Mid-September 2010

Another great cabin trip has come and gone. This one started on Friday the 17th after Lexa got out of school. Lexa (our 6 year old), Richard (my dad, subsequently referred to as Grandpa) headed to the end of the road. We recently purchased and "new" motorcycle, a 1996 Honda XR 200 that I rode in. After I got to the cabin I hopped on the orange Honda and rode back to get Lexa. I don't know if she could have walked in all the way in any reasonable amount of time. It was definitely a good thing I went and got her.

That night after dinner, we tried out the new solar powered compact florescent lighting we installed upstairs at the last cabin trip. It worked great! We were able to play ping-pong at night! Lexa, Grandpa and I had a record of 7 times over the net. If we'd gotten 8, Grandpa would have made breakfast the next day...

The next day started off with a breakfast of french toast w/ blueberries on top and sausage. Lexa loves "doing the dishes". At least the burnables. Then grandpa made us some hot chocolate because it was pretty cool that morning.


After breakfast Lexa and I went on a motorcycle ride to Bear Creek Trail. After we got back it was still pretty cool out and we started up Mt. Blalock.









I was very impressed at how well Lexa did going up the mountain. It took some encouraging, reminding her of the treat if she made it to 1st Base Camp, and in the end getting her to help grandpa up the last stretch of trail. But she was glad she made it!


We all touched the tree at 1st Base Camp before we broke out our granola bar treat. Grandpa tried to buy Lexa's off her for a dime, and she was tempted but when she said she'd do it for a quarter, grandpa didn't go for it...

Lexa wasn't up for much more than 1st Base Camp, but neither was I for that matter. But since I'd been that far already once this year we had to go at least a little further. There was a stand of 3 trees another 50' or so up the mountain so Lexa and I headed up. She went to the farthest tree up and therefore holds the record the year for our family on the highest point reached on Mt. Blalock. Below is a pic of her touching that tree.

On the way up once we got out of the forest there were a quite a few different wild flowers and we took a couple pics. In the first one Lexa is pointing to the deer she is sure she could see across the canyon.

Also on the trail we found a pile of bear scat. All I can say is it looked like that bear liked oatmeal...

Lexa was getting ready to take a picture across the valley from the highest point on the trail, but then the camera died so you all get use your imagination for what happened on the rest of the trip!

We headed back down to the cabin and grandpa made up his famous Cabin-Fried Potatoes and Onions. It was a great lunch! Then Lexa and I headed fishing and grandpa headed home. We went down by Ehart's cabin and Lexa caught a fish, but lost it when she was trying to land it. I had a couple bits on a grasshopper fly, but that was all the fish we saw the whole time we were out.

When we started heading back in, it started to rain. On our way back we decided to knock on the Widners door to see if anyone was around. They weren't, but when we were walking out back into the meadow, we found thousands of lady bugs coating plants and logs. It was crazy! After we got up to the cabin Lexa went and got her bug catchers and filled them up completely a couple times and let them go on a tree across from the basketball hoop.

After dinner the rain let up a bit and we made a fire in the fire pit. We had tons of marshmallows and smores. Lexa loved burning a stick and eating the mallows. Before we headed to bed we played some more ping-pong and then Lexa and I watched a movie down on the couch on her little portable DVD player. It was Barbie's Fashion Fairytale. I had no idea Barbie even had movies, until I had daughters that is...

The next morning we slept in a bit because of the late night watching the movie, and I made up some blueberry pancakes with the rest of the blueberries. It was raining pretty good at that point so we watched another movie (Enchanted) and then went on a short moto ride, shot BB guns, teater-tottered, and then started the lunch and clean-up and packing process. It took quite a while to get us packed and the cabin all ready for us to head out.

We finally hit the trail in the afternoon. It took about 2 hours to walk out. Lexa only got tired a couple times, but as a 6-yr old, she's very easily distracted. One thing that helped a lot was the pack of starbursts I brought on the trip. We called them Columbia Energy Candy (I work for Columbia Energy), and they were good motivators! We eventually made it out and we had our customary stop at the Milton-Freewater Dairy Queen and then drove Big Red home!

We are looking forward to the next trip in a couple weeks!