What happened to our camp?

9.21.18: Friday

Scott and I spent the day packing, organizing, preparing for our trip up North. The plan was to pick up the girls at 2:15 at school.  12 needed to take a Spanish quiz.  That would give her enough time.

We left at 2:30. We arrive 6:30 pm.  Just before sunset.  But we couldn’t tell.  There was cloud cover. Lake Willoughby had white caps on the North side.  That was a first sight for us.  It looked very cold.

It is not an easy task arriving at night.  We need to carry everything up the hill.  We need head lamps.  We need to know there is a camp to hike to as well.
Hinton Hill Road was foggy, really foggy. We were driving into a low lying cloud.  Can we see the camp above Sentinel Rock Park?  Nope. Way too foggy.

We turned into the road.  Would the pesky gate be open?  No. Of course not.  We got through anyway.

We parked at the path. Scott and I planned to have us all walk up since the light was so low.  11 asked for Dad to check to make sure there was a camp to walk to.  He agreed.
The girls and I put on warm clothes. I finished organizing the gear.  We were all ready to go.  Then Scott came back and said, “There are no structures up there that I can see.  There is also a tree down in the Field of Deception.”
“What are we going to do?” asked the kids.
“Well, stay somewhere else of course!”
We found a place in Newport.  It was clean enough and it even had a pool and jacuzzi.  We watched the Goonies.  Unlike a few  years ago, 11 wasn't scare so it was kind of fun to watch.  We all secretly liked sleeping on a mattress, well at least I did.
9.22.18: The Autumnal Equinox.
I write now from Parson’s Corner, fabulous breakfast and lunch restaurant in Barton. We await our hearty gourmet Northeast Kingdom (NEK) breakfast, expecting it to fuel us for our mystery day, our day of surprises.  We have no idea what to expect. We know we need to cut a tree or two.  But we don’t know if our camp is totally destroyed or not.
....

On our way up to camp we saw a downed tree in the Field of Deception.  Here are 11&12 enjoying the rest it provided them.

Phew!  Things aren't too bad.
The Clam was not damaged.  The
top was just smooshed in by a pool of water. 



This is the second time we found The Clam pushed down.  Luckily the structure is made well enough to withstand the pressure of the wind and rain.  12&11 were able to push it back into formation with relative ease.
Uh-Oh!


Argh!  Look at that! The Montana Canvas tent blew right over.

The ropes must have pulled the stakes out.  In truth we were staking into dirt filled crevices between rock mainly slate I think.  The floor is a loose tarp which I fastened to the sod cloth with Velcro.  The wind must have swept under it and pushed the tent over.

Looks like it was worth putting everything in containers and bags.  It’s possible the IKEA bags which I hung off the frame contributed to the fall due to their weight.  Luckily they still kept everything dry!

Canvas and frame look OK.  No tears except for that mishap with the weed-wacker. (Yes. It was me. I knew I was too close to the tent while trimming weeds.  I patched it though and looks like the patch survived this fall. )  The tear at one of the corner seams did get worse though. (Not my fault!)



After cleaning up and putting the canvas out to dry We made burgers by this fantastic fire which 12 helped prepare.  After a fine dinner the girls and I headed to our hotel for a swim and a dip in the hot tub.

Sunday, once things dried out, Scott was able to drive up to the hill so we could pack up the canvas and some other gear.  Here is a makeshift shed.

It is always a joy to head down the road leaving the camp.  The view forever changes but consistently amazes our Core-4.



12’s sky view one.



12’s Sky view two.



12’s sky view three



12’s view of our lake drive-by.  Bye Willoughby!