June Camping at Ponderosa

Wed. Jun 19, 2024

A few months ago, Pat and I found an open reservation when he had a day off of work, so we grabbed it. I’ve been wanting to camp more because it’s becoming quite a necessity for me: being in the trees and having beautiful hikes. It really fills my soul.

 

Last time it was quite chilly and our campsite was filled with pine needles. The kids were excited to have the same experience, but it’s quite astounding what a difference it makes to be in a different campsite one month later. Our site was quite sunny with only brush & bushes around us instead of trees. At first I was bummed, but over time I saw the benefit of having a different experience. Now instead of burning pine needles, the children found different activities to occupy them: mostly burning ants with the magnifying glasses I brought. Ha!

I brought a big bag of sunflower seeds this time, so they also passed the time chewing on those and trying to lure a local chipmunk to eat some seeds out of their hands. (Anderson is a nail-biter so he particularly enjoyed the unpeeled sunflower seeds).

Thurs. June 20, 2024

Pat found a beautiful trail for us to hike: Goose Creek Trail. The destination was a waterfall. I was hoping it was a gentle waterfall that we could play in, but that was not the case! It was big and rushing, and actually got us quite scared as Pat tried to take a picture with us near. (We had a bit of an event with Heidi when she didn’t want to obey us, and because of her rebelling got close to pushing Pat into the falls… or herself. And these are falls that you don’t come back from. It, unfortunately, changes the energy of the day when Pat and I are both outright yelling at her to follow our instructions so that we can all be safe.

More than even on this hike I felt like I was a listening ear to the complainers. I’m still deciding if it was good to be someone they could vent to, or if I’m enabling them by developing a Pavlovian response to hiking with me: “When I’m with mom, I tell her everything going wrong and all my pains and issues.”

I was starting to get worried about Anderson (and his pains) when we found a giant rock that the children started climbing on. I encouraged Ander to join and boy, what a turnaround! He has an epic mind over matter. Just mere moments before he didn’t think he could go on the hike. Then The thrill and challenge of scaling the large boulder breathed into him new vitality and health. I was grateful for it though because it made the hike much more emotionally manageable for me, for a time.  

 

Pat always wakes up my Fear by maneuvering out to (what I think are) dangerous positions to get a picture of us & the falls. 

A penny for your thoughts?

The trail was absolutely beautiful. I told Pat, “This is the kind of trail that fills my soul. It reminds me of the good trails in Connecticut & Washington”

We decided to go for a swim not realizing how bitterly cold it would be. I opted to observe from shore. We found out too late that Chase did a poor job packing himself (i.e. forgetting his swimsuit). So he stripped down to his underwear, which of course were these awful white briefs (insert head slap emoji). That poor kid is so skinny I thought he wouldn’t last a second in the cold water. But he is very stubborn and endured the frigid water for a surprisingly long time. 

Numerous times a scraggly deer casually walked through the bushes of our campsite. It was pretty neat that it got so close. Although I guess it wasn’t totally without fear, since it wouldn’t let Lydia get close enough to touch it.