The First Camping Trip Of The Year: Day 2

by Nick Coons
Jun 4, 2003

<< Day 1

I'm here again laying under my new favorite pine tree, waiting for the next cool breeze. On a three-day backpacking trip, your first day's energy is spent locating a good site and setting up camp. The third day is for packing up and leaving. But the real fun happens on that second day when you have an entire 15 hours of day light, and don't need to spend any time setting up nor breaking down.

We continued upstream stopping at several fishing holes and taking many pictures. And whenever you forget to bring your water shoes, you'll inevitably encounter a place where you have to cross the creek, and there'll be no place to walk. So several minutes and four moderately cold feet later, we were on the other side. Continuing on, we encountered some gorgeous springs seeping right from the side of the canyon walls, and into an awesome pool with "strategically placed" boulders just right for sun-bathing.

After making our way back to camp, I made a new pillow by stuffing soft, green grass into one of my shirts and tying off all the ends. This is simply an attempt at reducing the amount of neck-kink I'll feel tomorrow morning.

I've just been notified by two-way radio that my dad has caught some extra food for dinner, so we'll be eating well tonight.

Laying here in bed and listening to the sound of crickets; sometimes I wish they'd be quiet, and other times I'm glad they're there, because they drown out all the other sounds I might not want to hear. The creek water, on the other hand, is very soothing. And my new grass-stuffed shirt pillow is comfortable, at least enough to help me fall asleep more quickly tonight.

Day 3 >>