looking familiar. Oh, it is absolutely beautiful, but not familiar. Hubby keeps commenting about how peaceful and beautiful the surrounds are. I’m beginning to think he likes it here.
Dad turns off the road and I watch his blue jeep go bouncing along, disappearing behind the brush. As we get closer, I look ahead and see their truck & camper, then look at the little trail that leads to it. I feel a huge smile spread across my face as I reach down and pull back on the lever that puts my Jeep into four-wheel drive. We started our way bouncing towards camp, me giggling all the way. Then we hit the mud hole. As we go fishtailing through, laughing all the while, I’m hoping that there’s enough room to get straightened out before we hit dad’s jeep.
After a quick walk around camp and down by the river, mom asks if we want to go for a ride. Hubby quickly agrees, so we all pile back into dad’s jeep. Up the road we go. I am surveying the territory again, hoping to find that one place that has etched itself forever into my memory. All those years up here, shouldn’t something be looking or feeling familiar?
Then, all of a sudden, there it is. As we come around a bend, I see it. The gravel pit! I know, sounds kind of lame, but that’s part of the whole image. This HUGE gravel pile that was almost as tall as the trees. What it was used for, I have no idea, I didn’t care. Of course, now it seems a LOT smaller and the trees are bigger, but that was part of what I was looking for! I knew that across the road from that pit was where I had spent all those years of childhood fun, wandering through the trees, playing in the meadow (watching in awe as a doe cautiously watched for danger while her fawn romped around in the open sunshine and played in the grass).
Oh, it was a wonderful feeling. I guess I didn’t realize how big an impression that place had left on me. I know it sounds silly, but I almost felt like a little kid again, in the back seat of daddy’s jeep, anxiously waiting for him to stop so I could get out and run around! But there were others camped there, so I instead looked longingly out the window.
Back out on the road we head farther up. It is still raining a bit, but not bad. A couple more miles and I notice that the rain has picked up and it looked a little ‘chunky’. A few more miles, there seems to be some white stuff covering the road, quite slushy. In a matter of minutes, it was snowing pretty hard. When the jeep started having difficulty staying on course, we decided to turn around. We were at about 3200’ elevation at that point. Camp was at about 2100’. In less than ten miles, we had climbed over a thousand feet!
Back at camp, dad & I wandered around the riverbank, discussing the best spots to drop in a line. We would definitely have to come back to this spot again.
Hubby and I fixed them their anniversary dinner: Grilled fresh salmon, grilled baby red potatoes, garden salad and rolls. It was the best dinner I have eaten in a very long time! Great food, great atmosphere… it was all great.
Too bad we were only there for the day.
We got home smelling of campfire and rain…. I loved it!
...to get to Whistlin’ Jack Lodge. We were there a little early, and Hubby had never been up there, so we took a little walk around. We then went inside the restaurant to get a cup of coffee/tea and wait for my folks to arrive. We were only going to get something to drink until he saw the breakfast special. “Chef’s signature French toast”, which is 2 slices of French bread, crusted with coconut, grilled lightly to perfection, with a Boston crème filling, and strawberries/strawberry sauce on top. It came with eggs and ham bacon or sausage. So we ordered that to share. It was scrumptious! Mom & Dad showed up a few minutes later and joined us.
Heading out, my dad looks at me smiling and asks, “Had your Jeep in four wheel drive lately?” “Why?” “Oh, it’s a little muddy up at camp.” With a small smirk on our faces, we each get into our own Jeep and get moving.
Fifteen minutes farther up the highway, we turn onto a road and head “up into the mountain” to camp. Driving along, I am searching my memory, wanting for something to trigger that spark. Nothing is looking familiar. Oh, it is absolutely beautiful, but not familiar. Hubby keeps commenting about how peaceful and beautiful the surrounds are. I’m beginning to think he likes it here.
Dad turns off the road and I watch his blue jeep go bouncing along, disappearing behind the brush. As we get closer, I look ahead and see their truck & camper, then look at the little trail that leads to it. I feel a huge smile spread across my face as I reach down and pull back on the lever that puts my Jeep into four-wheel drive. We started our way bouncing towards camp, me giggling all the way. Then we hit the mud hole. As we go fishtailing through, laughing all the while, I’m hoping that there’s enough room to get straightened out before we hit dad’s jeep.
After a quick walk around camp and down by the river, mom asks if we want to go for a ride. Hubby quickly agrees, so we all pile back into dad’s jeep. Up the road we go. I am surveying the territory again, hoping to find that one place that has etched itself forever into my memory. All those years up here, shouldn’t something be looking or feeling familiar?
Then, all of a sudden, there it is. As we come around a bend, I see it. The gravel pit! I know, sounds kind of lame, but that’s part of the whole image. This HUGE gravel pile that was almost as tall as the trees. What it was used for, I have no idea, I didn’t care. Of course, now it seems a LOT smaller and the trees are bigger, but that was part of what I was looking for! I knew that across the road from that pit was where I had spent all those years of childhood fun, wandering through the trees, playing in the meadow (watching in awe as a doe cautiously watched for danger while her fawn romped around in the open sunshine and played in the grass).
Oh, it was a wonderful feeling. I guess I didn’t realize how big an impression that place had left on me. I know it sounds silly, but I almost felt like a little kid again, in the back seat of daddy’s jeep, anxiously waiting for him to stop so I could get out and run around! But there were others camped there, so I instead looked longingly out the window.
Back out on the road we head farther up. It is still raining a bit, but not bad. A couple more miles and I notice that the rain has picked up and it looked a little ‘chunky’. A few more miles, there seems to be some white stuff covering the road, quite slushy. In a matter of minutes, it was snowing pretty hard. When the jeep started having difficulty staying on course, we decided to turn around. We were at about 3200’ elevation at that point. Camp was at about 2100’. In less than ten miles, we had climbed over a thousand feet!
Back at camp, dad & I wandered around the riverbank, discussing the best spots to drop in a line. We would definitely have to come back to this spot again.
Hubby and I fixed them their anniversary dinner: Grilled fresh salmon, grilled baby red potatoes, garden salad and rolls. It was the best dinner I have eaten in a very long time! Great food, great atmosphere… it was all great.
Too bad we were only there for the day.
We got home smelling of campfire and rain…. I loved it!