Introspect and Imagery: Camping at Antelope Creek, June 2017

The hit of the campout was the towable porta potty

Day 1, Wednesday, we picked up the porta potty in Rexburg at A1 Rentals. Teresa hauled that with the suburban, while I hauled the WildKat behind the truck. Our trip out to Antelope Creek was uneventful and the usual hot and dry drive across the desert was pretty normal. It took us a little more time than we had hoped to get out of Rexburg, but overall we did fine. As we turned off the road to Antelope Creek after Arco, we started putting up signs which had laminated pictures of old campouts we had been on. We placed the first one at Cherry Creek turnoff, because it is really easy to go that way and not the right way. If you go to Cherry Creek, its a long way before you figure out you went the wrong way. We got to the pre-designated camp spot that Morgan had found as he had gone up a few days before. He had come out and called us on Monday and told us that the original chosen camp spot already had a large camper in it and looked like there was going to be a different reunion there. He found a spot against the mountain right after you cross Leadbelt Creek. It worked well and had enough room for all of us. And it wasn't by the raging creek which was swollen well beyond what I've ever seen before.

Morgan, Hugh and their families as well as dad and mom were there before us. After we set up our tents, which was four total because each kid wanted their own, we set up the kitchen area. After setting up the kitchen area we were sitting around talking and I took all the photos below.

Here are some night shots that I attempted that night.

Day 2

We climb to Iron Bog Lake.

A whole bunch of us went, including Jon, James, Hugh, Morgan, myself and the majority of our families. The water was rushing higher than any time I had ever seen it. As we were going up to the trailhead, the main road had a large washout that was very narrow but about 6 feet deep on the left half of the road. We were able to get over it on the right side of the road by throwing rocks and trees in it where it was more shallow.

The trail to Iron Bog Lake is steep at first for maybe three fourths of a mile and then gradually levels off to more of a stroll. Its not quite two miles from the trailhead to the lake. On the way there we met quite a large stream flowing over the trail. It was wide and difficult to get across without getting our feet wet. Normally, this is a small trickle going over the trail but you can see from the photos below that it is quite large.

This picture really shows how steep the mountain was

The trail is starting to level out here and we got more spread out as the faster teenagers and younger adults were able to go faster.

We started encountering large snowdrifts and in some cases they completely blocked the trail and we had to go around.

The scenery is quite awesome when you get up to the level of the lake. We had a mishap when Logan ran right up to the lake and promptly fell in. I was telling somebody not to get too close to the edge because it was overhung a little. They said its too late and Logan had already been in it. There was still some ice covering the lake so that may have not been a great thing. Logan was quite wet. We went around the lake as there's a pretty good place to fish over there. We built a fire for Logan and rung out his clothes. Some of the boys caught some fish that were in the entrance creek to the Lake. I believe it was James or Thomas and Brockton that caught them. Somebody correct me if I am wrong.

The part of the lake where Logan fell in

Waiting for a few to catch up. They took a small detour

Me and my kids were the last to leave the lake. We made sure Morgan was on his way with wet Logan and everybody else was gone. We kind of poked our way down enjoying the scenery.

My camera died on the hike and some of these photos are from my phone. Here is the accompanying video with the photos I took from the hike.

After we got down, the gap in the road had deepened even more and it was a little more sketchy getting back across. Somebody had started to put up some stakes and some tape to block people from accidentally going in. Me and Morgan finished putting it up. James discovered it first by going in it as you cannot see it until you get right up to it.

Back down again we played some games that night

Games this evening was a donut eating contest where you tied the donut to a string on a fishing pole. One person had to hold the pole and the other had to eat it without using their hands.

Here's a few photo/videos. I'm not sure what you call these. The camera records a few seconds of what is happening or being said before you take the shot.

After the games me and Teresa took a little drive and caught a decent sunset. I wish I had brought one of my real cameras as the point and shoot I had did not do it justice.

Day 3, the day of contests and a ride up Antelope Creek pass to overlook Copper Basin.

It was a nice morning and I got up to take some photos as the sun was hitting the camp.

Lots of water in the creeks. I've never seen even close to this much

For the fire starting contest I decided to try something different. I came up with an idea to see if anybody could start a fire with stuff that might be in your backpack. I put together some things in a ziplock sandwich bag and called that the backpack. I had a stick of gum, a cottonball, a bandaid, a rubber glove, some fingernail polish and a couple other useless things. I gave them the choice of grabbing either a rock, a knife or a flashlight as another object that could possibly help them start the fire. They got to choose based on what was in the "backpack". Some picked a knife. I don't think anybody picked the rock and most picked a flashlight. The flashlight was the correct thing. You can shape the gum wrapper and then use the battery to start a flame. The cotton ball would be like the tinder and if you prepared very well you can have a fire very quickly. Garrett was the closest to getting it right. It was funny watching them put fingernail polish on stuff or put on the rubber glove. Lower down in the photos I have a couple that show you what the gum wrapper should approximately look like. Then there's a photo that actually shows it on fire.

After we did this "life skills" type of fire building we then had the usual and customary fire starting contest.

Now the real fire starting contest begins

Morgan had a great magnifier, but could not generate the heat as fast as Hugh's magnifier.

The bow and drill took a back seat this year.

Hugh cleaned house with his giant magnifying glass. I think his fire was going solidly in around 15 seconds. Reminds me of Crocodile Dundee. "You think thats a magnifier?? Now this is a MAGNIFIER!!

This is approximately how you shape a gum wrapper to work with a battery and start a fire. All the current is forced to go through a smaller channel and as its a narrow space, the current can't get through and so heats up. The paper catches fire. You can then light the cotton or tinder. It gives you a little less time to start a fire than a match, so you have to make sure you have planned well.

There's the fire.

After the fire starting contest, those with ATV's went on a ride up to Antelope Creek Pass. There were quite a few road washouts along the way as well. I doubt I would have gotten a pickup truck up there this year.

The start of Antelope Creek pass which is a bunch of winding switchbacks straight up the face of the mountain

Looking back to Antelope Creek

Looking down into Copper Basin

Me and Hugh waited on top of Bear Creek Summit for quite awhile. Jon and his gang had gone on to camp. We weren't sure what Morgan and Dad were doing. In the meantime a few people came up and over on 4-wheelers so we assumed that because they were unhurried, nobody down below was in trouble. We were pretty sure Dad and Jeremy were fishing. We got tired of waiting after a half hour and decided to go down. If they didn't show up in a reasonable time we would go back looking for them. We weren't in camp long and Morgan showed up and said that indeed they were fishing.

Chloe dropped dead from tiredness on the way back from Antelope Creek Pass. She looked like a dead deer slung over the front of Morgan's 4-wheeler.

Above is another video/photo clip. Basically these are most of the same photos you see below but with little movie clips and blurbs before the photo is taken.

A crack in the rock where swallows kept going in and out.

For dinner the last night we did a mystery dessert where everybody took a box of ingredients and had to make the dessert. Some of them turned out good and some not so good.

The panel and award ceremony:

The last night we played a game that allowed everybody to get to know each of the Roberts' siblings. We all got in front of everybody in order of oldest to youngest and then Teresa told them something and all the grandkids had to guess which of the siblings Teresa was talking about. The very last thing we did was an award ceremony. I think Hugh's family won overall. James got an ugly fish plate for catching the biggest fish and Elwin got a bunch of goldfish crackers for catching the most fish. We brought him the goldfish as we went home as David and Elwin had left after the first night.