I am the one & only Phil. The lucky man on the other side of all the wacky things that get posted about here. Before I actually get into the meat of our conversation, I do need to set some things straight. Our ceilings are not clean. It's just that compared to everything else in our home, they look the cleanest. The ironic part is that the slogan, "at least the ceilings clean," was a one liner I would mention when Alicia would complain about how dirty our house was. I'm happy that our house doesn't look spotless, because that would infer that too many people stopped having fun for way too long. I've never heard of anybody laying on their death bed complaining of not doing enough cleaning. Anyways... /rant
In our 10+ years of marriage, one of the key lessons I've learned is that memories make life. So often we try to make special moments by giving gifts, but how many of the gifts can you remember that your spouse gave you out of your last 5 birthdays? If you can remember all five, let me refer you to my classroom where you can teach my students to remember the things I teach them. If you can remember four, your spouse must know you well and knows how to give a meaningful gift. If you can remember 3, you're probably average. If you only remember 2, then you are like me! If you only remember 1, just blame your spouse for not making your birthday special. And if you don't remember any, I think you better quiz your spouse to see if they even know when your birthday is! What I found is that birthdays (along with other "celebrations") are often recalled through statements like "Isn't that when you got me a vacuum cleaner?" That memory recall lasts 2 seconds and little emotional connection. Therefor, It has become our new motto to give trips rather than gifts.
We had already had loose plans to go visit Arbor Lodge in Nebraska City, Nebraska for Alicia's birthday weekend. There were conversations of going up on Friday night to a relatives house in Lincoln, but those plans never found solid ground. Yet as the weekend was fast approaching, the temperatures simply screamed GO CAMPING! So here is were I need to digress to another story...
In June of 2013 I went on the second annual Lewis & Clarke expedition. This is a trip I take with my brother in law and another friend that includes a couple nights camping that just happen to coincide with the College World Series. For our camping excursion this year, we went to Indian Cave State Park, which is about ~40 min southeast of Nebraska City, Nebraska. Before we met up with our friend, we did some trail walks trying to find a place to camp that was close to and/or able to see the Missouri River. We found a trail that ran parallel to the grand Missouri that the map stated a campsite laid. 20 minutes later, with exhausted lungs and legs needing talcum powder, we found an awesome campsite that we both agreed was impossible to bring our 'plop-n-drop' camping stuff to. So after admiring the amazing view we left.
So I desired a memory maker trip, a difficult full family trek that would either yield a marvelous accomplishment memory or a 'what in the world were we thinking' memory. Now this would not have popped into my head if it hadn't been for a random Saturday that our family decided to spend it together garage sale'ing, in which we found matching backpacking backpacks. Alicia told me don't get them unless I planned on using them, because even at a garage sale, they weren't "cheap" ($25 for two was the final deal I bartered).With these tools at hand, I knew we had to try to walk Trail 10 at Indian Cave State Park. We started the Friday morning off by having a conversation with the kids about what we were going to do: Climb a mini-(Nebraska)-mountain with all our camping supplies on our backs. I didn't sugar coat it, yet they were completely on board.
I do have to admit that with the lateness of our decision to do this along with my busy schedule with the first week of school teaching a brand new class, Alicia had to do all the packing. She did a marvelous job considering the fact that I'm normally in charge of all spacial awareness activities. Alicia even made "power balls," which I will inform her she needs to do a blog post on those magnificent creations. She packed all of our supplies including a tent (which ironically was a 6 lb. backpacking tent purchased for the kids during her last birthday trip to Kansas City), sleeping bags, and other bare-needs essentials into five backpacks, because three of the four kids were going to help haul stuff up the mountain.
We departed and drove a little more than 3 straight hours to Indian Cave State Park. We arrive at base camp, which is a small parking lot 100 yards from the Missouri River with an elevation of 880 feet above sea level. (Thanks mytopo.com for reteaching me how to read a topography map! Did you know that this would happen to be a mere 35 feet higher than the lowest point in Nebraska?) Everyone was buzzing with excitement for this mysterious adventure. They were all quick to get their backpacks on. Our oldest boy who is 3, jumped up into the van, only to be caught off guard by the change in his center of gravity, and promptly fell to the pavement landing on his side and head. I saw it all happen like it was in slow motion. Blood was quick to start dripping down his forehead. We hadn't even stepped foot into the trailhead and blood was already making it's debut! He was inconsolable for a couple minutes. Luckily, I had just stole some single ply toilet paper from the bathroom 10 minutes earlier for the hike. So with our boy slowly recovering, we finally started our hike of trailhead 10.
Our 3 year old boy, with the fresh wound that quickly stopped bleeding was the first to succumb to the steep inclines. There were about 10 major inclines on the trail that had 30 to 45 degree climbs for about 30 to 60 yards of climb. He made it halfway up the first. I carried him for the other 9 and a half. He would still walk the moderate grade portions, and loved the yellow flowers that were just as tall as him. I had mentioned to him that God had composed the beautiful nature surrounding us to try to lift his spirits, so he called them God flowers. Some portions the grass he was walking through was also as tall as him. I can imagine from movies how he might have felt using his hands to push aside the tall grass just to see what was next like an Indiana Jones adventure. He did carry his backpack the entire way and clutched his little bear in his chest, to whom we sang:
The bear went over the mountain,The bear went over the mountain,The bear went over the mountain,To see what he could see.And all that he could see, And all that he could see,Was the other side of the mountain...Our youngest daughter who is 5 years old did magnificent! It wasn't till the last climb that she started to complain about her legs hurting and feeling like they were broken. She was carrying our water supplies (2 camel-baks) in a sling bag. The sling bag would slide around on her and would often find itself in awkward positions that I have no clue how to explain.
Our oldest, a 8 year old girl who honestly isn't much bigger than her sister, was the leader of the pack. A couple of times she got out of view. This did bring concern, as portions of the trail were on the crest and had steep sides that could cause serious injuries if one wandered off the path. She's just the curious go getter that drives mom nuts. we had to inform her that you can run up the inclines, but don't run down the declines. She carried both her and her sisters sleeping gear.
The 6 month babe was within a sling on his mama's chest the entire way. He was quiet and enjoyed the scenery. On the other side of Alicia was about 25 lbs. of gear. She was fortunate to be splitting the weight from front to back, which made it a little easier to walk. It did make it difficult for her to watch where she was walking though. There was one portion that she became super mama by carrying both her boys at the same time. I turned around and snapped a pic.
30 minutes after starting, we reached our summit: a peak with about 150 square feet (10 ft by 15 ft) of decently flat ground, a lean-to, a fire ring, and a breath-taking view. To the north you could see the snake-like Missouri river, the floodplains from Missouri to what seemed like the southwestern tip of Iowa, and oddly, the forested steep hills of Nebraska. All at an elevation of 1223 feet above sea level. A total climb of 343 feet. After figuring that out for the first time, both Alicia and I didn't think it was that much, but then we realized that it is the same as walking 34 floors without an escalator or elevator. And that was all assuming that all we did was walk up.
Everyone took a break as I started setting up camp. I finished setting up camp as the sun was setting. With the light dwindling, Alicia took the boys into the tent and checked out for the night. The girls weren't going to let me check out so easily. They wanted a campfire. Same rule as any other camp night, if you want a campfire, then you get the firewood. They were fortunate to be surrounded by dry kindling and plenty of wood for a small basic fire. The girls got comfortable in their packs in the lean-to, and I snuggled into my hammock and told the girls a story of a fairy to aide them to sleep. The oldest was still struggling with falling asleep, so she snuggled into the hammock with me and promptly fell asleep. After falling asleep myself and being awoken by her movements, I moved her back to her pack and continued to listen to the song of owls.
I did wake up a couple of times during the night. Most notable was what I would assume was a raccoon walking through our camp. Since I needed to go to the bathroom, I marked my families territory on both sides of the lean-to. Yeah, sorry. TMI.
I'm not a morning guy, but I did wake up and stay up at 6:30 to wake the sun rise over the Missouri Valley. Marvelous. +1. Like. I had some more power balls and enjoyed the brisk morning air. The rest of the family slowly woke up, and we started a really small fire just to warm up hands since the temp had dipped to just under 60 degrees.
Packing everything back up went a lot smoother than I anticipated. I guess it helped that we didn't bring much. The kiddos stayed in their pajamas as we hiked down without incident. It was amazing how much faster the trip was coming back. We did have to reinforce the rule of "no running," to which our oldest tested immediately by running up some portions, so we modified the rule to "no running down the hills."
It was odd getting back to the van. Typically when you camp, your vehicle is normally in view, but when I saw the van, it looked odd, as I had gotten used to seeing nothing "modern" around. It was then that I realized that for the last 18 hours, we lived without any modern amenities. We lived amongst nature. If it had stormed, we would have had to grin and bear it in. (fyi, I did check the forecast before going.)
4 months later, it's still something that the kids recall. Although now they are talking about the latest trip gift: The Christmas Vacation. That's another (longer than it needs to be) post.
-The One & Only Phil.
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