Did you know you can cook a Thanksgiving turkey over a campfire in the biggest dutch oven you can get from Cabela’s? Yeah, I didn’t either… but you can, so that’s pretty cool.
I was able to celebrate “campsgiving” with my cousins, his cousin and a few friends from Seattle in the mountains of north east Oregon. It was a heafty 8 hour drive, but the people and the view were worth it.
After about a year of either having exams or injuries preventing me from doing most of the things I enjoy, I welcomed the opportunity to freeze my ass off in a sleeping bag. Waking up to pumpkin pancakes and bacon accompanied by coffee brewed over the open fire wasn’t terrible either.
We took a short break, knowing we would have to soon return to the fire to start dinner. Adam and Clark went to the store to get the salt and pepper we forgot. Adam, Nicole and I went canoeing real quick. Ranger Dan made sure we had the proper amount of tents, with the proper amount of vehicles in the proper area of our campsite. And we all (minus ranger Dan) put up a tarp over our camping area, which ended up being clutch with the ominous storm approaching.
Dinner was spectacular and surprisingly all finished off at the same time. We tried to invited the few other neighbors in the campground, but an invitation to a campfire, under a tarp, in the freezing cold with some nasty side-winds wasn’t appealing enough.
The next day we went on a hike, 4.5 miles! The longest I have been able to hike since the injury in July. It was snowy and just kept getting more snowy. Aaron packed out a trail beer for all of us, Nicole and Adam shared their trail snacks.
The highlight of the trip was when old man winter gave us all of his scavenged firewood. When we were walking over to get it, I asked if his 50 ft RV was new. He replied, “this isn’t mine, this is my wife’s. I’d much prefer roughing, it like you guys.” Don’t worry old man winter, you still have street cred with us.
for my friends who are moms 