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Howdy everybody!!

Friday afternoon a group of 6 guys, including myself drove out to Big Bear Lake for a camping trip. Big Bear is something like just over two hours away, but we managed to make it a four hour trip with a few wrong turns and then not finding the campground when we finally did make it. But we did make it . . . at nearly 9pm!!

So we set up the tent in the dark and started a fire to cook up some dinner. About this point in time I realized that this whole trip was going to be an adventure, we had no real  utensils and no plan for the entire weekend. It was great!!

So we cooked up some hamburgers over our fire, using sticks to flip them and only losing one of them in the flames through the slots in the grate. We also had some Sausages and other random things to munch  on before we all headed to bed around midnight.

I woke up something like four hours later shivering like crazy and definantly not able to go back to sleep . . . so I crawled out and started up the fire from the embers and thawed out . . . sorta . . . when your feet feel like popcicles it takes a while.

After breakfast we kinda just hung out for a while and then about 11 we headed over to the Discovery Center for some information on hiking trails. We chose a medium difficulty trail and started hiking . . . all in all it turned out to be about a  6.4 mile hike, half of it uphill!!

After that we headed back to the campsite and decided that we needed to build a better fire, so we headed off down towards the lake to find some branches and such on the ground. One of our favorites turned out to be pinecones, quick to ignite, bright when burning, easy to find and bring back . . . what else could we ask for!?!?

Saturday night half of us decided that it would be better to sleep out of the tent near the fire to stay warm . . . so we built up a good bed of coals and then tried to sleep. There was a site just a few spaces away with a drunk couple or two listening to country music really loud from their car stereo, arguing about some of the most random things. What fun, what fun!!

Anyway, so I wake up at like 1am freezing cold again and start to chuck some of the cones into the pit, waking up one of the other guys in the process with the ring of pinecones on metal. We got the fire up nice and warm and then realized that we were nearly out of fuel . . . not good as it was just 2.30am and the coldest part of the night was still coming. Sometime during this the other guy wakes up and so we all hop into his truck and go fill it up with cones and branches. We managed to get enough that we kept the fire up nice and hot all the rest of the night only dozing off now and then in the process.

Part of the problem we had was that I didnt have my sleeping bag; its in the closet between the bathrooms at home, on the top shelf if you want to find it Mom, and the other guys, except for one, really werent experienced campers. So it made for a great trip!!

Originally this weekend was supposed to be a brother/sister wing event, but I think only about every two hours, as we ran into some crazy problem or situation, would we comment on how it was a good thing that the girls didnt come after all. Not that we wouldnt have loved to have them, it just would have been really really interesting.

On the whole deal of camping, this trip doesnt really rank as a true experience. All of us had cell phone service and the bathrooms had flush toilets, and there was a whole row of hot showers!! Camping?? I think not, but fun anyway as a time to spend with the guys.

For some pictures and another version of the story head over here