Goin on a Bear Hunt

So throughout my college career I think I sang the song/chant "Going on a Bear Hunt" like a bizillion times. (That's what happens when you work with 3-8 year old kiddos!) I think that's why I always think of bears when I think about camping......or its just the whole bears-live-in-the-forest thing. Either way, whenever we go camping, I tell Mitch I'm terrified of running into a bear. Or having a bear run into me.

But in all honesty, I think the coolest thing ever would be to be driving down a dirt road somewhere and stumble across a gigantic grizzly. And maybe a few cubs.

Notice how I said driving...so that means I'm inside the indestructible truck.

One time I saw three black bears while boating. IT WAS SO COOL. We were just cruising down the lake at Island Park and wha-LA! Two rather large black bears were fishing off of the bank. It was kind of an adreniline rush because we were extremely close before we noticed them. My dad stopped the boat and we watched them do their thing for a few minutes before they trotted (galloped? ran? scampered? what the heck do bears do?) back up into the trees. Watching them fish was incredible. I swear that everytime their paw went in the water after some food, it came back out with a fish. And then they just threw their heads back and ate it whole. Pretty amazing. The third bear we saw that trip looked like a log. My little brother was kneeboarding and I was scowering the trees on the bank looking for more bears (obviously after we saw the two this became the thing to do the rest of the week we were there). I had psyched myself out so many times since we had seen the two bears fishing that the first moment I saw this bear I convinced myself I was seeing things and didn't say anything. We must have been going fairly slow because I stared at it forever. It wasn't until my little sister yelled at my brother that the bear looked up to see what was going on. Then I yelled frantically that there was a bear....cause once again we were really close to it. This one was probably a good 20 feet from the bank among a lot a trees, but we were directly down the little hill from it. As soon as I started yelling my dad stopped the boat. We all kind of forgot about my little brother kneeboarding until he panicked when he noticed why we stopped. Then we pulled him back into the boat.

Don't worry, no one got eaten.

Although that would have probably made a more interesting story.

Wow, I got really side tracked. I guess that's what happens when you try to write things at 7:00 am.

Back to camping. Mitch would probably live outdoors if he could. In a tent. By himself. Or with very few people. In fact, his friends have told me multiple times that his life-long plan for a long time was to go to the mountains and be a mountain man. I think it was a goal a lot of them actually believed would  happen sooner rather than later. Then I came along. I have no plans of living in a tent in the mountains in the middle of no where. Maybe a house in the mountains, but preferably not in the middle of no where.

Back to camping. My husband pretty much lives for it, and I really love it too. We both grew up camping a lot with our families. There's something that's just fantastic about being outdoors for an extended period of time. The whole camp fire, good food, clean air, beautiful surroundings, etc. really get to ya!

We've been three times so far this summer, which is actually more that I got to do last year beacause I was so busy finishing my degree and such! One of the awesome things about camping is that it is virtually free. Unless you want to eat.

Here's some pictures of our most recent trips, but for some reason trip #2 to The Ranch with Mitch's family didn't get photographed.

Trip #1: Our First Camping Trip of the Summer (except there was still snow in some places....it was May!) And our First Camping Trip Together

The Camper and Truck and Husband

We went up Moody this time!

Mitch sweeping out the camper...weird, he sweeps more when we're camping than when we're at home :)

Making dinner!

Mitch and Ana

Tin Foil Dinners....YUM.

PG-13

So it was freezing...and according to Mitch this was the fastest way to warm up the camper! I was pretty convinced we were going to die from inhaling fumes.

Still freezing

Camping Trip #3: Attack of the Misquitos but Super Nice Weather!

So this camping trip was just fun as the other two! We went with our friends/cousins Zane and Shaleece up to Horseshoe Lake. The weather was perfect and it was INCREDIBLY nice to get away from the world and just relax. We went fishing, ate some amazing food, went to Cave Falls, played cards, slept, ate more food, cooked marshmallows, went hiking, and ate even more food! It was pretty much the perfect little vacation. Except for the killer misquitos. I've honestly never seen so many in my life.

Fishing! I love this picture!

Cooking biscuit things...I think. It was HOT.

Mitch and Ana

So basically I would cast my line out, and then if it got caught on anything Mitch would walk out there and free it. Sheesh I have a good husband!

Cooking some food..the misquitos were SO bad!!

Cave Falls

Zane and Mitch

Cave Falls!

Cave Falls....sooooo pretty!

Shaleece..the amazing little photographer. Half these pictures are hers!

Us again...

This tree at Cave Falls is totally about to fall over.
You can't really see it, but all the roots on the left are completely exposed!

Camp! All the white spots are deadly misquitos or ashes!

More misquitos. And Shaleece peeking out of the tent hahaha

Mitch hiding from bugs...

CAMP! (those are our new chairs and our new cooler! boo ya!)

 

Zane skipping a rock...and Ana...just standing there.

Camping rocks!