For our second camping trip this year, we packed up and headed out to Bear Creek again, a short hop from our house to a lakeside campsite. We had a blast with our kids in the great outdoors and they did too.
We did a bit of a trial run back in May, going for one night to the same campsite. It was a lot different then, there was only one other group of people and they were pretty quiet. We had our stretch of beach to ourselves and a quiet evening with only the river rushing nearby for a perfect white noise backdrop.
This time, it was not so quiet.
We arrived in the morning and went to set up in one of the front spots - a primo location. The camp host came up and we realized there was some miscommunication. We had no idea there were camper only sites as we've only been to Bear Creek in the low season. The only spots available to us were in the walk-in area. Considering we had so much stuff in our car I debated taking a second pair of shoes, we were hesitant about a walk-in campsite. But we were already there, Isaac was so excited about camping and we knew Hicks Lake would be busy and tends to be covered in mosquitos.
Our original thought was to camp in the first walk-in site just down a little hill from the camper area. But when we walked to the end of the trail and saw a spot right beside the beach, we knew that would be perfect. It was literally a stone's throw from the beach, so close we could put Promise down for a nap and hear her from the lakeside, and I could call to the guys when lunch was ready from the picnic table. It was awesome!
Of course, camping there meant lugging everything in. My rockstar of a husband unloaded the entire contents of our car into four wheelbarrow loads. We dumped them next to our site as there was a kind family just leaving the site we were about to take. (They told us we should take their spot as it was such a good location).
By early afternoon, Justin had the campsite all set up, we'd eaten lunch and Promise was down for a nap. She slept great during the day there. Isaac played with rocks on the beach while we relaxed and enjoyed our beautiful B.C. backyard. The waters got rough in the afternoon and made for a steady sound that took us back to our ocean holiday memories. It carried to our tent through the night for a soothing sounds to fall asleep to.
Hot dogs on the fire (which Isaac was overjoyed to get to help build) for dinner and it was off to bed for our kids. Oh us of little camping experience with small children. Foolish, foolish us.
Let's just say the next two hours of our lives are gone forever. Forever. And I won't talk about the night. It don't matter a thing in the end.
Fast forward to Saturday day. It was lovely to wake up to the sound of birds chattering in the trees above. Camping coffee tasted so good, bacon and eggs for breakfast and we were on our way to a very, very good day. Saturday brought lots of beach time, a swim in the freezing glacial waters for the hubby and me while our son played happily on the beach, two good naps for my very good daughter, and some actual Strider riding by Isaac who has been refusing to ride it lately. It was all happiness and sunshine for us and our little family time together. We took a walk up to the waterfall, Isaac played well and the chipmunks scampering in the bushes provided I-spy entertainment at mealtimes.
We found the best incentive for Isaac having a temper tantrum on the way back to our end of the campsite when we were nearing dinner was the promise of helping Daddy build another fire. He hopped on his bike ASAP and headed back. It's such a change for him, we were thrilled he wanted to ride his little two-wheeler no-pedal bike. And his paths of choice were over roots, between trees and into the rocks. It was so fun to watch him pushing his little bike around, figuring out what he could do with it. I love that kid.
After dinner we gave Isaac what we thought was his first s'more, though we can't remember if he got one at the cabin last year. He didn't smile and was very serious but ate the whole thing. Funny kid for sure.
Bedtime was another not-so-fun adventure, though Promise was amazing. She fell asleep in spite of her brother alternatively playing, crying and unzipping the tent for two hours. Yup, we didn't learn the first time around. Actually, because he'd had such a full day and so little sleep the night before, we were sure he would crash once he got in the tent. No such luck.
The weird thing is that when we went in May, he fell asleep in about 20 minutes without any problems and actually slept in the next morning. But this time, the sun hit our tent in the evening and was quite bright so we suspect that didn't help his internal clock to slow down.
Anyway, Justin wisely said we should just separate our nights and days. Our days of camping were awesome. We'd love to go again but I think we've got something on every weekend now until late August. Plus it was A LOT of work to pack everything up, fit it in the car and unpack on the other end. I dream of a day when we have all our camp stuff in a camper, tent trailer or something. But it was a blessing to tent this time as we were on the quiet end of the campground instead of the parking lot up top.
We got out of the campground around 11 a.m. but were soon stopped by a flat tire on the way to Harrison. I've never had a tire go flat that fast. We heard a loud "pshh pshhh pshh" and that was it! Justin got it fixed quickly and we were on our way.
We had lunch in Harrison followed by some Harrison Festival entertainment then headed home. An awesome weekend all around!
I am so thankful to live in B.C., I'm so thankful for a husband who schleps our stuff all the way to the other end of the campground so we can have the perfect spot, I'm so thankful we had the time to get away and I'm so thankful I have kids to share these experiences with. I am a rich woman indeed.
looks awesome guys! how much beach was there?
ReplyDeletewe had the same problem with ty the first night, and then just let him stay up waaay past his bedtime after that. eventually he just passed out and we threw him in bed. ;-)
There was a little stretch of beach on the very end, enough for a couple groups of campers to comfortably hang out, and then a skinny stretch of beach going almost to the tree that's usually on the beach about halfway between the two entrances. None on the main side of the campground.
ReplyDeleteI think we'll adopt your approach for sleep next time!