Father-Son Camp Out

On Friday, September 15th, Justin and Channing packed up the Jeep and headed to Lake Cascade, about 2 hours away.  Channing was so excited to go camping with Justin.  While they were packing up the car he was jumping around, grinning ear to ear, and talked all about the things they were going to do.  He kept saying, "mom, are you sad you can't come?"  And I would tell him that I'll miss him but he'll have so much fun with dad.  

Switching to 1st person - Justin's taking over in writing.

This was a long awaited trip! Channing & I had been looking forward to this for quite some time. Once we were in the Jeep, I rolled down the windows and cranked the tunes. Channing loved it. Kept pumping his fist in the air!

The drive through the canyon is gorgeous, but quickly wore Channing out. By the time we got up to Cascade, the wind had picked up quite a bit and the temperature dropped 10 degrees. It was chilly. We stopped at one of the first campgrounds along the edge of the lake and left when I realized it was $20 a night for what looked like a well-groomed park. We tried several others but found all were similarly priced. We ended up picking one that catered least to RV trailers and had plenty of trees. 

Before we could set up, Channing had to go check out the beach. He was sure we were going to go swimming - not a chance!

He then decided we had found the right campsite and marked his territory.

Potty break.

We both put on all of the warm clothes we had brought - which wasn't much. Then we got a fire started.

I forgot the campfire roasting sticks, so after Channing chastised me for forgetting something so important, I showed him that we could just use some small green branches. He loved that idea. I also learned he really likes to talk smack. Kept making fun of me that my stick was shorter than his and bent a little under the weight of the hot dog. 

After we were full of the classic hot dog & smores dinner, we head out to explore along the shore. We followed animal tracks through the mud for a long ways. Then we reached a rocky cliff which he explored. "I'm probably the best at rock climbing. You're not as good."

We woke up to 28 degree weather and frost on the tent! There was also a thick fog/steam rolling off of the lake. The morning plan was to eat a warm breakfast, play some frisbee and football, then take down camp to go fishing.

We went to a small fishing pond that is supposed to be a hotspot for catching trout. There was a church men's group there with a bunch of kids. They would catch something after having their line in the water for 5 minutes. After 45 minutes, Channing was getting frustrated that he had only caught some dragonflies. Some of the other kids (8-10 year olds) started to offer Channing their fish. He politely refused. It just wasn't the same. Then we caught something! It was a fish technically... but most people would just use it as bait for a real fish! 

We caught a couple of these 2-4 inch Perch before getting a lake Trout. Channing was thrilled to have this new friend!

Playing with his new pet, while keeping it on a leash

By the time he was done playing with the fish, there wasn't much life left to it. So we gave it to the other group. They had a large bucket that they were preparing for a fish fry lunch. For us, we headed to Granny's Diner for a burger & corndog before we starting the trip home.

It was a great camp out with a great son!

Some weird jelly things.

Beautiful!

Steam coming off the lake.