Camping Trip

Jason and I went on a camping this past week. Here are a few excerpts and pictuers from the journal I kept. Just a fair warning, it is kind of a long post. Enjoy:

Day One, Wednesday, May 21
Jason and I had a some good conversations regarding the kids and then politics. Conversation died and I started reading…who am I kidding, I fell asleep...about 8:30 p.m. Texas time, we were finally at camp. It took about an hour to set up at which time I was able to cook us dinner. We both had a bell pepper, onion, bacon and cheese omelet, 2 pieces of bacon, and some fry bread. It was delicious. At 10:30 p.m., we headed to bed. What a long day! But we are both so excited to be here, together and alone, not having to worry about anything besides each other and relaxing. Oh, yeah, during our drive, we saw a large herd of elk, a separate herd of six bull elk in velvet, a few scattered deer, a grouse, a wild turkey and a bunny rabbit.






Day Two, Thursday, May 22
...headed out to go fishing at Monument Lake. On the way out of the park, we spotted a nice looking big horn sheep and a young big horn sheep. The young one was really white and other one looked like he had some years on him. His horns almost made a full curl. When we arrived at Monument Lake, we discovered that they have all types of facilities available from primitive campsites, to full RV hookups, cabins and a motel. They even have a game/laundry room, a restaurant and a store. The prices for the primitive campsites are reasonable and we decided that if someone shows up insisting that we pay to continue to stay here, we will probably move down there. A park pass if $5.50 to be able to fish for the day, so we paid it and found a good spot to fish.



I didn’t have any luck catching fish, Jason, however caught 2. The first one he caught, he let Sadie play with. It was so funny. She would nip at a little bit and then back away. She kept trying to take it by the tail which really didn’t help her much. She finally got it by the top fin and carried about 4 feet away from where Jason had it. She tried nibbling on it for a second or two but the fish kept flopping around in her mouth so she finally gave up.





It was windy, rainy and just plain ugly out, so we decided to head back to the trailer and have some lunch...We spotted a nice herd of cow elk totaling about 54 if our count was correct. It also included a young spike elk who is was still in hard horn which really confused us. We also saw a cow elk all alone. We spotted quite a few deer as well. We ended up back at the trailer a little later than we anticipated and I had to wait on Jason to clean the fish before I could cook dinner. We had homemade mashed potatoes and wild hog/venison sausage with a salad and fry bread. We were both very skeptical about the sausage but all in all it was really good...It snowed/sleeted/rained off and on all day. We had maybe an three hours of good sunshine but even then, the wind was blowing cold and you could see the dark clouds looming over head.

Day Three, Friday, May 23
I made us both a sausage, egg and cheese burrito (mine also had left over mashed potatoes) and a glass of orange juice and sent him on a hike for a few hours. While he was gone, I did the dishes and took sponge bath while washing my hair. I attempted to lay out on the hammock, but snow once again prevented me from enjoying being outside...The camp host stopped by and made conversation for a few minutes but said he was not putting up signs any time soon and not to worry about it anyone came asking if we had paid. He said he would let us know if he needed us to pay or whatever...We drove around for while and eventually ended up at North Lake. We were both pretty cynical about fishing this lake because they required that you only use flies or fake lures-no bait. Jason reset my pole and I started fishing. On my third cast, I caught a fish. Jason took it off the hook for me and put it on the stringer. I cast three or four more times and caught another on. This time Jason, who had not even left the truck threw the needle nose pliers down at me with a look of disgust indicating that I was to take care of that one all by myself. With in twenty minutes, I had caught three fish and Jason had lost two. I started wondering up and down the shore for the next hour, in which I caught one more and Jason caught one more. Once again, it started sleeting and the wind started blowing, so I decided I was done fishing for the time being. Jason decided he was too and we loaded up the truck. We ran to the bathroom and by the time we were done (it took all of about two minutes) the storm had started to pass...About half a mile from the lake, we started seeing deer. We drove less than two miles and saw a total of 26 deer. We also found our lone cow elk as well. We returned to the trailer and located our herd of big horn sheep. The oldest one of the group was perched on this rock overlook. We watched them for about ten minutes and then made our way back to the trailer.



We have a few more neighbors than before, they are all in tents though, poor souls. Dinner was chicken fried venison, cream gravy, macaroni and cheese, corn, salad and fry bread. It was the best cream gravy I have made it a long time.

Day Four, Saturday, May 24
On the way to the area we wanted to hike, we spotted the big horn sheep again. They were down a lot farther than they had been previously and Jason decided he wanted to see how close he could get. He was gone for about 20 minutes and was excited to end up 16 yards from them...After hiking, we headed to fish. Jason decided he wanted few new lures to fish North Lake so we went to Stonewall, the little store we stopped at yesterday. They have a restaurant there and to treat me, Jason bought us lunch. We both had Elk Burgers and fries. It was okay but not the best burger ever. Jason found our waitress quite annoying. Jason bought a package of flies, and a new lure. I found this little sign that was really cool. It says “God sees us for what we could be but loves us as we are.” It was cheap so Jason bought that for me as well. We drove back over to North Lake and fished for a while. Jason had some luck, but again, the weather was miserable and uncooperative-windy and very cold




...Blue Lake had a few fisherman already there. Within the first fifteen minutes Jason caught some fish but I was completely unsuccessful. I was also fairly miserable. It was about 10 degrees colder at Blue Lake than at the campsite and the wind was blowing....all in all we ended up seeing a large herd of elk in the distance and about 15 elk on the roadside. They had either just crossed the road or were about to do so. We also saw 6 deer. After I took the turn to camp, we had one large bull elk cross the road in the headlights about 40 yards in front of us.

Day Five, Sunday, May 25
I was really tired and before we even made it off the dirt road onto the highway, I was asleep. Jason needed gas and decided to make a trip to Cuchura since I was sleeping so well. However, he discovered that they don’t have a gas station so he had to drive on to La Veta. When he pulled into the gas station, I woke up...The ice had melted off of Bear Lake which really surprised us. The fishing was horrible. Neither of us got a bite. In fact of the 10 or so people fishing on the lake, only one guy who was fly fishing was catching anything. We moved back down to Blue Lake and pretty much had the same experience. After about 2 and a half hours of sitting in the wind (thankfully the snow/sleet/rain combo has gone away) with lines in the water and not getting anything, we decided to head down and see what North Lake looked like...

Day Six, Monday, May 26 (our seventh year anniversary)
Jason and I both only sort of woke up around 6:45 and Jason immediate said “happy anniversary.” I responded and we both rolled over and went back to sleep. I slept for another 30 minutes or so and then got up and went and laid out on the hammock. It was wonderful. Jason woke up around 8:30 and we heated up the sausage biscuits and headed out to go fishing and Monument. On the way out, we spotted three of the big horn sheep. We paid the $5.50 for the park pass Monument and headed over to “the Texas fishing hole.” I caught one pretty quick and then we both sat for a while before Jason caught two. I switched bait and the fish immediately started slamming the line. We caught our limit and came back to the trailer...I laid in the hammock and read my book while Jason played with Sadie. He also found great entertainment in seeing how far he could swing me back and forth in the hammock before I fell out or became hysterical. I became hysterical before I could fall out of the hammock...





We had an early dinner of beef tenderloin (cooked on the grill perfectly by me), ranch style beans, stuffing, salad and fry bread. We ended up eating outside on the provided picnic table because it was way too hot in the trailer. It was a beautiful day to do that...We headed over to the Farely overlook and after the turn spotted a group of five bull elk. Driving up the rode farther to turn around, Jason spotted the most beautiful bull elk we have seen all week. In velvet, he had already grown both eye guards, his thirds and his antlers were splitting for his fourth and fifth points. Jason figures come hunting season he will more than likely be a large six or seven point. He was also very cooperative and gave Jason some great opportunities for pictures. All in all, the animal count for the day was 66 elk, 13 deer and five sheep as well as the eight fish we caught and the three that got away on the shoreline.




Day Seven, Tuesday, May 27
On our way out, part of the group of sheep we had seen all week was down on the road. It was really cool. Jason got some great pictures of them. The drive out was uneventful and eventually, as I always do, I fell asleep.We stopped for gas in Raton, New Mexico and continued on. In Clayton, New Mexico, Jason needed a break from driving and had me drive. I have never really driven the truck while towing the trailer, so it was a new experience for me. Jason said I drive better while pulling the trailer than just driving the truck. Twerp...We arrived home to find out that a storm had knocked out our air conditioner and our maintenance man was unable to fix it because he didn’t have the right part. So we opened the windows and attempted to stay in the house. That didn’t last very long especially after finding out that the same store blew the power supply on our computer monitor!...We ended up out in the trailer where we were able to plug it into the house and sleep with air conditioning. We watched the movie, Amazing Grace, which it the story about William Wilberforce who in the 18th century spent years attempting to end slave trade in the British Empire. It was a really good movie, but very slow. I think we ended up going to bed around midnight.