Most of the weekend was spent trying to keep mittens on Jamie with little success.
Saturday we got a late start and went for a really short hike. Jamie wasn't much into hiking in the backpack so he got out and walked. That means we didn't cover much ground. After our short morning hike, we headed back to the campground and cooked up a quick lunch and when Jamie went down for his nap, I took off and met some friends for a bike ride. The mountain has 1500 ft of vertical elevation change so we drove to the top and rode down and had someone meet us at the bottom to pick us back up. The trails were great, really fast, and not to rough. Nice relaxing riding (at high speeds). After a few trips down the mountain, I headed back to camp to give Christine a turn.
We got out the map and plotted a route that we both thought she could handle, maybe 5 or 6 miles of mostly flat trail with one good gradual climb to the top of the mountain and about 2-3 miles of road for the return trip. She left the campsite around 4:30 with an estimated return time of 6pm. Jamie and I hung out and played on the campsite playground and gathered more firewood, built a fire, had a snack, played with blocks in the tent and generally tried to stay warmish.
6 rolled around and still no Christine. 6:15, 6:30 still no Christine. Keep in mind that the sun went down around 6:15 but doesn't get real dark until 7:00 so I'm starting to panic a bit. We jumped in the car and drove to the top of the mountain to see if she was anywhere to be found. Nope. Now of course lots of things could happen while riding a mountain bike, a flat or other mechanical malfunction, a wreck, an encounter with a hungry bear, God knows... So after I didn't find her, I went back to the campsite and alerted the camp manager that we might have a missing camper. Since it was so close to dark, he went racing off looking for a ranger. This was right at real dark. Meanwhile Jamie and I had to stay put (and keep the campfire burning.) Right around 7:15 Christine rolled up looking real tired and cold. Turns out she was never lost, exactly, but she did take a wrong turn on the top of the mountain that took her about 3 miles out of her way (then 3 miles back up the mountain). To top if off her water bottle had fallen off who knows where so the entire ride was waterless. So we called off the search party and had dinner and a glass of wine (or two) and called it a night. Whew!
Our lovely campsite:
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