Saturday, October 11, 2008

Hannah's first backcountry camping trip!

4 days in the back country, 1 snowstorm, 1 bear, 9 chickens, 40 people and lots of fire and good food to keep us warm! What more could you ask for on Hannah's first camping trip!
After driving up Tuesday night we awoke and began to set camp up. In the picture above is the pastor of our church.... Pastor Steve. He and Hannah have become close friends over the last year, even more since he told her about Bruno his horse. Hannah has been waiting for weeks and weeks to meet Bruno and ride him! She finally got the chance! To meet him that is... a bear came through camp the night following the above picture and Bruno cut up his legs pretty bad when he freaked and got his leg stuck in the fence etc... Good thing he was overall OK though! Hannah was sad she couldn't ride him but was happy to talk to him everyday and help feed and walk him!

Since this was Hannah's first camping trip, she needed to explore everything with her dollar store magnifying glass that was worth it's price in gold!

Here Hannah spent some time relaxing while all of the students were working... I'm sure they wished they could hang out in the hammock for a while!


This is Samson... Bruno's best friend. Hannah was glad he didn't hurt his legs when the bear came through, so she made friends real fast hoping to ride him instead!

Both Samson and Bruno were very gentle horses who Hannah simply adored! They loved to sniff her and get close... I think it's because she always smelled like Smores and the grass she would feed them!

3 years old and riding bareback already! Simply amazing!

Above are all of the guys from our church that came to help with the trip, who all affectionately nicknamed Hannah "Peanut." She's sitting with Pastor Steve.. next to them is Mike Dale... and next to him is Jerry Gould... It was great to sit around and hear all of their camping stories. They were all really great with Hannah and helped me wrangle her for the week. It was wonderful!

Here are all of the brave SOE students! They really did phenomenal with all of the tasks we came up with for them!

Running around in the wilderness is an exhausting thing! I could always count on finding Hannah asleep in Pastor Steve's arms at the end of the day... I don't think he minded the excuse to sit down!

This is one of the girls right before the "Chicken Chop"... yep you read that right! We bought some chickens and the students had the task of catching, killing, and dressing them to cook for dinner that night!

This is Rose and she was the best shot of the night! It was amazing and not one person freaked out! Everyone participated and did great!


This is Ky and Eric getting ready to pluck their dinner for the night!

And what a success! 8 chickens cooked over the fire and split amongst the teams! The 9th chicken was used for wolf bait which didn't work... most likely because the snowstorm that was blowing in!

We had no problem keeping warm! 40 people cutting firewood... we never ran out!

Here is Hannah on Samson again! If he had his saddle on, she was requesting to ride him! They became great friends!

Here is Hannah taking Samson on one of his morning walks. I just know she's going to ask for a horse for Christmas!

Didn't hesitate to climb up on the four wheeler either! Everyone was impressed with our little camper! Said she was right in her element and conquered the wilderness with more zeal than most!

One day when all of the students went on a day hike, Pastor Steve and Jerry took us on a drive/hike of our very own...

... and this is the beauty we found.

4hrs later the snow began... and didn't quit!


Even though we look cold here... we were actually toasty warm! Our faces were red because they were so hot from the fire! We found ourselves constantly backing up because we were burning through so much wood!

One of the students plays the harmonica and Hannah wanted to try it of course! Our little multitalented girl!

Then of course I had to take a turn while Hannah took my picture! She's quite the photographer as well!

Don't you feel warm just looking at that fire!

Since the snow wasn't quitting and was building up quickly we decided to pack up and head out early! But first Hannah ate her weight in snow while we packed up camp! Our little snow eater was sad when we came down out of the mountains to dry land! We told her there would be more! So if you've made it this far through this very long blog... I'll let you know we had a blast! It was an amazing experience and I can't wait to do it again next year! I'll leave with with the following pictures of the unbelievable beauty we lived in for four short days.... We'll be back that's for sure!




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