A Day in the Life of our Strange Family: Our Camping Trip

Last weekend we took a short camping trip to Croft State Park in Spartanburg, SC. We had a great time once we got settled in. The campsite was wonderful! Only a thirty second walk from the lake... fishing, kayaking, and roasting marshmallows to our hearts' desire and we couldn't have asked for better weather.

The view from our campsite.

We arrived on Saturday afternoon after Jaden's baseball game and got everything set up. The afternoon flew by and we didn't really have the chance to do to much that day, but we were able to squeeze in a little bit of fishing that evening. The fish were hopping and at one point right after sunset a fish grabbed my line and decided to take it for a ride. I have no idea how big the thing was, but after fighting for about 15 seconds or so the darn thing broke my line. I would really love to know how big that sucker was. LOL By that time it was getting dark though and we had to head back to the tent to get the campfire going for dinner. Gotta love roasted hot dogs over a campfire.

Jack, Jaden and Priscilla kayaking on Lake Craig.

Sunday we were able to take the kayaks out on Lake Craig. We headed up towards one end of the lake and we overheard a guy in a nearby boat saying that there was something called "Turtle Hill" in one of the coves so we headed that way. There were many bubbles coming to the surface in places and at one point something hit the bottom of my boat. About five seconds later Jack asked me if there were alligators up this way. His paddle had also hit something. We had discussed kayaking and alligators before so I think he got a bit nervous. lol Personally, I'm more worried about snakes. ACK! The cove started getting VERY shallow even for a kayak so we turned around and headed back. There is a geocache on the other side of the lake so after kayaking a bit we parked the kayaks on the shore (which turned out to be a bunch of quick sand) and took a short hike to find the cache. After looking for 20 minutes or so we all couldn't find the cache and gave up. It was very beautiful on that end of the lake though and I can't wait to return.

Priscilla and Jaden

We jumped back in the kayaks to return to the campsite and boy was it rough getting back. The winds had picked up and we were all fighting to paddle against it. We eventually made it back though and then had to carry the kayaks back up the steep hill to the site. After that we were pretty much exhausted and rested for a while.

Jaden, Jack and Priscilla hiking up to the geocache.

Ofcourse, the fish in the lake were calling my name and I couldn't resist heading down that evening too, so we all headed down to the shore with our fishing rods. We had been fishing for a while when my line got all messed up. I called Jack over to help, so he recruited Jaden to watch his line for him. Jack had only been over there with me for about 20 seconds when Jaden yelled "Daddy, a fish is on your line!" Jack went running back over there and yanked on it. Sure enough he got it! So, technically, Jaden caught it. It wasn't a monster, but it was a good little fish. :) I decided to try my luck somewhere else since I wasn't even getting many nibbles. Ofcourse, Jaden comes running over to my secluded area to yell at me, "Daddy needs your help!" Jack had caught another small bream. GRRRR... Oh well, I'm glad someone caught something atleast.

On Monday morning we decided to take our (much needed) showers and then head up one of the trails to find another geocache. We started off on an easy horse trail but decided to break off on another to (in Jack's words) make it more interesting. Good GRIEF! The trail was called "Rocky Ridge" (a 3.5 mile horse trail that is rated strenuous) and I see why. Most of it was uphill on uneven terrain. Thank God the weather was turning cooler or I would have never made it! There were also strong gusts of wind and some of the extremely tall trees would creak and bend right over our heads. That made us all a bit nervous as well as an odd sound coming from the woods. We still don't know what in the world was making it, but we all figured we would pick up our speed to get out of there! There were several old building foundations and chimneys along the trail. This area was once part of an old World War II Army training camp so maybe they were remnants from that?? Luckily we made it to find the cache. We stopped to have a snack, but quickly started back since black clouds were moving in and it didn't look too good. We finally made it back to camp after walking 5-6 miles and just as the temperature started to plummet.

Ruins from the old World War II training camp? Checking out the geocache.

Monday night temperatures were supposed to be near the freezing point but we all stayed warm. It even rained a little bit that night. Tuesday morning it was time to pack up and it was a bit rough since the winds were very strong and I thought we'd all fly away while packing up the huge tent. It seems that we picked the right time to leave as it was very cold Tuesday morning. We were exhausted and cold when we arrived home, but we had a great weekend overall. There is something about camping that is just so wonderful... breakfast foods smell so good cooking over a propane stove in the morning... there is no need to keep track of time... your friendly temporary neighbors... sleeping under the stars... and a campfire at night with the sounds of frogs and crickets in the background. It's a wonderful feeling. :)