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Here is a picture of the majestic Rocky Mountains. They are there…really. Today we drive on to Clark CO. Hopefully the weather will be better there.

- Sean

Our good friend Kelly took some great photo’s of us camping two weeks ago. I’ve been itching to post them ever since the trip, however I wanted to wait until I installed WordPress 2.5 so I could take advantage of WordPress’ new gallery feature. The pictures are not in chronological order, but they still represent the trip well. Click on the picture to see a more detailed description. My favorite one is the first one.

Which one is your favorite?

- Sean

My Brother and I had a great camping trip. Well, I did. He had trouble falling asleep Friday night because I was snoring. He said he couldn’t fall asleep for an hour and a half. Apparently I snore kinda loud. Then, around 2:00am, my Nephew woke up crying because he was cold. Combine those two conditions, and add it all up, and you see that my Brother probably slept no more than 3 hours on Friday night. Not getting enough sleep is tough anytime, but it is especially tough when you are camping. I felt bad for him. I know what it is like to run on little sleep.

Saturday morning we awoke to typical Missouri spring weather. Nice and cold. Since he didn’t get much sleep I offered to get up and re-kindle the fire while my Brother and Nephew stayed in the warm tent. It took longer than usual for the fire to catch so I spent a lot of time huddling next to the smoking embers trying to get warm. It was bliss. You see, I like camping in cold weather. It suits me better than Summer camping. Actually, I like Winter better than Summer period. For me it doesn’t get much better than a snowy Winter’s night. You all can have the heat, humidity and bugs of Summer, just let me have my cold snowy Winters. Mmmmm.

Late Saturday morning we walked around in the surrounding hills a little bit. Not too much as my Nephew is too small to do much serious hiking. After returning to camp, and eating lunch, the clouds rolled in bringing with them a cold wind and the threat of rain. We started packing up camp quickly hoping to get everything in the car before the rain started. For those of you who don’t know, camping in the rain isn’t that bad while you are at the campsite. Typically I bring tarps and poles that I set up to keep everyone dry as we sit around the fire. You don’t feel the pain of camping in the rain until you get home. Why? Because you have to set everything back up again to dry it out or else you get smelly mildew. Yuck! So when you camp in the rain you actually set up and tear down twice, once for the camping trip, and once again at home to dry it all out. Packing up before the rain comes alleviates a lot of aggravation when you get home.

My Brother and I decided to take advantage of the nice spring weather and go camping this weekend. Consequently I won’t be able to post again until Sunday, or maybe Monday. Enjoy The Father Part 2 and be sure to leave a comment, or send me an email, telling me what you think.

By the way, did you notice the Poll about Sarah?

- Sean

Check out this post about Camp Cooking on the Students of Success blog. I have learned these same lessons by making my own mistakes. I especially like the advice on how to prepare chicken. Those of you who are camping newbies take note.

- Sean

I received some money for my birthday and decided to spend some of it on a new Tent. My current tent, nicknamed the Taj Mahal because if it’s size, is a monster. At 10 feet wide by 15 feet long and standing over 7 feet tall it is difficult to set up by yourself. It is also heavy weighing in at over 50lbs! My current tent is the Cougar Flats Tent made by Columbia. I posted the manufacturer’s picture for you.

A frustrating downside to this tent design is the partial fly. Notice how the windows and doors are not covered by the fly? Rain never falls straight down, it always comes in from the side. Many times when you are camping the only dry place you have is your tent. If you have inadequate rain protection in your tent you end up with no dry place to stay. I like to do a lot of camping during the fall and spring so rain protection is of the utmost importance for me.

Determining my needs was pretty easy, finding a decent tent that fit those needs for a decent price wasn’t. I want a tent that:

• I can stand up in
• Is big enough for my sizable cot
• Has a rain fly that comes down to the ground on all sides
• Is easy for one person to set up
• Is light enough that I can carry it for some distance without effort

The Taj Mahal Cougar Flats Tent is so heavy the case for it has wheels like you find on large rolling luggage! After much searching I found a couple of options from Cabela’s and REI, most over $500.oo. I ended up choosing the REI Basecamp 6 tent because REI offers a good tent and it was on sale this month to members at 20% off. I just placed the order in fact. Here is a random picture of an REI Basecamp 6 (not ours) I picked up off the web.

Notice how the fly comes down all the way to the ground! It also has a nice vestibule area where you can leave your dirty shoes out of the tent but still keep them dry. I actualy set up this tent at a local store. It was easy to set up by myself due to the free standing dome design. I also checked out the carry bag which has nice wide straps for carrying. With the fly this tent weighs in around 25lbs, half the weight of the Taj Mahal. I can’t wait to try it out!

Note: This is my heavy camping gear for when Jenn comes along. When I go by my self I use only the Hennessy Hammock for shelter. If you haven’t checked out the Hennessy Hammock Website you should. it is the best piece of camping equipment I have ever purchased!

So, who out there likes to camp? What kind of tent do you use?

- Sean

Here is the actual Picture. This is from the camping trip I took with my brother in the fall of ‘06.

- Sean

I am trying out all the WordPress features as I go. Kinda like a kid with a new toy. Today I decided to try publishing a picture. This picture of Andy and I was taken by a guy we met while hiking to the Tom Sauk Falls. The guy has hiked to the highest point in most every state, and hails from New Jersey, now if I could only remember his name.

- Sean