Camping Pictures! Image-heavy!
This post has been a while in the coming, hasn't it? ^___^-
I said so before, and I'll say it again- this place is beautiful. Menchi managed to fix my little laptop so that it can upload pictures onto Photobucket again, whoo, so you can get the slightly bigger photo-spam!
Got there early Friday morning, being the first group to secure the campsite! We didn't get the campsite we wanted, apparently, but we were told that the North Shore campsite opened up THAT VERY DAY. Cons being that there wasn't any running water or flushing toilets, but hey, FIRST PICK. And it was okay if only for the fact that we were there the first few days... so the out-houses didn't smell bad... yet.
This was our campsite! Setting up tents... second group has arrived, which makes it around noon or so. When we first got the campsite at 9am, I was terrified of camping for the weekend due to one thing: mosquitoes. While scouting the site, there were TONNES of mosquitoes around. Luckily, by 11am they cleared off to just about nothing. And didn't come back, whoo!
After setting up, we hit up a little beach pocket a short climb from the campsite. Skipped some stones and then ventured into the water... it was FREEZING! But beautiful water, fallen directly from melted snow atop the mountains. Not as pretty here, though... I didn't know it got prettier the higher it was, so the first swimming session was spent here.
Got back and had some food. Cooking over an open fire was an interesting experience... to watch! XD;;
We got some firewood, but Mike still had to chop most of it up. It was pretty cool since I think the majority of us took some turns chopping wood (for the experience; Mike did most of it), but wow am I amazed I didn't chop off a limb when I got the axe. My hand hurt a LOT the days after, though. I could barely feel my thumb because I apparently wasn't gripping the axe correctly so a lot of the shockwave of the hits were going straight into my hand.
Group three arrived while we were eating! Which just means... more food time!
After food time is obviously time for some exploring. I didn't truly understand how much I loved water until we started walking upstream from the lake. Simply breath-taking.
There is a part of the stream/river that is more rapids than anything else. I love it there. There are giant rocks to sit on that are flat enough you can lie there and just stare at the rushing water and appreciate the noise for hours. Sadly, I couldn't stay there for hours since everyone else got bored after a few minutes.
They did talk of returning to the rapids rock, though, although I'm not entirely sure whether that was because they loved it as well, or just to appease me. XD Sadly, we didn't exactly come back like we said we would.
Walked a little bit, and then started heading back... on the way back, though, I found myself completely distracted by the area right after the rapids... the water is so still you'd hardly believe that only a few meters up it was all rushing torrents of water. How beautiful is this water? I have never wanted to just jump in so badly in my entire life. I usually don't like going swimming in the ocean or lakes because I can't see what I'm stepping on. I don't like not knowing what's in the water with me. That's completely negated here.
What's amazing, though, is that this water is DEEP. Waist to completely taller than me. But it's so clear that it barely looks ankle-deep. I swear, if I hadn't been wearing jeans and velvet shirt (shush, I know it's not camping clothing but it worked) and if the water hadn't been absolutely freezing, I would have just... stepped right into it. Just to see how deep it is.
So I kind of stayed at the water until it was nearly sunset. ^^;; Night-time and the fire's nice and toasty, and Courtney's finally arrived as well. XD Setting up her tent in near darkness was certainly an experience! We also presented Mike with an Angel cake. Angel with a capital 'A'. XD As in Doctor Who angels. Happy birthday, Mike! XD
Saturday morning, and it's pretty cold in the tent despite "summer". Haha, summer. It wasn't summer yet that weekend. :P I was surprised I wasn't tired, seeing as we stayed up the night previous at the beach just watching the waves (I totally love the water there) since the stars were covered by clouds; singing songs that might have fit the atmosphere until a park ranger told us that no one was allowed at the beach at night (so sad).
Jose demonstrates his ability to pose for pictures even in the middle of cooking breakfast. XD And what a breakfast! I'm not sure if everyone got the meaning of camping, 'cause I expected more hot dogs and maybe a potato. Instead, we had cereal, eggs, french toast, hash browns, bacon, pancakes (with chocolate chips!), and... stuff. XD All freshly made, except for the cereal.
Tents in the morning. I felt all refreshed and awake Saturday morning!
Courtney on bacon duty. XD Menchi got a whole lot of bacon, and Jose brought even more. I never had as much bacon as I did that camping trip as I had my entire life (three strips... I can't eat more bacon than that. XD;;; ).
Heather demonstrates for us what we call a heart attack in a bite- bacon grease soaked hash wrapped in bacon. XD
So at this point, Chris, Amanda, and I have gone back to civilization for a bit because Chris needed internet to get his work schedule for the week and the two of us tagged along for some decent bathrooms. XDDDD When we got back, everyone had settled down in two different campsites to play board games.
I really wanted to go swimming so I dragged everyone away from their board games and we went upstream towards the rushing water/rapids- not super rushing water, but still fast and over a bunch of rocks. Most of it was rather shallow, but again, the water was freezing and really strong... most people couldn't get in the water because they thought it was too cold. It was one of those things to slowly get used to because when you first get in, it's actually painful.
But beautiful water is beautiful water! I loved it a lot so I pretty much just kept stepping in deeper. XD Everyone eventually ended up leaving for a calmer part of the water while Menchi and I waded up and down the rapids until I finally gave up after the water reached my waist and it got... well, more than a bit dangerous to wade in rushing water that height. ^^;;
The water is just so pretty you wouldn't believe it. I wanted to stay there all day despite it slowly sinking beneath freezing cold. Hiking? Pffft. Trees are trees, right?
I can't help it, though. The water was just so absolutely beautiful, I had to go splash in it. Melted snow water, yanno?
After the whole swimming scenario, which included going to the calmer parts and then diving in (whut, haha. I didn't do that, but I was in the water to my chest wading around) until the sun was behind clouds again and it just got way too cold to do that, we went hiking! Changed, of course. But right before sunset, Ricky, Chris, Sarah, Menchi and I decided to go see the lower falls... which meant hiking away from where we had gone previously the day before.
We found this amazing swimming place that had a log we could jump off into... well, really deep water. Didn't go swimming 'cause it was really close to sunset (as in, after 9pm) and again, this clean water is beautiful and clean because it's way cold, but we thought the others would have liked it if we were staying a bit longer.
Absolutely beautiful imagery. We were singing to LotR tunes around here. XD
Got to the lower falls just as the sun set. It was... wow. I've never seen a real waterfall like this before... only little fake ones in gardens, or things like that. Nothing compares to the roar of water over rocks, the mist in your face so far away, or the fact that if we wanted, we could have climbed directly under it. The feeling's just so much more different when there aren't gates and fences around it, and when the water's so clean.
This was the other side of the view, the rushing rapids over rocks as the water came down and then poured its way over the path. We stayed there until the sun set, just appreciating the scene, and then began the long trek back to the campsite in darkness. XD Good thing we all had flashlights. Still, it was quite hard to walk seeing as the path isn't even and I kept tripping over rocks and roots.
Sunday and it's clean-up time! We didn't manage to go back to the rapids after dark (haha, defying park rangers, whut?) to sit on the rocks, but we did have a very warm campfire the night before and people kept trying to feed us since we all brought too much food and wanted to clear some of it so there was some room in the cars. XD
Last of the clean-up! (Actually, that's a set-up picture, whoops.) Leaving the campsite as we found it. I mean, we did great, didn't we? For a weekend roughing it- no showers, running water, toilets... we got our water from a pump and carried buckets back, chopped our own wood and cooked food over an open fire. Granted, we also had portable stoves and grills, but I kind of want to go camping again.
....Maybe this time in a cabin with beds and modern bathrooms. I liked the nature part, not so much the lack of flushing toilets. XD;;
I said so before, and I'll say it again- this place is beautiful. Menchi managed to fix my little laptop so that it can upload pictures onto Photobucket again, whoo, so you can get the slightly bigger photo-spam!
Got there early Friday morning, being the first group to secure the campsite! We didn't get the campsite we wanted, apparently, but we were told that the North Shore campsite opened up THAT VERY DAY. Cons being that there wasn't any running water or flushing toilets, but hey, FIRST PICK. And it was okay if only for the fact that we were there the first few days... so the out-houses didn't smell bad... yet.
This was our campsite! Setting up tents... second group has arrived, which makes it around noon or so. When we first got the campsite at 9am, I was terrified of camping for the weekend due to one thing: mosquitoes. While scouting the site, there were TONNES of mosquitoes around. Luckily, by 11am they cleared off to just about nothing. And didn't come back, whoo!
After setting up, we hit up a little beach pocket a short climb from the campsite. Skipped some stones and then ventured into the water... it was FREEZING! But beautiful water, fallen directly from melted snow atop the mountains. Not as pretty here, though... I didn't know it got prettier the higher it was, so the first swimming session was spent here.
Got back and had some food. Cooking over an open fire was an interesting experience... to watch! XD;;
We got some firewood, but Mike still had to chop most of it up. It was pretty cool since I think the majority of us took some turns chopping wood (for the experience; Mike did most of it), but wow am I amazed I didn't chop off a limb when I got the axe. My hand hurt a LOT the days after, though. I could barely feel my thumb because I apparently wasn't gripping the axe correctly so a lot of the shockwave of the hits were going straight into my hand.
Group three arrived while we were eating! Which just means... more food time!
After food time is obviously time for some exploring. I didn't truly understand how much I loved water until we started walking upstream from the lake. Simply breath-taking.
There is a part of the stream/river that is more rapids than anything else. I love it there. There are giant rocks to sit on that are flat enough you can lie there and just stare at the rushing water and appreciate the noise for hours. Sadly, I couldn't stay there for hours since everyone else got bored after a few minutes.
They did talk of returning to the rapids rock, though, although I'm not entirely sure whether that was because they loved it as well, or just to appease me. XD Sadly, we didn't exactly come back like we said we would.
Walked a little bit, and then started heading back... on the way back, though, I found myself completely distracted by the area right after the rapids... the water is so still you'd hardly believe that only a few meters up it was all rushing torrents of water. How beautiful is this water? I have never wanted to just jump in so badly in my entire life. I usually don't like going swimming in the ocean or lakes because I can't see what I'm stepping on. I don't like not knowing what's in the water with me. That's completely negated here.
What's amazing, though, is that this water is DEEP. Waist to completely taller than me. But it's so clear that it barely looks ankle-deep. I swear, if I hadn't been wearing jeans and velvet shirt (shush, I know it's not camping clothing but it worked) and if the water hadn't been absolutely freezing, I would have just... stepped right into it. Just to see how deep it is.
So I kind of stayed at the water until it was nearly sunset. ^^;; Night-time and the fire's nice and toasty, and Courtney's finally arrived as well. XD Setting up her tent in near darkness was certainly an experience! We also presented Mike with an Angel cake. Angel with a capital 'A'. XD As in Doctor Who angels. Happy birthday, Mike! XD
Saturday morning, and it's pretty cold in the tent despite "summer". Haha, summer. It wasn't summer yet that weekend. :P I was surprised I wasn't tired, seeing as we stayed up the night previous at the beach just watching the waves (I totally love the water there) since the stars were covered by clouds; singing songs that might have fit the atmosphere until a park ranger told us that no one was allowed at the beach at night (so sad).
Jose demonstrates his ability to pose for pictures even in the middle of cooking breakfast. XD And what a breakfast! I'm not sure if everyone got the meaning of camping, 'cause I expected more hot dogs and maybe a potato. Instead, we had cereal, eggs, french toast, hash browns, bacon, pancakes (with chocolate chips!), and... stuff. XD All freshly made, except for the cereal.
Tents in the morning. I felt all refreshed and awake Saturday morning!
Courtney on bacon duty. XD Menchi got a whole lot of bacon, and Jose brought even more. I never had as much bacon as I did that camping trip as I had my entire life (three strips... I can't eat more bacon than that. XD;;; ).
Heather demonstrates for us what we call a heart attack in a bite- bacon grease soaked hash wrapped in bacon. XD
So at this point, Chris, Amanda, and I have gone back to civilization for a bit because Chris needed internet to get his work schedule for the week and the two of us tagged along for some decent bathrooms. XDDDD When we got back, everyone had settled down in two different campsites to play board games.
I really wanted to go swimming so I dragged everyone away from their board games and we went upstream towards the rushing water/rapids- not super rushing water, but still fast and over a bunch of rocks. Most of it was rather shallow, but again, the water was freezing and really strong... most people couldn't get in the water because they thought it was too cold. It was one of those things to slowly get used to because when you first get in, it's actually painful.
But beautiful water is beautiful water! I loved it a lot so I pretty much just kept stepping in deeper. XD Everyone eventually ended up leaving for a calmer part of the water while Menchi and I waded up and down the rapids until I finally gave up after the water reached my waist and it got... well, more than a bit dangerous to wade in rushing water that height. ^^;;
The water is just so pretty you wouldn't believe it. I wanted to stay there all day despite it slowly sinking beneath freezing cold. Hiking? Pffft. Trees are trees, right?
I can't help it, though. The water was just so absolutely beautiful, I had to go splash in it. Melted snow water, yanno?
After the whole swimming scenario, which included going to the calmer parts and then diving in (whut, haha. I didn't do that, but I was in the water to my chest wading around) until the sun was behind clouds again and it just got way too cold to do that, we went hiking! Changed, of course. But right before sunset, Ricky, Chris, Sarah, Menchi and I decided to go see the lower falls... which meant hiking away from where we had gone previously the day before.
We found this amazing swimming place that had a log we could jump off into... well, really deep water. Didn't go swimming 'cause it was really close to sunset (as in, after 9pm) and again, this clean water is beautiful and clean because it's way cold, but we thought the others would have liked it if we were staying a bit longer.
Absolutely beautiful imagery. We were singing to LotR tunes around here. XD
Got to the lower falls just as the sun set. It was... wow. I've never seen a real waterfall like this before... only little fake ones in gardens, or things like that. Nothing compares to the roar of water over rocks, the mist in your face so far away, or the fact that if we wanted, we could have climbed directly under it. The feeling's just so much more different when there aren't gates and fences around it, and when the water's so clean.
This was the other side of the view, the rushing rapids over rocks as the water came down and then poured its way over the path. We stayed there until the sun set, just appreciating the scene, and then began the long trek back to the campsite in darkness. XD Good thing we all had flashlights. Still, it was quite hard to walk seeing as the path isn't even and I kept tripping over rocks and roots.
Sunday and it's clean-up time! We didn't manage to go back to the rapids after dark (haha, defying park rangers, whut?) to sit on the rocks, but we did have a very warm campfire the night before and people kept trying to feed us since we all brought too much food and wanted to clear some of it so there was some room in the cars. XD
Last of the clean-up! (Actually, that's a set-up picture, whoops.) Leaving the campsite as we found it. I mean, we did great, didn't we? For a weekend roughing it- no showers, running water, toilets... we got our water from a pump and carried buckets back, chopped our own wood and cooked food over an open fire. Granted, we also had portable stoves and grills, but I kind of want to go camping again.
....Maybe this time in a cabin with beds and modern bathrooms. I liked the nature part, not so much the lack of flushing toilets. XD;;