Of course it started raining as we drove up the canyon. A few years ago, we went camping at Maple Lake with some friends. On the drive up the canyon, it hailed on us. (so much I pulled to the side of the road and hoped my van wasn't ruined.) As it started raining as we drove up the canyon this year, I told Deni, well at least it isn't hailing on us like last time. Famous last words. We got to our camping spot and decided to sit in the car for a few minutes to wait out the rain and low and behold, a few pieces of hail fell. Luckily there were only 4 of 5 pieces of hail that we saw on the windshield.
We found a great spot and set up our tent under a massive tree. There was just enough room to set up the tent, our chairs and campchef in this dry area.
Here's Ryan with his new haircut.
The kids wanted a fire, so while Ryan and I went fishing in the lake, Deni drove down the mountain to buy some overpriced box of wood, so we could have a fire and have smores. Deni got back about 9:30pm. Deni attempted to persuade the kids that it was late and we should save the wood for the morning, but they really wanted the fire at night, so I used my firebuilding skills and got the fire going. By 10pm we were done with smores and we put the kids to bed. Deni and I sat up aroudn the fire until at least 11pm waiting for it to burn itself out. It was great to sit around the fire and talk, no kids, clear sky, it was great.
The next day we spent most of the day biking and fishing.
Sydney walking down to the lake.
Sydney caught this picture of me fishing. If you can tell from the picture, the camera wasn't quite straight when she took the picture. I was leaning in an attempt to straighten out the picture (but it didn't seem to help). Although many were catching fish around us, I didn't catch anything. All I caught was this moss.
Ryan and Deni out in the canoe. It's been a while since we've used our canoe. It's a little work to get it out to the lake, but sure is fun once you get it there.
Maple Lake is beautiful. It is by far my favorite camping spot around. Plus it's close. Only about a 20 minute drive from the house.
All in all, the trip was great.
When we left, Ryan and I biked down about 5 miles down Payson Canyon. Of course it was all downhill, so it was a great ride for both of us. I let Ryan lead down the hill, reminding him to brake when we got going a little faster than he should. He was getting down in the aero position, it was fun to watch.
