Camp Frozen Dune

So, that happened. Camping, I mean.

Friday afternoon the boy scouts gathered at the scoutmaster's house to caravan to the camp site. Questions about where we were going were answered by naming some person that apparently everyone in Idaho knows. "It's at so-and-so's place." Oh. Okay, then.

Eventually I was able to get someone to point out where we were going, more or less, on a map. And eventually we were off. The property was a patch of dirt in the scrubland just a few minutes from some local sand dunes.


We basically got there in time to set up camp and cook dinner. Then we hung around the fire and the kids told scary stories while I tried to watch the Jazz game on my phone (there was surprisingly decent reception). Of course it rained a bit, which is pretty much a legal requirement when you camp, and then it cleared up and the temperature plummeted. We all scrambled for our tents and, in my case, shivered for the next 8 hours.

I hadn't been camping in 20 years, so maybe I just forgot how cold camping was. I had brought several jackets and plenty of warm clothing, and I put on as much as I reasonably could, but I pretty much lay there all night shivering. The air mattress was better than being on the ground, I'm sure, but I basically didn't get any sleep. I got up around 4 to find a bush, and the one positive thing I can say is that the sky was incredible. I don't know if I have ever seen stars like that. I eve caught a couple shooting stars, as Friday night was supposed to be the peak of the Lyrid meteor shower.

I was happy when people got up and moving around 6:30, and I could get moving again. I went on a run with one of the guys in the ward who is a crazy ultramarathoner, and we packed up after breakfast. We stopped by the dunes themselves to let the boys run around and jump off them for a while.



Sam is the one in the air there.

He had fun, which is what is important. But I'm hoping we can go in the summer next time.

Comments

Lori said…
Glad you survived! Brrrr.
April 26, 2017 at 6:40 PM
)en said…
Brrrrr. I guess it's unavoidable to have some icy campouts if the scouts are going to get in their requisite 500/year. #scoutswhy
May 3, 2017 at 9:39 PM
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