Yesterday Chris and I decided to go out to the West Desert for a day of camp. It was 3 summers ago since Chris worked doing Wilderness Therapy for Troubled Teens which he quit to date me and has longed to take me out there to have the experience and knowledge of how they would camp.
Again it has been 3 years for Chris and he never was the driver of the vehicles that brought them out so lets just say we were going on memory with there being no time to get a map for that area. I had NO idea what was out there. I thought it was flat and thought no one lived past the Ranches. I was wrong! There is actual civilization clear out in mid nowhere with Mountains and tons of sage brush! The sunset was so beautiful and the drive was pleasant!!! That of course was until we turned off the road "in my mind WAY too soon," which I discovered on our way back home! Chris had a lot of fun driving his father's truck on the dirt roads that we drove for a good hour or more trying to reach this particular Mountain side that we never did get to. It was now dark and we felt our eyes playing tricks on us since we thought we were seeing fire's in the far distance but ended up being cars? Then we started driving along a railroad track which we felt was a bit crazy to see before we hit a main road!!! At that point we had no idea where we were since it was not where Chris thought we were! None the less we continued west and came up from the South end of the last gas station that Chris remembered in a town called Vernon! We passed through "town" and when we saw the lights of Dugway in the distance we new we were out far enough to make camp.
It is now 11pm and Chris is still determined to do things the old fashioned way! We hung the tarp up using the Juniper trees in replace of a perfectly good tent that could keep me "safe" from bugs. We then walked around in search of some good sage branches to carve a bow drill which needed a spindle, rope, drill board and a flat rock to use as a top rock. Chris put it all together but we could not find a rock that would work. With it being just after midnight and with grumbling tummies, Chris pulled out the matches! Matches!!! If I would have known, I would have convinced him to show me the old fashion way of starting a fire in the morning! None the less I picked the one thing that would be cooked the quickest! Chris wanted to prepare the tomato soup which I did not have the patience for. I pulled out the hot dogs to later find out that he did not bring ketchup or mustard so lets say they were a bit bla. I was already done with my hot dogs and since Chris' soup was not warm yet, he ate my other prepared hot dog. The one thing about camping is that you will eat just about anything! So when Chris accidently grabbed one toamto and one cream of mushroom (FYI- I will need to seperate the different caned soups) and mixed them together with a touch of seasoning, it made a VERY interesting taste! Then while eating, we spotted a beatle that was masive and the ugliest spider EVER! It was just as big with EXTRA arms!!! Lets just say I could not let Chris remove the light from the ground untill I made it safe into the back of the truck! I was not going to sleep under a tarp on the same ground at that point and I hope to be able to say that I never will!
Unfortunantly I will not be able to camp the way Chris loves to camp but at least he will always get me out there with my tent :)
Chris, Aaron and Josh took James out on a father son overnight camp out for a Father's day gift from last year. Chris will have to share with you the experience they had since it sounded like a really fun hike! Chris enjoyed spending some quality time with his dad and liked listening to some fun stories that he had not heard previously. I am so grateful for this time they took to spend together and for Chris to take a day off work to step out and do what he loves most!
