Long Lake

While my Mom & Jason were visiting Jeff & I took Kira, Calvin & Jason on an overnight backpacking trip (Kira & Calvin's first). My mom stayed home with our younger three. We went up into the High Uintas and hiked into Long Lake. It was a beautiful little lake a little over 2 miles in. The trail was perfect: beautiful scenery, fishing spots on the way, not too steep, but still a bit of a challenge for our first timers. We did a ton of fishing, tried out all sorts of gear from The Ready Store, built a raging fire (thanks to Jason) and had an all around great time. I was impressed by how well Kira and Calvin did (and of course Jason, he's much more experienced than Kira and Calvin). They all slept all night long despite the constant rain fall that soaked most of our gear, they had a great time, and never really complained...even on the hike and with the ridiculous amount of mosquitos. Jeff and I hardly slept at all with the rain, etc. We camped next to a pretty large family reunion sort of group. Someone in their group had brought their baby (who ended up crying for a good hour or so in the middle of the night). We couldn't help but sympathize and think "We're so glad that's not us." Mom on the other hand had our three youngest all of whom woke up at various times during the night for her. (Sorry Mom). :)

Here are some fun numbers from our trip:

11 - Trout we (Jeff, Jason, Calvin & Kira) caught
4 - Trout that fell back in the lake while trying to bring them in
2 - Trout that were mercifully caught and released
2 - Trout we fried in butter and garlic over a campfire and ate
3 - Trout we brought home and froze for a later fish fry
4.5 - Miles we hiked
11 - Pounds Kira's and Calvin's backpacks each weighed
37 - Pounds Jeff's backpack weighed
33 - Pounds Amy's backpack weighed
30 - Pounds Jason's backpack weighed
13 - Hours it rained on us
11,000 - Feet above sea level we camped at
10 - Number of Mountain House meals eaten
2 - Hours we drove to get to the trail head
4 - Number of items the kids could choose off the dollar menu on the way home
5 - People who had a BLAST on our overnight backpacking trip
4 - Number of mosquito repellent wipes we brought
10,000 - Number of mosquitos swarming around us at any given time