We have been enjoying reading "All Creatures Great and Small" by James Harriott. The retelling of his adventures usually brings many good hardy belly laughs. On our drive to the trail head, we read the account of his first date with Helen, and how things just went all wrong, going from bad to worse. Little did we know that our first family backpacking trip was heading the same direction. As we stopped at the ranger station, we learned that the location of our first choice, was still snow covered. The very helpful ranger gave us some other ideas and we decided to go with another location. As we made our second stop at the next ranger station, another very helpful ranger gave us a good description of the area and issued us a backpacking permit. She did warn us that we may have to park across the road due to repaving of the parking lot. No big deal, we were prepared to hike a few miles, walking across a parking lot would not deter us. By the time we finally got there, it was time for a tail gate lunch. Once our hunger pains were appeased, we donned our packs and were just about to start off when the local camp host, with a big ranger complex and hungry to exercise some kind of authority, came to check on us. " Where are you going?" We told him of our destination and he answered with a big
unpleasant, "NO, you are not!"
Apparently they were repaving the campground parking lot right up to the trail head and no one was allowed to walk there. He told us we could go up another trail and I was surprised you could camp there!! Oh, no, no overnight camping there. Well duh! Why did he think I had an
enormous 36# bag on my back, not to mention all of our sleeping rolls
protruding from our packs. The other options he gave us were not much better and he must have seen that it would not be easy to get rid of us, so he went back to his "office" to check on some things. Can you tell Shawn wasn't too impressed?
He returned telling us to follow him to an old horse trail that would bypass the pavement and join the trail we were looking for. By then we had taken our packs down and had to scurry to get them back on and follow our host. He led us to this old
trail head and was even willing to take our picture.
We were now on our way, but it did not take long before we got turned around and wandered onto the road again. While we were still trying to figure out if this was where we should be, I saw a trail head post and headed towards it. Only then I noticed this was exactly where we were not supposed to be, right on the fresh pavement. I took as wide steps as I could and told the boys to tread lightly and swiftly. So much for "leaving no trace behind", we only lefts a few footprints. I warned Shawn who was a little behind and told him to bush whack in order to avoid the slurry. The bush was very thick and it was quite a challenge for him to negotiate it with his big pack, but he succeeded with only minor scratches. We were now finally on the right track and ready to get started. I did look over my shoulder to see if "Mr. Law Enforcement" was around but only his guards were watching and they were on our side.
It was a pleasant hike along Thunder Creek
Ethan took a few little breaks
and after a few miles we found our perfect spot.
This would become our bedroom,
This would serve as our kitchen
And how about this spot for our dining room?
We had a good water
supply right next to us.
Nothing like a fire in the evening to warm the spirits.
Always a happy camper
The next day we set out on a hike to 4
th of July Pass.
A nice reward awaited after a 4 mile climb.
Time to head home.
Despite our rough start we had a wonderful time with a happy ending. I hope James Harriott's luck with his courting will improve too. We will just have to keep reading to find out if he has a happy ending as well.
We knew just what to do with them. Delicious whole wheat crepes for breakfast. 
The whole wheat thing happened quite by accident, our white flour bin was completely empty. They turned out just fine, and we got the added health benefit to offset the Nutella part. 
