October is the time of year that Aaron looks forward to all year long. He loves to go hunting!!! Unlike my family where it was mostly my dad and the boys who went hunting, he grew up going with the whole fam damily. Because of this hunting just isn't hunting unless we all go! This was our 3rd year going hunting together and it has always been such a fun experience. We have yet to get anything together but that's ok! I always secretly wish we don't get anything so we don't have to worry about bringing it home. I just love being outside camping and hiking.... getting a dear or elk isn't important in my eyes. Shhhh don't tell Aaron.
This year we went up past Kamas and made up our camp at a place called Soapstone. We left on Sunday afternoon and would have got up there before dark but we took a wrong turn and had to set up camp in the moon light. That night I got no sleep! The temperature dropped into the 20's that night and I was a paranoid mom and was worried about Claire being warm all night long. We brought an air mattress to sleep on but didn't set it up that night because we were cold and just wanted to get in our sleeping bags. The next morning we woke up at 4 and met up with our friend Dave to go on the 1st hunt. Claire and I stayed in the truck and slept while Aaron and Dave went hiking. We came back to camp for lunch, set up the air mattress took naps and then went back to the same spot that night. Claire and I went hiking with them this time and oh boy was it a work out, I am so out of shape! Luckily Aaron was the one who took Claire. I think I would have died carrying an extra 14lbs up the mountain. When it got dark we came back to camp and ate dinner by the fire then went to bed.
Tuesday we decided to load up the ice chest and not come back to camp till night. We got up at 5 and headed for a new mountain. We ended up on this terrible rocky road for hours. We kept thinking it had to get better, but it never did. We had to go so slow that I could walk faster than the truck. When we got to the top, the road just ended! So we had to turn around and go back down on that same darn road. It pretty much put us all in a bad mood. I didn't bring enough diapers and so we decided to go back to camp rather then try and make a diaper out of paper towels. That night we went to Soapstone basin and Aaron went hiking while Claire and I hung out in the truck. He found a beautiful meadow bellow some cliffs. He knew there had to be some elk down there! He didn't see any that night but decided to go back to the same spot the next morning. We again had dinner by the campfire and went straight to bed.
Wednesday Claire and I decided to stay at camp and sleep in. She wasn't doing so well with waking up at 5 in the morning and not being able to take good naps. Aaron went back to the meadow he had found the night before but didn't see any elk. When he got back we had lunch and then we all took naps. That night was the last hunt for him. We met up with his friend Nick who works up there for the forest service and some of his coworkers after they got done working. They planned to get dropped of at the top of this mountain, hike down and get picked back up somewhere along the main road. There wasn't enough room in their car for Aaron so we drove our truck up behind them and I was going to drive it back down and pick him up. Keep in mind I have never driven our truck before and I am terrible at driving stick shift. I wasn't too happy about it. As we are heading up the mountain it starts to get really bumpy and I realize that this is the same stupid road we took the other day. I started freaking out inside thinking of driving back down with Claire. Luckily we only went half way up and Aaron decided to hike the rest because he probably would be faster than driving. Claire and I made it safely back down and picked Aaron up at the bottom once it got dark. That night we had dinner with the guys working/living there for the forest service. Then we went back to our camp made a fire and went to bed. As soon as we got in bed it started raining on us. Luckily, I had talked Aaron into buying a tent this year so we stayed nice and warm.
Thursday we slept in, packed up and headed home. I was so grateful that we were all able to stay safe and warm and that Claire was such a trooper. We love to be outdoors and away from the city. We even ate better there than we do at home! haha. We didn't see a single elk but had a fabulous time nonetheless.
