Into the Woods

My sister called me yesterday asking if I wanted to go camping. I had been thinking ALL day about camping!! After that phone call I ran around packing all my things as quickly as I could to get into the woods and OUT of the office.

As kids, my sister and I camped quite a bit with the fam... always in tents. We're hardcore like that. This would mark the first camping trip that my sister and I have taken where we were in charge of everything. Directions, fire, setting up the tent, cooking, etc, etc...

I would say that our little venture into the woods was mostly successful. Google maps failed us and led us to the middle of Banff when really we should have kept going on the highway... we both found it strange that a huge campsite would be sitting right in the middle of downtown Banff. We followed the google directions to find ourselves surrounded by tourists and hotels. Hmm...

My very smart older sister pulled out our Banff map that we got at the Park border and saw that Johnston Canyon was actually not at all in downtown Banff, so we continued driving.

We drove up to the Johnston Canyon Campground on a beautiful scenic drive in the trees and it was just starting to get dark. There was mist on the roads and the temperatures dropped from about 18 degrees (when we left Calgary) to about 5 degrees in the Banff area. Brr... it was not only going to be a cold night but also VERY dark and difficult to set up camp.

It had rained before we arrived at the campsite so all of the wood in the wood pile was SOAKED. I knew from my previous camping experience with hubby how dry wood was absolutely necessary to build a successful fire.

Amanda and I searched through the pile trying to get to the middle and found ourselves some dry-ish logs. As much as you would like to think that we didn't manage to build a fire... we actually did!! A big one too! It only took an hour and a bit ;) With my kindling and Amanda's keen teepee building skills the fire was roaring.

Our neighbors were totally entertained by our attempts at setting up camp. They even shouted "we love you girls" when I totally on purpose set off the car alarm late at night when everyone else was asleep. They loved it. We are a class act.

Once we got the fire started and the tent set up we got a phone call from our friend Carina who was on her way to the camp site. She may have gotten a little lost, but managed to use her navigational skills to figure things out. She arrived just in time to enjoy our sexy looking fire and camp site.

We spent lots of time by that fire... it was glorious.

Once it started pouring rain, the three of us moved indoors to our two man tent. It was cozy-ish. I didn't realize just how skilled Mike has always been at pegging the sides of the tent out. We got just a little bit wet in that crazy down pour. We probably would have slept a bit better in the five man tent that Amanda brought if it weren't for her leaving the poles back in Calgary...

This morning we woke up to the soggiest camp site you ever did see. We were a wee bit soggy too. Just a wee bit. We DID manage once again to build a fire (ladies- it's really not as easy as it looks) and even cooked a gourmet breakfast. Scrambled eggs with cheese, Ukranian Sausage, Almond butter spread on whole wheat toast and chocolate milk to top things off. We only lit the propane tank on fire once to achieve that breakfast. We were doing well.

We aborted mission "two nights" at Johnston Canyon and instead found some warmth inside the Starbucks downtown Banff. We will be sleeping in our warm beds tonight. SO excited and I think that sleep might just begin riiiiiiggght NOW.

Some photos in the sticks

(click to see them bigGER)

The lovely and beautiful Carina

Me and the camera bag that i've been drooling over and finally have in my hands!

Amanda and Carina think that they are in an engagement photo shoot. Congratulations?

Hope you all enjoyed your long weekend!