As I sit here, at camp, on a super still morning, a cup of coffee in my hand, listening to the sounds of the bugs and the birds, I realize I am at peace. It’s such a lovely feeling, this wonderful calm that comes over me having spent the night on the ground in a tent, with nothing but a piece of fabric between me and nature… I smile. I am in my happy place. 

We drove out last night after work, assuming that there would be plenty of camp spots available for the taking. Boy were we wrong. There was exactly one. Our least favorite, at that. There’s only one that’s worse, and that one had seven cars at it… When we saw the one open, we drove down two more, turned around, and hightailed it back to campsite number 19 before it also became occupied. 

Good thing we did that. No less than two people stopped and asked if we were setting up camp. Whew!  We pitched our tent and tucked in for the night pretty quickly. 

The next morning, we got up (okay, I got up first) and made coffee, after a super amazing night of hard sleep. Lovely! I sat around and drank some of my coffee, then Matt got up. 

We had until 10:00 until Hugo came up to go for a ride – I scored a demo from work for the weekend, so I’m actually riding bikes! We had some bagels for breakfast, chilled for a bit, got our shit together, and waited for Hugo. 

When he arrived, we decided on a route and took off. Oof. I hadn’t mountain biked in a LONG time. That hurt! And of course, we got a text from my boss somewhere along the way that he needed the bike back… Not a big surprise, but marginally annoying. 

We finished our ride, called my boss, arranged a spot to meet, and returned the bike. On our way back to camp, we saw a moose! First one I’ve ever seen in or near Buffalo Creek… when we got back to camp, we made some dinner – steak fajitas on the Skwok over the LavaBox. 

I freaking LOVE cooking on that thing. I don’t know why, but the two things I’ve cooked on there have tasted better than any other chicken or steak fajitas I’ve ever made in my life. Freaking AMAZING.

So, anyway, dinner was delicious, and paired with the margaritas left over from my birthday, made for an excellent evening.  We put the LavaBox on the grate over the fire ring and enjoyed a fire as well. Eventually, we headed into the tent and went to sleep. 

The next morning, I woke up at the ass crack – SO annoying sometimes. I read a book for a little bit, still in my sleeping bag, then got up for my obligatory morning coffee. The sun was still barely over the ridge where I could see it – counts as a sunrise, right? I took a time lapse, anyway. Sure was pretty. 

I had almost gotten beaned in the head by a hummingbird right when I got out of the tent, and there was also one buzzing around by the stove as I made coffee – too bad those suckers are so fast! I couldn’t get a camera on it fast enough! 

I drank my coffee in peace for a while, then Matt got up. We talked about what to do for the day. We weren’t sure if Hugo was going to join us again or not, so I headed out on a run while Matt waited like he said he would. 

My run went okay, I stopped plenty to take pictures and videos of ALL the flowers… I got back to camp probably 20 minutes after Matt left for his ride. No Hugo, so I knew he’d be a while. I read a book for a bit, then worked on videos for a while. I’d no sooner gotten off the computer when Matt got back. 

A quick lunch, then we settled in for a nice, quiet, boring afternoon at camp, chilling out and reading books and randomly chatting with each other… There’s no cell service out here, and it’s actually pretty nice. Eventually, we got hungry and made dinner – mac and cheese with kielbasa, YUM! And some formerly frozen red onion and green pepper… That was a questionable choice, but they ended up being just fine once they were cooked up. 

Then more sitting by the LavaBox, more chilling out and chatting about life, and, eventually, bedtime.

I got up slowly our last morning at camp – I knew there was no hurry. We packed up the car slowly, laughing as a couple of hummingbirds flew about, seemingly darting in and out of the car. We had some egg tacos for breakfast, chilled a little longer, and home we went. 

Here’s the link to the video for more: