For those of you who just want to browse the photos taken at this cycle camp, here is the gallery! The photos were taken with cell phones by various people, most likely while under the influence. ;-p Also, I was too lazy to put the photos in chronological order in the gallery. Sorry :-(
So, we (myself, Travis Poppe, and Dan Lloyd) decided to do an early spring cycle camp, and in Idaho, by the way, “early spring” is May. April is rather chilly and snow is still usually plentiful above 7,000 ft. or so. We felt like camping somewhere fairly close and with some trees so Travis could try out his new Hennessy Hammock. Dan knew some other folks who also wanted to camp with us, so we conveniently took advantage of the SUV they were going to drive and made them haul food, water, and firewood. I guess we kind of cheated. :-)
At this point in our cycle camping career, we are pretty accustomed to how to load our bicycles up, and soon the three of us were at Travis’ house and comparing equipment and so forth. Travis had his usual setup of 2 massive panniers, I had my usual child trailer, and Dan also had a child trailer. I hoisted both trailers to compare weight and Dan’s probably weighed about 70 lbs at least while mine was probably only 20 lbs! Dan is always going the extra mile. I was seriously wondering how he was going to pull off a 1600 foot climb up to Scout Mountain with all that weight and was anxious to see how he did.
Cycling up to the base of Scout Mountain wasn’t too bad. I actually stopped by a gas station on the way up and picked up a six pack of Samuel Adams Boston Lager and threw it in my trailer just to try to even out the weight difference between mine and Dan’s trailers! But then came the steep 5 mile climb to the camping area of the mountain. I shifted into my lowest gear, relaxed, and enjoyed the scenery for the most part, but I could tell through the last third of the climb that Dan was having a tough time. After pulling into the parking lot at the top, I quickly laid my bike down, grabbed a beer out of my trailer, and stood there slurping my beer while waiting for the others to arrive just to make their experience a little more frustrating. Bwahaha. :-) I then saw Dan walking his bike and trailer the last few feet up to the top and I thought he must be really, really having a tough time. Poor guy.
Dan’s friends had arrived about an hour before us, so they met us in the parking lot and led the way to the camp site. We then began drinking more beer, setting up tents, taking some photos, and having a good time. Dan, however, disappeared into his tent to lie down for a while and eat a few pieces of watermelon that his friends provided; yeah, he was definitely suffering from exhaustion and not feeling like partying much. Meanwhile, Travis took great glee in busting out his new hammock, tying it to a couple of trees, and figuring out how the rest was supposed to be put together.
After an hour or so, Dan was back to his usual self and was eating and drinking with the rest of us. Everyone then decided to take a walk and look for some geocaches. We actually found a geocache, an old abandoned amphitheater, and lots of great scenery. Later in the evening, more friends of ours drove up to the campsite and hung out with us. The most important event of the evening was the camp stove cook-off! This is where Travis, Dan, and Brian (one of our visiting friends) all took out their various camp stoves and saw who could get water to boil the fastest! Travis and Dan both had some sort of little propane fueled contraptions whereas Brian had one that required him to burn some twigs, while a AA battery powered fan blew upward beneath the burning embers. It looked like an episode of Science In The Great Outdoors or something. Congratulations to Travis who won with his Jetboil stove! After hanging out with more visiting friends, we all settled down for bed around midnight.
The next day, we had a breakfast of coffee, omelettes, and sausage (thanks to Leslie for showing us how to cook eggs in a plastic bag!). Dan’s friends decided to drive home so we helped them pack up, and Travis also decided to go home since he was hungover ;-) However, Dan and I wanted to do a short hike before heading home, so we took off to the south and saw some spectacular scenery. We definitely want to devote more time to hiking around Scout Mountain. It is a big mountain and there is a lot to see!
Then Dan and I wandered back to the camp site, made sure everything was packed up and the site was clean, and took off for home!
LOVE this! We had a lot of fun and hope to be invited again! Thanks for everything and it was really good to meet you guys!
Is this the trip I missed? If it is, I will NOT miss the next one! :) Looks like too much fun!
Hehe, yes, I’m afraid this is the trip you missed. SHAME ON YOU, SHAME!!11 Well, we’re bound to have a few more this summer and fall, so you can catch one of those. :-p