Piney Lake Camping Trip

The weekend after Russell left, we went camping. It was real, in the middle of nowhere, no cell phone service, cook over a campfire (or a camping stove), pee in the woods (most of the time), keep your food in the car or tie it in the tree camping. I had never been camping before. Micah had done a men's retreat in college where they went camping similar to this, but I hadn't. It was a blast!

On our way up to the camp Friday evening we saw 3 moose! (Many much moosen! I saw a flock of moosen in the woodsen! - if you don't get it, listen to more Brian Regan) We saw a mom and baby and then a buck with big antlers! After we ate, we went for a walk to the lake, about a 10 minute walk, and looked at the stars. While we were there, we heard a big splash. We used our friend's flashlight, that is really more like a spotlight, and watched a moose swim across the lake! After the moose ran into the woods on the other side, we watched the moon rise over the mountains. It was a beautiful night.

I lightened the one spot that the moose is in, so you can kinda see the male:
The entire picture was lightened, so you can see the moose:

The next day, we went canoeing. The lake has a camp complete with lodge, cabins, bathrooms (that are open some of the time), and canoe rentals. It took some time to talk Micah into it, but by the end of the hour, we were getting fairly good at maneuvering the canoe. We had a great view and a great morning and afternoon. That evening it rained for about 2 hours and we all huddled in one tent and played some games.

View from campsite:
View from the road at our campsite:
At the lake:
The canoes we would use:
Canoeing:


Sunset:


Sunday morning was a lazy one. We took a short hike before we left. The path we were on takes you to a waterfall, but we had to be back home by 4:30, so we had to turn around before we got to the waterfall. The wildflowers and aspens were beautiful!

We saw a marmot on our hike:

The aspen grove:
The beautiful wildflowers: