The Wittenbergs: camping

The YCC ends their summer tour with a camping trip to Great Basin National Park each year. Last year I was pregnant for the trip, and I also have 5 Haas Hall students here that participated. This year, we decided to brave it and take Charley on her first camping trip. I was a little nervous (especially since my cousin Elizabeth made me feel like I was nuts for even considering it!), but mom and dad said they took me when I was 6 mos. old and said I should go for it, so we did.

SO GLAD we did - it was a huge success!

Here we are, packing for a trip. It is NEVER easy to go out the door with an infant, much less packing for a trip like this!

Setting up camp:

Have just enough time for a short hike:

Kid slept like a champ, cuddled between us in the tent. Stream roaring beside us, thunderstorm, all bundled up in her sleep sack on the mattress between mom and dad - life is good!

The next day we went tracking Great Basin Rattlesnakes with the park biologist. She slept for much of it, but it was a nice day to be out. While out, we found a new baby snake, and took it back to the lab to process it.

That afternoon the group was scheduled for a cave tour, but Charley was not allowed, so we went back to camp to take a nap. I thought I could plop in the tent with her and enjoy some shut-eye too...

Instead, I felt like I was in one of those blow-up jumping houses at a kid's birthday party. She crawled all around and over me for an hour and fifteen minutes, before I finally gave up.

So, I climbed out and stripped all the bedding from the tent, zipped an obviously sleepy baby up inside, and within five minutes...

Didn't last long though, thirty minutes and she's ready to go!

We then hiked through the ancient Bristlecone Pine grove - the world's oldest organisms. I was kicking myself for leaving the camera - how cool to get Charley's pic by the oldest things on the planet? Maybe next time.

The next morning, we were up bright and early after another night of thunderstorms. Charley slept ALL NIGHT LONG without waking once - only the second time in her life she's done this! It was cold and wet at 6:30 am, and no one else was up, so we were about to head into town to the local cafe when Trace (one of the YCC kids) poked his head out of the tent. I invited him along and he happily agreed. We were about to pull out when Rod decided he'd like to come too, since he needed to track down Bryan to give him a rattlesnake we'd scooped off the road the night before.

Breakfast at the Lectrolux Cafe

We hiked about 3 miles on the Osceola ditch trail before breaking down camp and heading home (stopping for groceries and lunch in Ely on the way). Little miss occupied herself with her sippy cup for a portion of the drive.