Introspect and Imagery: Sopping wet Island Park Trip

We did our annual Labor Day trip to Island Park this last weekend. We went to our usual campsite in the Buttermilk Campground. We weren't able to get out and do as much as we normally do as it rained and hailed for about 2 days straight. I meant to take a lot of great pictures but I didn't even get my nice camera out. There has been so much moisture in the area lately that there are tons of mushrooms everywhere in the forest. Some of them are the size of basket balls.

Me and Hugh met in Ashton at the cemetery and drove up around the Warm River to avoid the crazy construction on the Ashton grade. From all accounts it was very narrow and would be hard to negotiate with a trailer. Hugh had his entire family and I had Macey, Katy and Quinn. Teresa and Hal would come up after Hal got off of work. Teresa had a knee replacement not long ago and so she didn't want to spend a lot of time on uneven ground.

We arrived in the campground around noonish and selected our spots. We took a couple of spots on the southside toward the lake and not too far from the restroom. LouAnne and Troy came towards evening. I had put our two kayaks in the back of the truck and had hitched up our raft which has the fishing frame and took it up there in hopes of floating some of the river stretches. We were able to get our tents up and cook dinner but it started raining after it got dark. Teresa and Hal arrived in time to eat dinner without getting wet but LouAnne and Troy came a lot later. Usually the campground has a lot more spots taken but this time it was pretty quiet.

It rained most of the night. Fortunately we have a good tent and did not get wet. The only issue we have is condensation and as we were not able to open the windows the ceiling got a little damp. I had let Macey take my Alaskan Guide sleeping bag which is rated at -40 as she gets cold a lot. She really liked it. I slept in my Ledge sleeping bag which they say is rated at -20. I use it for a summer bag as I doubt it would never keep me warm in that kind of temperature. I have had it down to about 25 degrees though and have been comfortable. Katy and Teresa slept in the new camouflage sleeping bags and Quinn slept in his new sleeping bag. I bought both of them from Cabela's surprising them. We all slept warm.

We got up in the morning and took our time as it was still raining. A little later we were able to get breakfast together and cook it as the rain had stopped. We had bacon, eggs and french toast. It started raining periodically and we kind of laid around in the tent. We were not able to float the rivers that day so we went exploring instead. We ate lunch at Subway and then Teresa and Hal drove off to check out some other campgrounds while I took Macey, Katy and Quinn and their cousin Jadyn to Big Springs. There were some really big rainbows feeding on the East side of the bridge. Normally they are on the west side. The kids wanted to hike around to the John Sack cabin on the other side and so we did. We walked through the little house and looked at the water wheel. It was beautiful weather at this point. Still not sunny but at least the clouds were high and it was not raining. We decided to go back to camp and I thought I could at least put the raft in the lake. We did and I rowed it over to the dock by the campground which seems like around a quarter mile. I was kind of tired. We tied it up and Quinn and I fished for a few minutes. By now Brendan and his wife and child Kurtlen was there and they with Troy took the raft we gave them and went fishing. Me and Quinn just sat in our raft tied to the dock and fished. Before too long huge rain drops started pounding us and we secured the raft to the dock and went up to camp.

The rain started getting so bad that we suspended a tarp over the cooking area. I went and got some firewood but it was all wet. As the rain started hitting harder I just filled the fire pit full of wood and then let it sit. We ate some chili for supper. I ended up cooking it under the tarp and then running cups of it into the vehicles as everybody was huddled inside to stay away from the rain and cold. It had also hailed a bunch by then and there were hail piles everywhere. Hugh and LouAnne's families had disappeared also huddling in vehicles. I'm not sure if they ate dinner. Teresa and Hal then left as Teresa had some important meetings to get to for church. Quinn decided he wanted to stay with his mother and so went with them. Me and the girls went to bed.

I had bought some new sleeping bags for Teresa and Quinn. I slept in the new sleeping bags with Katy that we had put together for Teresa on the queen size mattress. They were toasty warm. Quinn's new sleeping bag, which he had named Bumblebee had somehow gotten wet. Must have been dripping through the window above. The condensation in the tent was so bad it was dripping in places. We took our time getting up as it was dumping rain. I decided I was going to put on my waders and my raincoat so I would be like a duck and not get wet. As soon as I put my waders on it quit raining. We cooked a cowboy breakfast with eggs, sausage and hashbrowns mixed together in a dutch oven. We then huddled in the truck for awhile and I dried my clothes out. Macey stayed in the truck and read most of the day. Pretty soon Hugh was telling me they were leaving and they started packing up. I thought about it for awhile and decided we may as well do that also as Monday would be a long day in packing up wet stuff and then getting home to dry it out. I was worried about getting my raft back to the loading dock as the wind was blowing the wrong way. Troy and LouAnne helped me get it back. It was harder to row against the wind but Troy took a turn and we did it ok. We put in on the trailer and then I had Macey start packing the tent and I started putting things away. We ate more chili at lunch and had some hot dogs. It wasn't raining much at that point and Macey wanted to do some walking or running to keep up with her cross country. Me, her, Katy and Shaelynn walked around the other campsite. When we got back I fell asleep in the recliner chair for awhile. We then started packing again and before long Teresa, Hal and Quinn were back. She agreed with leaving and so we rolled up the sopping muddy tent and everything else. As we were leaving a huge hailstorm came through and left about 4 inches of hail on the road. We were glad we were gone and got home around 8 pm. The next day we washed all the mud off the tent and let everything dry.

Macey passing the time in the truck

Umbrellas everywhere

Josiah, Troy, LouAnne, Jadyn, Holly, Shaelynn, Katy

Hugh's campsite as they are packing up. Notice the puddles

It seemed like Macey was always in the truck

The cooking area

Hugh's campsite again

The sad kayaks, paddles and fishing poles which really didn't get any use

My harem. After we got done walking I sat in the chair and the three girls just stood by me. Not sure why so I took a picture of them. Notice I have my waders and rain coat on.