Camping!

On Friday Jessy had a day off so we packed up the car at 4pm and went back to Denny Creek with our tent and gear (courtesy REI’s “Buy a basecamp” sale a couple of years ago) to join Anne, Michael, Alex and Miles for a night of camping. We found a perfectly beautiful campsite right by the river, surrounded by smoothly pine-needle-carpeted rising slopes of open forest and huge logs for climbing on; the riverbank is great for climbing and clambering, with lots of smooth and interesting rocks of all sizes. The river upstream runs through a pool and a little waterfall. And there was space for two tents! Magical. Not to mention the nearby facilities with flush toilets and warm water taps! C’est le camping a l’Amerloc.

We had dinner of dips and cheeses and home-grown tomatoes and toasted buns and sausages roasted on the fire, all elevated by some excellent wines provided by Anne and Michael. The kids clambered around the site while we made coffee and porridge to fend off the chill of the morning, then we went on a very pretty two or three mile hike upriver through the forest to the Denny Creek waterslide, a wondrous opening in the river with huge flat slabs, and a series of pools and waterfalls. The boys were hiking heroes. Anselm and I did some perhaps overly daring climbing up the waterfalls. I was a little chastened by the difficulty in getting back down, but he was thrilled by our “champion” efforts.. especially given that we both survived. Home again by 4pm Saturday—it was such a complete escape that it was hard for everyone to believe that we had most of the weekend still ahead. To be repeated!