Lo, these many years that we have been married, we have made an annual backpacking excursion to camp on the banks of Cow Lake in our local State Park. It's not so much of a lake as a huge pond located a mile from the nearest parking lot with 1 campsite on the banks. We've made it out every spring except for last year. Which made this year the 3rd (semi) annual Cow Lake Backpacking Tick Hunting Camp Stove Dinner Spring Time Wild Quacking Ducks Camping Extravaganza.
This year the lake was flooded, like everything else around here, so that adorable little shelter was partially under water. Normally it makes for the best hammock-hanging site around.
We hiked in around supper time on Friday and set up camp in a hurry because rain was in the forecast. We had one of those astronaut-camping-dinners-in-a-bag things where you pour in boiling water and voila, it's ready in 9 minutes! I think it's our favorite part of the whole trip.
The rain didn't start until we were bundled in for the night and fortunately, the super friendly chipmunk we met during dinner didn't want to keep hanging out. He was running all over during dinner when he thought he might get to share a little snack. Little bugger.
Next morning, we had breakfast and went for a 2 mile hike that we thought would be an easy stroll through the woods. HA-HA-HA. The seasonal flooding had slightly altered the map we were following and we found ourselves clambering through the woods to get around swollen bogs. (Is there any uglier word in the English language than 'bog'? No.)
A good part of the trail we were following doubles as a horse trail, so there were long stretches of deep, muddy trenches made worse by the recent rain. One misstep could sink you in up to your ankle. I know.
We packed up camp around noon and hiked out, another year of Cow Lake camping gone by.
And another to look forward to!
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