Camping at Iron Creek

We look forward to our annual camping trip at Iron Creek all year long! Originally, we had reserved our site this year for Friday through Monday ( Labor Day ) but the kids and I couldn't wait to get out there and set up so my husband agreed to load us up, drive us out there and drop us off on Thursday evening. He still had to go to work Friday so he would go back home and meet us back out there on Friday night. We checked the campground web site to see if our reserved site was open for Thursday night and it showed that it was so off we went! We got out to the campground to find that someone had pulled in just before us and grabbed our site for just that night. Ugh. What to do. We decided to check with the camp hosts who gladly showed us to an open site in a different loop of the campground. As we were setting up our tent trailer we decided we really liked the new site and asked if we could just transfer our reservation for the whole week end over to where we were now setting up. No problem! We're soooooo glad we went out a day early! The weather was great all day on Friday. Above is our site all nice and tidy - even dry you might say! MN is happily peeling potatoes for our dutch oven dinner.

The kids and I had a cozy night alone after visiting with the Vick and Bowerman families around their campfire for about an hour ( they were camping at Iron Creek too only their sites were next to the site we'd originally reserved. ) The only down side to moving our site # was we're now 2 whole loops away from our friends but that just gave us more exercise in getting over there to visit with them several times a day! We took several walks, bike rides, got to try out pulling MN and Little J in our new bike trailer behind my bike and we took a walk down to the river.

CT got busy right away making a shelter in the forest. The kids enjoyed playing in this and had a couple of pinecone wars. That evening we looked forward to our first ever meal made in a dutch oven and the return of my husband! He made it safely out but the meal was kind of a disaster as the chicken wasn't anywhere near done enough to eat at 7pm ( I'd put it in at 2:30 pm and carefully followed all instructions on how to cook it! ) He was hungry, tired, our fire had gone out just before he arrived, our wood was wet and it started to sprinkle. Still, we ate some and headed over to the Bowermans site where we all enjoyed celebrating Anna's 16th birthday and good company around their roaring fire! Thanks guys!!!

This photo describes Saturday. WET! My husband's uncle came out to our campsite and the two of them headed off to try hunting grouse for the day. We did what we could in the rain. Rode bikes with rain gear on, had a treasure hunt, ( The Iron Creek pirates snuck through the camp ground and hid some treasure and clues to find it for the kids. ) and then with help from some - okay - a lot of lighter fluid and some purchased kindling, we got a nice fire going of our own. Hey, if you've got dry clothes stashed away somewhere to wear to bed at night, there's no harm in standing around a fire and getting wet in the rain.

That evening we went over to the Vick's campsite to enjoy some great fried - everything ( food ) for 'Fry Night' - and the kids had a light parade using all of the glow bracelets, sticks and necklaces they'd gotten in the treasure hunt. Here are our kids along with the Bowerman girls and Manley boys after their parade.

Here's a photo without my flash so we can see the glow of their treasures.

Little J was super happy to sit by the fire and play with the glow bracelets.

"He's an Angel! " Bet says as she holds a bracelet above his head.

If you've visited my mom's blog Spot on Cedar Pond you've seen how our Sunday at Iron Creek went! ( RAINY!) We did give the dutch oven another try - this time with cake! Lemon cake with 3 handfuls of the wild huckleberries on top that we were able to pick in the freezing rain and wind up at Burley Mountain. The cake turned out FABULOUS! It was so tasty, perfectly cooked and was nice to eat warm on that cold, wet evening. The next morning we weren't too sad to get started packing up to leave. In the photo above, Little J and KN had just woken up and were still warm and snugly - and smiling.

I've decided I'm the kind of camper who likes camp grounds like Iron Creek best. The kind with no real bathroom or electricity. The kind where the folks you pass sitting around their camp fires probably did just shoot or catch their own dinner to fry or grill that night. They probably grew their own side dishes too. Rustic enough camping that everyone smells like campfire smoke for the entire week and when your hair gets dirty you wear a hat but at the same time - all the strangers you see still have all of their teeth and you wouldn't mind asking them what breed of dog is pulling them on it's leash. That's Iron Creek and I imagine we'll be going back for years to come. Should you ever be in the area - you're always welcome to have a seat by our fire ( it might not be going. ) and share a hot dog. ( It might be soggy. ) We'll even lead you by flashlight down to the nearest outhouse.