Last weekend our ward Relief Society had an enrichment night "women's retreat". It was held in the recently purchased Camp Wilderness where it is rumored that girls camp will be held next year. It was a fun trip and all the women that attended enjoyed a night with friends and PLENTY of food. Saturday morning was spent eating more food and attending workshops so we could all improve ourselves. Stephanie, Susan and Bishop Dunn presented workshops, and Bonnie asked me to prepare a Nature Scavender Hunt. I drove up and took Diane, Rose and Kate with me, along with some gear that wouldn't fit in Stephanie's van. While we we were at Stephanie's getting loaded, Monica mentioned that Richard said he knew a faster, BETTER way to get there. Well, since all the women in my truck are adventurous, we decided to try it. The trip was supposed to take about 2 hours. We left at 3:30 and finally arrived at 9:00. Let's just say we now know where everything on the whole mountain is located. Some crucial information (where to make a left turn) was not mentioned to us, nor was it on our map, so we explored for awhile and eventually went back and followed the original map given to us at Relief Society. All that mountain driving allowed us to have more time to get to know each other better and to get hungry. I told the ladies that in the amount of time we had been driving we could have been in Las Vegas eating at the Rio seafood buffet an hour before we arrived in Camp Wilderness to roast our hot dog.
Here's the crew that helped put out the breakfast.
Jocelyn wanted lots of pictures, since she couldn't go, so I took plenty and am only posting a few. This is the main lodge and kitchen which also has several rooms with bunks on the second floor. The main floor has sleeping rooms too, probably for the kitchen helpers and also bathrooms but no showers.
This is looking from the kitchen across the main room in the lodge.
I have several kitchen pictures, but this one shows the stove and ovens. It is a circular plan with the stove in the middle. Lots of storage is everywhere with labels. There are three or four refridgerators, a freezer and an ice machine.
There are 5 cabins like this.
There are about 12-16 beds in each cabin, some look old and some new, with a total of about 100 beds.
Some of the bathroom sinks look like this and some are porcelain.
There are about 5 or 6 showers. This is one. I looks like a lot of work is in progress at various stages.
This is a view looking down on the amphitheater stage. It had a spotlight and electrical outlet. There is also a light pole at the top of the plank seats.
This is a firepit located past the caretaker's cottage.
This is the Caretaker's Cottage.
I also had a picture here of the sea train and trailer used for garbage, but I pushed the wrong button and deleted it, so I'll just tell you that the door of the trailer was pulled off by a bear who smelled the garbage, and it had to be replaced, so they brought in the sea train. The trailer door is now left open all the time.
JOCELYN couldn't believe how fast the boys got dirty, hates nature museums and curvy roads, but loves a nice hike.
NATHAN, loved cooking marshmallows for s-mores, fishing, but not actually touching the fish, throwing rocks in the stream, and got sore ankles hiking. He also loved pestering Uncle Dandy, asking Shaun questions, and playing all the fun games Uncle Dandy brought.
SPENCER loved sliding on the big rock by our tent, exploring everything and describing it to us so wonderfully, cooking marshmallows, learning how to fish without actually touching the fish, and slept in the stroller for the entire hike to Tharps log. He is so tender-hearted! He made sure we put the fish back in the stream after catching them. In camp his favorite pastime was kickin' up dirt.
JARED is a true mountain man in the making. He loved everything about camping and was a joy to have with us.
