Spruces

Aug 20, by Joseph

Tuesday, Aug 16 We ... drove up Big Cottonwood Canyon to the Spruces camp. We set up camp and started dinner. Shauna did the main work. We had chicken stew in the dutch oven. I drove out to the road to see whether David was coming, but came back after a while. We had a nice dinner. No one else came. It started raining on us a little before dinner was done, and continued most of the evening. I found some wet areas in our tent and tried to get things out of the water and sopped up the water spots. It let up and was clear and dry during the night. Before bed, the family played some games, including some hands of Phase 10. I did not do so well in that game.

Wednesday, Aug 17 We slept well, not affected much by the wetness. After breakfast, Adam and I went with the Biesingers on a hike up to Green's Basin, above the campground. It was a nice hike. The basin was a beautiful meadow. We got back close to 1 PM and had lunch. After lunch, we played three hands of Canasta, Mark and Adam on one team, Shauna and I on the other. The Biesingers were taking naps. Mark and Adam won handily, winning in only three hands. After that, Shauna and Mark drove back to town for some doctor appointments for Mark. Later in the afternoon, Quinn and his children hiked with Adam and I over the hill, just exploring a bit. Later we cooked hot dogs for dinner. I did quite a bit of reading, making good progress in reading the Book of Mormon. Shauna and Mark arrived shortly after dinner. Mark had a bad cough and a problem with his ear. After we went to bed it rained on us quite a bit. I had adjusted the temt some so that it did not get much water in it during the night.

Thursday, Aug 18 Shauna and Mark got up early and went back to town. Shauna to go to work, Mark because of his health. He later went to a doctor and was found to have an ear infection and viral bronchitis, so he was told not to come back up the canyon. We made breakfast, but couldn't get the stove to work right so we cooked over the fire - eggs and hash browns and bacon. I went with Mark and some of the children to visit the stream down the hill from us. We dicovered the interesting rocks and life around the stream. Later Jonathan and Sarah joined us at camp and we took the hike to Donut Falls. It was a pleasant hike. Some of the group actually got into the falls and got wet in the cold water. I stayed at the bottom of the falls area with Mary, Sarah and the youngest children. I got some good pictures. On the way back, Kel looked for more wild raspberries. There are quite a few out and around now. Back at camp we had a late lunch. We discovered that the meat cooler was left open so we had to go ahead and cook up the sausages and ate them along with our sandwiches. We then played a game of Apples to Apples and Jonathan and Sarah went back home. Kel looked around for more raspberries and got into some stinging nettle in the middle of the raspberry plants. Later we played Phase 10 and started the charcoal for dinner. I got the Chicago Italian Beef cooking and decided to take the remaining Rhodes roll dough and make a loaf of bread in the other dutch oven. Soon after we started eating dinner, Shauna arrived back at camp and joined us for dinner. Mark had to stay home to take care of his bronchitis. A little later, Aaron came to camp and brought Jon Faux with him. They joined in eating dinner and then we played some games, including Phase 10 and Apples to Apples. We had a great time. Jon and Aaron left at about 11 PM.

Friday, Aug 19 We had a nice dry night's sleep. It was a full moon so it was quite bright for some of the night. In the morning we had a simple breakfast and then mainly relaxed around camp. I did quite a bit of reading. Sarah and Makea joined us in the mid-afternoon and then Aaron came up. We started getting food ready for dinner, mainly cutting up ingredients for foil dinners. David and Charla and family joined us and later Jonathan came up. Nathan and Justin came as well. We cooked our dinners and ate. Most of the family played Spud in the road by the camp. Later, some of the family played Mafia. The games went until after 11 PM. It was a lot of fun. Nathan and Justin did not stay the night.

Saturday, Aug 20 We got up and started packing up camp and contined doing so for much of the morning. We had a nice breakfast of pancakes and took some time to play a few games. We played a little Apples to Apples and Mafia and ate some lunch. Camp was mainly cleared by the 1 PM checkout time. The valley was hot when we returned.

Family Camps of the Past: Journal Entries