Annual Marshal/Thorsted Campout

The tradition continues!  This year was kind of a last minute squeeze it in for tradition's sake kind of campout.  Mom and George joined in, and while exhausting and not exactly the most comfortable night's sleep, I think they had fun and were impressed with out campout meals mostly.  This year we decided to camp up AF canyon and planned for literally the only weekend both of us could manage to get together for a campout.  Annie and I decided to drive up early Friday morning to try to find a spot up AF canyon almost every campground was full.  We ended camping at Salamander Flats which I honestly thought was awesome.  There is no running water, some of the campsites are a bit of a hike from where you park your car, and it seemed to be a popular place for dirt bikes--but the views were incredible, there was a potty, and we were able to get a campsite without having a reservation.

 It would be a great place to go back with a big group because there were loads of campsites.  Annie and I set up camp, later that afternoon Mom and George came up with the kids and the tin foil dinner that they threw together for us.  We did a hike near the campsite on the summit trail I think it was?  Super pretty.  Once Derek and Tyler arrived in the evening after work, we set them to the task of cooking the tin foil dinners and Annie, my Mom, the kids and I drove over to the reservoir for a quick dip in the freezing water.  It honestly felt super refreshing but was definitely shockingly cold at first.  We sat around the camp fire after dinner, roasted s'mores, and had peach cobbler.

In the morning, Derek made a fabulous breakfast of scrambled eggs, sauteed veggies and we had bagels and cream cheese and left over cobbler too.  Then, we headed down the canyon to hike Timp Caves.  It was much more uphill and longer than I remembered which was a bit trying with the kids, but they all survived and at the top we got to tour the caves.






Then, the afternoon was spent paddling around the reservoir in the kayak and playing in the water before heading home.  I will say that I don't love that reservoir half as much as the Springville reservoir especially since poor Carter stepped on a fish hook on shore which wasn't much fun.  But, the campout overall was awesome.  We always talk about how our campouts are cursed because something goes wrong every year--the only hiccup this year was that the night before the campout the truck wouldn't start and we needed it to drive all the gear up the canyon, but that was nothing compared to our usual only required a little late night trip to buy and change a battery.