Campfire Memories

On Friday evening, we loaded up a Jeep Cherokee and a pick-up truck and headed for the woods.  The Huron National Forest to be exact. 

First stop, Halo Burger in Birch Run.  This was my first time at a Halo Burger.  I got a Q.P. with bacon and cheese and an order of chili cheese fries.  I actually thought it was better than a McDonald’s burger, but not as good as a Five Guys.  Decent.

Next, we had to make a stop at Northwood’s in Pinconning.  Let me just say WOW.  This store has EVERYTHING you can imagine – but primarily a outdoors person’s dream.  Fishing, camping supplies, food, guns, clothes, etc.  After a few purchases we were back on the road and arrived at our campsite around 10:30pm.

We immediately started setting up our tents, food area and around 11:30ish we were able to pull our chairs up to the fire and relax.

I made my “Girls Night in Drink” and it did not disappoint.  After three of them, I was ready for bed.

We woke up at 5:15am to head out to the river to get in some trout fishing.  Unfortunately we forgot to pack coffee, couldn’t find an open gas station, convenience store or restaurant.I thought I was going to die.  .

I had never trout fished before.  It was my first time in waders and I’ll tell you this, it is not easy standing, casting a line, all while you are trying to balance your body against the current.  We fished for a few hours and then around 9am I couldn’t hold out any longer and did the 15 mile drive back to town to buy a cup of coffee. It was the best/worst cup I’ve ever had. I also had my first nail casualty of the weekend.

Around 10:30am we packed up the car and headed to meet the rest of our group at the Alcona Canoe Rental shop.  We had a reservation for tubing at 11:30am.  We had the most perfect day for tubing.  It was blue skies, sunny and 85 degrees.  The river was full of tubers, canoes and  kayaks.  It took us about 4 hours to make our way to the end.  I LOVED it.  So relaxing.

We got back to the rental place about 5:00pm and decided to head to the public beach.  We made a quick stop at the Lumberman’s Monument to fill up our water jugs, and to purchase me a shirt I fell in love with on my last trip there. 

How freaking cute is that shirt?!?!  I LOVE IT.

After a short visit at the public beach, we headed back to camp.  Ben, our master camper, started a fire so we could cook up some dinner,  We had chili cheese brats, jalapeno brats, potato salad and chips.  We were starving, so it was extra tasty.

The boys messed around with some target practice – and Just Joe got to shoot a gun for the first time. 

We’ve camped in the same spot for the past two years.  Only once have we seen an animal, and it was a tiny bird.  This trip, we had a couple of visitors.

I was not happy to know there were snakes around – we saw 2!!!  The bugs were worse this summer too.  Lots of daddy long legs, grasshoppers and even stick bugs. EWWWWW

After cleaning up dinner, we were ready for Smores.  Jenny Jenny bought regular graham crackers, chocolate covered graham crackers, Hershey bars, Reeses Cups and marshmallows.  They were fantastic.

Everyone was exhausted so we ended up going to bed around 11:30pm. 

Sunday morning we got up around 9:00am and started setting up to make breakfast burritos.  Bacon, potato, eggs, salsa, cheese, hot sauce and guacamole all wrapped into a warm tortilla.  Top that with a coffee with French Vanilla Creamer.  Heavenly.

We started tearing down camp and packing the vehicles.  We hit the road around 1:00pm.  One stop for ice cream at Tacey’s Twisty Freeze and we arrived home around 5:00pm. 

I was sad to see the weekend end but very happy to get home – to take a shower and use a real toilet! I already cannot wait for my next camping adventure.