Horse Poop and Butterflies

This past week I went on a week long backpacking trip. My dad takes students on this miniterm every year, going on 12 years (we weren't actually entirely sure on that number, but close enough). I went along this year as a chaperone, along with my uncle who flew in from Ohio. 

I'm warning you ahead of time, this post is going to be mostly pictures.

We left early in the morning on Friday and drove 6 hours to get to the trailhead. That first day we hiked two miles to get to Moss Springs where we set up camp for the first night. It was a cold evening, and we were all getting used to being in the wilderness.

I retired early and read my book for a long time in my tent. It was both freezing, and I had almost finished it on the bus ride so I couldn't help myself.

We woke up to snow Saturday morning. Despite the weather though, we packed up and set out hiking to our next camping spot, Boulder Creek.

Moss Springs had a pit toilet, but once we left there we were headed unto the wilderness area and had to leave such luxuries behind.

That hike provided some awesome views down the mountain.

Eventually the snow cleared up. This is the whole group (minus me).

My dad likes to meander along at the back of the pack and search for morels (tasty mushrooms). He found a decent amount just about every day. One night he cooked them up with a bunch of butter and let everyone try them. I devoured those. Mushrooms are the best.

A morel in action

The next day, Sunday, we had a pretty long hike to our next destination, Red's Horse Ranch. I walked with my dad for the first portion.

We found the skull of a wild animal and a bear claw. My dad kept the bear claw.

We had a pretty steep decent into the valley then, but eventually all made it and took a group picture at the gate.

We stopped at Red's to dry our stuff out a little, but we couldn't camp there for the night so we walked about a half mile down the clearing to Millard Cabin, where we would spend 3 nights.

The next day, Monday, we had a free day. I had a lot of time to myself, walked down to the river, read, it was nice. Except for being attacked by bugs. I even attempted to wash my hair with soap and a milk jug, but then realized I had no hair brush. That was a bit of a failed attempt.

Every night for dinner I would have a Mountain House freeze dried meal. Those didn't get old at alll.........
I tried to mix it up a little and threw some hot sauce in just about everything I ate. That helped a little bit. If you're not picky though it's not too bad.

Some tasty Mac & Cheese with hot sauce.

We had a lot of time to explore the general area.

Tuesday we did a service project for Red's and hauled some old equipment with good old fashioned muscle power.

Red's Horse Ranch

After the service project, my dad has two traditional competitions with "fabulous prizes". The fire building contest, and the compass orienteering course. The fabulous prizes this year were Nutella, Ding Dongs, and gummy candies.

So much smoke.

Sheldon won the fire building contest by getting his cup of water to boil the fastest. Other bonus points were awarded for returning the most unused matches, smallest fire, no trace, etc.

Here sit "Dengle and Jengle"

Next was the orienteering course. The judges sat on the front porch of Red's while all the kids ran around gathering compass bearings and using maps. I had helped my dad set up the course that morning.

One of the questions was if this compass pointed to true or magnetic north. There is a difference of 17.5 degrees. It's true north if you were wondering.

Millard Cabin as we were leaving

We began our trek out of the valley on Wednesday, starting with a steep uphill climb. That was rough. The trails were muddy (not as muddy as they were going in though) and covered with horse poop, as usual.  That was our longest hike, 5.1 miles, but thankfully it was really nice weather. Eventually we got to Whiskey Flat and set up for our last night of camping. I sat in the sun for a while and got attacked by butterflies. It was awesome. I'm pretty sure there was one point where there were two on my leg, and two crawling on my book at the same time.

Thursday morning, we set out to reach the bus. Two miles up and out of the wilderness, then two miles on gravel road to get to the bus. I hiked with my dad and uncle for this one.

I was expecting my hair to be a little worse off, honestly. After a week with no shower.

The three Engles.

We eventually got to the bus to begin our 6 hour drive back to the school. 

We stopped in La Grande at a Chinese Buffet where everyone slowly remembered how to act in civilization and simultaneously stuffed their faces with delicious food.

At least its a pretty drive!

It was a good week.