"I'm happy even when centipedes bite me, that's the truth"
Garter snake video - snake wrangling by moi
Centipede video - @thingone ain't afraid of no centipede.
We have spent the last two weekends camping in the Uinta national forest up Little Diamond Fork Canyon. We are planning on camping every weekend in September. It is so nice to spend the days together as a family, splashing around in the creek and exploring the meadows and forests.
Little Diamond Fork is a small creek, perfect for kid safe wading and exploring
Herds of cows are grazed in the national forest here during the summer months. In between when we first found this spot and our last two visits, cows had absolutely trampled the shore of the creek into a muddy mess. There is very little I enjoy doing more than moving rocks and digging around in creeks, so I made a nice stone shoreline for us with a bridge :)
@yeti-the-dog approves
Of course we suspended our largest hammock over the creek. Have you ever drifted with the movements of the trees while suspended in a hammock, listening to a stream burble below you? It is good for the soul.
We had scattered thunderstorms, intense downpours and hail Sunday morning, which actually was a lot of fun. We have a big tent that I had secured well with guy lines to surrounding trees, so we had a cozy place to retreat to.
Watching the next thunderhead roll in
The cool wet day made for great forest exploring once the rain stopped.
Sagebrush and wildflower meadows above the creek
Bumble bee on a thistle flower
We explored farther downstream than we had before, and made it to a section that had been burned by a forest fire sometime in the last decade or so.
Blackened trees at the edge of the burn zone
More adventures and soul cleansing await, we will be back out there this coming weekend and I am excited :) Much love - Carl
looks like a great hike, I confess I love lizards but I have a conflict with snakes because I love rodents so much and you know but it's soooo cute I will tell you that.
I probably bond more with snakes than mice. Reptiles in general I am super fascinated with. The nice thing about poking around the wilderness near where we are camping is we are not going on established people trails - we are following cow trails :joy: so they meander up to the upper meadows and down to the creek all over the place. tons and tons of relatively decent short hiking trails basically lining the whole canyon along the creek
Hector and I try to go to less crowded trails too, we love to get lost a little, I avoid heights because I have fear of high points but besides that I'm an outdoors creature, not out much this summer cos it's been incident after incident and I'm mending. Right now I can't even type properly sprained my main which I use to draw and play and it hurts so much and can lift weight. But no matter what I will try to go and hug some trees. I like reptiles, I had a turtle for decades, mum still has one, but I am obsessed with ratties so I have conflicts with snakes, I have a 3 arms lizard in my terrace who loves pears
That looks like the breakout camping trip of 2019!
This is one the monsters will be talking about for ages! :)
it is going to be fun camping at the same spot for 6 weekends in a row (which is our plan). We have been making the spot more awesome each time, it is going to be epic by our last trip
Damn son!
You seem to be doing it right!
You are a natural snake fondler for sure. That hammock looks like bliss. Could definitely fall asleep in that.
Ah you liked my two handed technique on the snake fondling?
looks like a memorable trip. i wonder if theres a special mutated gene that allocates the bearer pleasure in moving rocks about in rivers. im pretty sure ive spent hours doing the same.
Kind of a super primal version of Lego, playing around with stones and water and banks to create things. I think there are very deep seated pleasure rewards for immersing oneself in moving fresh water as well. Mucking around in a creek or river just makes your body feel good.
i believe you've just hit upon what ails me. a lack of contact with running water and mucking about.
What an amazing looking place for a camping adventure!! It looks really wild and untouched which is fantastic for the kiddo's!
Can't say I am a fan of snakes, but that one actually had really beautiful markings. Still wouldn't touch it though hahahaha!!!
We went camping recently too - completely different scenery and vibe, but it was still amazing to just get away and to "be still". Hope you enjoy the rest of your stay in Uinta :)
This is a pretty small garter snake. They are about as harmless as snakes can be, supposedly they could give you a tiny bite and maybe even break the skin, but I have picked up literally hundreds of garter snakes and never even been struck at.
Yeah this local variety that frequents the stream banks has really striking markings. The garter snakes we had back in Oregon had a very pungent musk they would squirt on you if you handled them, but either these Utah garter snakes don't spray musk, or maybe their musk is just not very strong.
What kind of camping spot did you have? South Africa, right? Or am I totally misremembering :)
Harmless or not, I am still an eEeeEeeek girl when it comes to them haha :) - but like I said, admittedly very pretty and hats off to your wife for getting up close and personal lol.
Yip, Cape Town, South Africa. :) So, no alzheimers for you just yet haha! The last camp session we had was not at all like yours... was a much more "commercialised" spot... you know with Jamaican style bars, swimming pools, zip lining and all that stuff.. but it was still loads of fun... however, having said that - I would love to do a camp like yours when Summer arrives!
@knowhow92 tipped 10 SKATE TOKENS for this post!
"I'm happy even if the centipedes bite me, that's the truth". That's the right mindset!
There is a saying in my country which goes like this :
You learn the truth by a small kid or from a crazy guys!
!SKATE10
The photos are amazing! Looks like you guys had a great time!
Thanks dude - I am definitely learning truth every moment from these two crazy guys of mine!
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Awesome! Do more of what you love 👍🌄❤
Yeah camping in the national forest doesn't cost anything, and this spot is literally 17 minutes away from our house, and we realized there was no reason we couldn't just go camping here every weekend. Getting to spend time in the wilderness with my kids is so awesome. Constant learning and stimulation in every direction
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