Well, this has been a much longer time between posts than I expected. I'll get through everything eventually. First, a description of the campout mentioned in the previous post.
We went down to the Hocking Hills region of Ohio. After leaving a slight bit late from Rushsylvania at just before 1630, we proceeded without (much) adventure to our campsite, around a 2½ hour trip. I say much adventure because of a driver getting onto I-270 right next to us. The adventurous part about it was that he apparently didn't see us as he oozed into our lane. Thankfully, he missed us, and we kept going. Supper was Burger King on the southern side of Columbus.
When we got down there, we quickly unloaded and set up. Since Milkdud, his brother, and his dad had gotten there that morning, they'd already gotten a couple tents set up, a fire going, and a dessert in a dutch oven in the fire. The dessert, which we will not name, for the stomachs of the squeamish might not handle it, was basically yellow cake mix, cherry (I think) flavoring, and butter. I know there was more to it, but I don't remember what all. It was pretty good, but the Casa Mamita tortilla chips were better! :)
After a few hours, we headed off to bed. Milkdud and I were up till near 0300 talking, whereas the other talkers mostly headed off in the 0100-0200 range. However, one mishap occurred around 0005 or so. While he was talking with the other adults around the coal-bed fire, Dad accidentally slammed his knee into a picnic table bench. He managed to hit it really hard, causing him to miss most of the hiking on Saturday.
Well, reveille was at 0630, meaning I had to be up at 0615. I had a root in my back the whole night, so I didn't sleep the best. Even with these detriments, the first half hour of me being up was enjoyable, since I got a matchless fire going even when Milkdud, one of our two best fire builders, didn't think I would (at least the way I was doing it.) After a generally tasty breakfast, and a hurried takedown of camp in the beginning rain, we did a briefing of the day and headed out.
Our first stop of the day was Ash Cave. We headed there, taking a little while to admire the sites, including a really neat 90-foot waterfall. After about an hour of playing around on the great topography, we headed out on the 2-mile hike to Cedar Falls.
Cedar Falls is a nice cascade some 40-50 feet tall, coming down some rocks and splitting in two near the bottom. It falls into a pool around 150 feet across, which then has a small rock course (we termed it a slip-and-slide) down into the stream bed. We spent a little while here after eating lunch up at a picnic shelter above the falls.
After Cedar Falls we went to Old Man's Cave by car. We checked out the "cave" itself and its two waterfalls, then hit the gift shop quickly before leaving for Rock House.
Rock House is a justifiable cave. It's accessed by a steep winding trail that twists down into a gorge, then follows a rock face up to the cave, accomplishing this by a 50-step stairway with a dropoff to the side straight down a cliff. This stairway was especially interesting because it was covered with wet leaves. Yay. Anyways, when we made it up, we had fun playing around for close to an hour. It was great. When we were finished, we headed back to the parking lot, did a quick debrief of the campout, and headed home. Our van in particular got home a little before 2100.
Alrighty. That's it for the campout. Here's the rest of the stuff for the rest of the week.
Sabbath was good. We had good attendance at church, and even visitors! We ended up having the visitors here for lunch, but they had to leave after a couple of hours, missing the evening service, since the family farms, and they had animals to take care of. Oh, the other thing. Since Mortons gave me the Warheads a few weeks ago, I gave them a box. I'd found out a couple weeks ago that they were at Walmart, and I've been happy about that ever since! :)
Monday--schoolwork, yardwork, and a Cub Scout meeting. One note about this--Bumpas earned his Den Chief Service Award! :)
Tuesday--schoolwork, yardwork, and a troop meeting. Troop meeting was themed around wilderness survival shelters. I worked with a younger guy and we managed to complete his rank requirements for Tenderfoot, complete with a board of review! That was nice--he's 16 years old, so he doesn't have much time for dilly-dally between the ranks.
Wednesday--schoolwork, yardwork, and COPE training. This last is stuff for scouts. COPE stands for Challenging Outdoor Personal Experience--basically teambuilding stuff through puzzles/riddles, then trust events like trust falls, smooth wall crossovers, etc., then finally a high-ropes course. We covered some of both the former, but not the high COPE. Oh well. Next week is the same thing, except it's on the COPE facilities for the low COPE.
Yesterday--schoolwork and yardwork. You starting to see a pattern here? :P
Today--schoolwork and yardwork. I've also spent a while working on this post and having fun outside on my bike. I watched a friend go over a cheap ramp several times, coming close to wiping out easily half the time. One funny thing with this---I mentioned to my friend that I was certified in CPR. His mom, who was watching, said that she didn't care whether I was certified or not, just as long as I knew how to do it! :)
I think that's about it. Hopefully I'll get more up tomorrow, complete with (I hope) pictures. I must get going. Good night!
We went down to the Hocking Hills region of Ohio. After leaving a slight bit late from Rushsylvania at just before 1630, we proceeded without (much) adventure to our campsite, around a 2½ hour trip. I say much adventure because of a driver getting onto I-270 right next to us. The adventurous part about it was that he apparently didn't see us as he oozed into our lane. Thankfully, he missed us, and we kept going. Supper was Burger King on the southern side of Columbus.
When we got down there, we quickly unloaded and set up. Since Milkdud, his brother, and his dad had gotten there that morning, they'd already gotten a couple tents set up, a fire going, and a dessert in a dutch oven in the fire. The dessert, which we will not name, for the stomachs of the squeamish might not handle it, was basically yellow cake mix, cherry (I think) flavoring, and butter. I know there was more to it, but I don't remember what all. It was pretty good, but the Casa Mamita tortilla chips were better! :)
After a few hours, we headed off to bed. Milkdud and I were up till near 0300 talking, whereas the other talkers mostly headed off in the 0100-0200 range. However, one mishap occurred around 0005 or so. While he was talking with the other adults around the coal-bed fire, Dad accidentally slammed his knee into a picnic table bench. He managed to hit it really hard, causing him to miss most of the hiking on Saturday.
Well, reveille was at 0630, meaning I had to be up at 0615. I had a root in my back the whole night, so I didn't sleep the best. Even with these detriments, the first half hour of me being up was enjoyable, since I got a matchless fire going even when Milkdud, one of our two best fire builders, didn't think I would (at least the way I was doing it.) After a generally tasty breakfast, and a hurried takedown of camp in the beginning rain, we did a briefing of the day and headed out.
Our first stop of the day was Ash Cave. We headed there, taking a little while to admire the sites, including a really neat 90-foot waterfall. After about an hour of playing around on the great topography, we headed out on the 2-mile hike to Cedar Falls.
Cedar Falls is a nice cascade some 40-50 feet tall, coming down some rocks and splitting in two near the bottom. It falls into a pool around 150 feet across, which then has a small rock course (we termed it a slip-and-slide) down into the stream bed. We spent a little while here after eating lunch up at a picnic shelter above the falls.
After Cedar Falls we went to Old Man's Cave by car. We checked out the "cave" itself and its two waterfalls, then hit the gift shop quickly before leaving for Rock House.
Rock House is a justifiable cave. It's accessed by a steep winding trail that twists down into a gorge, then follows a rock face up to the cave, accomplishing this by a 50-step stairway with a dropoff to the side straight down a cliff. This stairway was especially interesting because it was covered with wet leaves. Yay. Anyways, when we made it up, we had fun playing around for close to an hour. It was great. When we were finished, we headed back to the parking lot, did a quick debrief of the campout, and headed home. Our van in particular got home a little before 2100.
Alrighty. That's it for the campout. Here's the rest of the stuff for the rest of the week.
Sabbath was good. We had good attendance at church, and even visitors! We ended up having the visitors here for lunch, but they had to leave after a couple of hours, missing the evening service, since the family farms, and they had animals to take care of. Oh, the other thing. Since Mortons gave me the Warheads a few weeks ago, I gave them a box. I'd found out a couple weeks ago that they were at Walmart, and I've been happy about that ever since! :)
Monday--schoolwork, yardwork, and a Cub Scout meeting. One note about this--Bumpas earned his Den Chief Service Award! :)
Tuesday--schoolwork, yardwork, and a troop meeting. Troop meeting was themed around wilderness survival shelters. I worked with a younger guy and we managed to complete his rank requirements for Tenderfoot, complete with a board of review! That was nice--he's 16 years old, so he doesn't have much time for dilly-dally between the ranks.
Wednesday--schoolwork, yardwork, and COPE training. This last is stuff for scouts. COPE stands for Challenging Outdoor Personal Experience--basically teambuilding stuff through puzzles/riddles, then trust events like trust falls, smooth wall crossovers, etc., then finally a high-ropes course. We covered some of both the former, but not the high COPE. Oh well. Next week is the same thing, except it's on the COPE facilities for the low COPE.
Yesterday--schoolwork and yardwork. You starting to see a pattern here? :P
Today--schoolwork and yardwork. I've also spent a while working on this post and having fun outside on my bike. I watched a friend go over a cheap ramp several times, coming close to wiping out easily half the time. One funny thing with this---I mentioned to my friend that I was certified in CPR. His mom, who was watching, said that she didn't care whether I was certified or not, just as long as I knew how to do it! :)
I think that's about it. Hopefully I'll get more up tomorrow, complete with (I hope) pictures. I must get going. Good night!
5 comments:
Well, Milkdud, since Isaac has told about the hike, you need to put the pictures up :)
So what's with the screwy date at the top of the post?
Hmm. I started the post then, and it's been sitting around waiting for me to remember it all week long. Oh well. Sorry! :)
Uhhh, WAAAAY past time for a new one, now.
yes!! please post! :)
Post a Comment