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I did make a terrible packing mistake this year - I forgot pillows!! So we had to do with throw pillows from our friends' trailer and the back pillow I brought.
Jimmy insisted this year that I do some fishing with him. So Friday morning we woke up and grabbed our gear. Jimmy tied the lure and even casted for me the first couple of times. Then he walked me through when to reel it in and when to jig. Sure enough I got my first bite. Again, he talked me through how to reel my big catch in and voila! I caught a fish.
As you can see I didn't want to touch it so Jimmy gave we a rag to hold it with. I felt really sad watching it die. But what we are catching is dinner for Saturday night so I had to come to peace with it if I wanted to eat. I got two more bites later that day but both escaped.
One of these is mine.
Later that day Dave Wahl (Mike's brother) joined our camping trip. I was disappointed because I was hoping his wife Maria Elena was going to come because she is preggo too (about 2 months behind me)! But unfortunately she couldn't make it this year. Dave is a geologist/college professor and works for the National Geological Society and National Geographic. He told us of this great hike that is in the area where the oldest living thing in the world grows. Well we couldn't pass up that opportunity so........
On Saturday we went to the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest. This forest is home to some of the oldest trees in the world. Who knew! Led by Dave, all of us (Cheryl, Brad, Danny, Mike, Robin, Alyssa, Christina, Travis, Kevin, Jimmy and I) went in search of the 4,800 year old Methuselah Tree. This tree is one of our nations biggest secrets. Believe it or not. There are no pictures nor will our government print where it exactly is. Dave has a friend that has actually taken a core sample from the tree and described it to Dave so we thought we had a good chance of finding it. Our 4.5 mile hike at approximately 10,000 feet elevation took us down 400 feet then back up 400 feet at it's end. And yes I did it at 7 months pregnant. (My doctor had to pick her jaw up off the floor when I told her.) It took us about 5 hours but that is because we stopped at every tree that was close to the description we had and inspected it thoroughly. And every mile for a short rest, water and a snack.
In the end we never did officially find the Methuselah Tree. We did come across three finalists though.
That night we had our group fish cook out. Jimmy ened up contributing about 6 (plus my big catch!) for a great dinner. We sang songs around the fire pit and ate s'mores.
The next morning is all about breakfast and cleaning up. We had breakfast at the Wahl's camp of omelets made in a ziplock. This is a camping favorite! Then packed up our trailer and headed home. Another great camping trip was complete! Check out our photo album for hundreds of photos of our trip.
