To start! I decided that all I wanted for my birthday was to spend it in the mountains. I love me some mountains. And some camping. We had a brand new tent to test out as well (a North Face Moraine 33, for those of you interested- super sweet). The drive in from Canmore is beautiful- we even saw a young moose grazing along the road! I love mooses. I referred to him as "my birthday moose".
Neither Shawn nor I had been "real" camping in years- and what better way to test our skills than to set up camp in the rain!?
I honestly can't think of a better place to spend my birthday. Or a better person to spend it with...
Shawn works on the manly business of wood chopping- best to get the fire cracklin' during the brief breaks in the weather!
As you can see, the rain doesn't dampen our spirits one bit! Oh man, I didn't even mean to be punny there....
All set up! We greatly improved on our tarp a few hours later- complete with moat, and directional rain drain. We learned (rather, reestablished) that we make an excellent team.
Once we set up, Mother Nature rewarded our efficient work with a burst of sunshine around the dinner hour...
Perfect smoky roastin' weather!
Fire stoking (complete with headlamp!) pre-s'mores! We even splurged on a box of glow sticks to mark the tent pegs and tarp lines! The marshmallowy goodness was followed by a fantastic night's sleep! I'll admit it, I have a completely unfounded fear of bears, and I'm never sure how soundly I'll sleep when protected by little more than a candy wrapper at a relatively remote campground, but it was great.
The next morning dawned so beautiful, and so clear...well, I'll just let you look for yourself. It's the stuff postcards are made of.
This is the view FROM OUR CAMPSITE. The site we stayed was by far the nicest, and most secluded of the entire campground. We had a whole beach to ourselves, and the water was so absolutely crystal clear. We even had a little mule deer come right up to our site to graze at dusk!
The rest of our pictures are on camera #2, currently in Shawn's backpack at work. Part 2 will be coming soon!
