The First Camping Trip Of The Year

by Nick Coons
May 28, 2003

The first camping trip of the year is always the one where you forget the most supplies. This past weekend was my first of the year at East Clear Creek at right about 7,000 feet. We ended up leaving a day late caused by delays in attempting to locate our lost backpacking stove.

For those of you that are unaware, a backpacking stove is a small piece of metal with a burner and a gas tap, totaling a fraction of a pound and only several inches across. It attaches to a comparably sized can of fuel. And when backpacking for several days, you want to take as few supplies as possible -- No one wants to carry unnecessary weight.

The next morning, we squared-away the stove issue and we were on our way. Passing through Payson and into Pine, we stopped at a place called the "Nifty 50's Diner" for breakfast (no, there's no official review on the site as of this writing). It's a very casual little place, very inexpensive, and some pretty good biscuits and gravy.

Continuing north, we approached Forest Road 95, our turn. This was a short five-mile dirt road which lead to the trail head. So now came the tough part; backpacking down into the canyon. After some long searching, we found the ideal location next to a beautiful swimming hole with lots of hungry fish and a shady pine tree, under which I am currently laying while enjoying a cool breeze, listening to a woodpecker knocking on a distant tree, and writing this.

So far, my dad has caught two fish, one which measured 21 inches in length that we threw back because it was too much to eat and we have no way to store it for the next two days until we leave. The second I have yet to measure, but it is comfortably smaller, and should compliment tonight's dinner nicely.

Day 2 >>