Camping and Kayaking Trip 2014

You may remember that last September, Tyler and I went camping and kayaking in southeastern Oklahoma at Beaver's Bend State Park.  

We had such a great time last year, that we've basically decided to make our trip there an annual event for Tyler's birthday, which is today!  We enjoyed our annual trip for his birthday weekend before last!

We arrived in the evening with just enough time to pitch our tent and gather firewood.  

This campsite has been pretty full each time we've gone, so there's basically no avoiding having other campers on either side of you.

For dinner our first night, we used the campsite grill to make brats, corn on the cob, and had some other snacks to go along with it.  I got the grill and food going (so proud of myself for getting the charcoal going by myself without help) while Tyler lit us a campfire.

A fine Eagle Scout he is.

After dinner, the time made it so that I had been awake almost a full 24 hours, so as much as I wanted to stay awake and enjoy the campfire, I was actually falling asleep in my lawnchair.

I took a few naps there, then eventually moved to the tent.  I used a different sleeping bag than normal, and I was so tired I couldn't figure out how to get in the sleeping bag, so I just slept on top of it.  Haha!  #NightShiftProblems

My view out of the tent the next morning.  I really enjoy waking up in a tent when the rain trap is open and I can see out.

Tyler is the breakfast man, so he used his nifty Coleman camp stove he got for Christmas to make us breakfast and coffee.

This is how we do coffee when we camp...

-   h o t   w a t e r   -

-   f r e n c h   p r e s s   -

 -   c o o l   c a m p   m u g s   -

 Really.  He's the breakfast king.

Do you see that beautiful Autumn?  Do you see it?!

There were some really interesting looking mushrooms near our campsite.

 I saved this cute little leafy guy from dying in the heat in our car.  I'm sure he liked crawling on the tree much better.

After breakfast and packing up, we headed off to rent Kayaks from our favorite place to rent called Lucky Dog in Broken Bow.  I'd have to say the place is preeeeetttyy redneck, but that also means they have fewer rules and we can do whatever we want.  We just pay them, they take us to the river with the kayaks, and pick us up when we're done.  Its hard to find places in the US that don't over-complicate things for silly safety reasons, and that's why we like this place.  I mean, there were other groups who had to wear helmets, which is ri-dic-u-lous.

This time, the river was a bit more full, which made it easier to navigate in some ways, and some of the other (very small) rapids were more fun as a result.  It is fun how rivers, although the same, still change quite drastically with just a small change in water level.

Just before I took this picture, we went over one of the taller rapids.  The water was gushing so much that when you went down, your kayak filled with water.

This old guy was taking pictures of everyone who came down the particular rapid we went down.

I'm not sure how he planned to use the pictures, and didn't offer to send them to me, or tell me what he was going to do with the picture he took of me, or even ask me if I wanted to approve that the picture wasn't awful.  So I took a picture of him wearing his silly bathing suit.

We took a break right after that spot to eat our lunch and watch other people go through the rapids.  

It was humorous to watch those who tried to be careful and go through the rapids slowly, which in turn meant they would flip their kayak.  Some were even paddling backwards trying to go through slower...not really the best way to make it through without turning it upside down.

Like this guy in the middle whose kayak is upside down.

The water was really shallow here, so I pulled the kayak on a rock and waded around a bit.

 The scenery really is beautiful here.  Loved these red flowers.

The last bit of the river was quite uneventful.  The water was much deeper, so there were no rapids and we had to paddle to really get anywhere, where as earlier in the river you really just had to steer and let the water carry you.

There were a few beautiful trees, and several large birds along the banks.

Still water meant I could row over and take some nice flower pictures.  

Wildflowers are truly better than those from the flower shop.

After kayaking, we utilized the nice campground showers we found in the RV park and then headed back home.  Luckily this long trip is along the way to my grandma's house, so we stopped to visit her for a little while before returning home.

Have you had any fun adventures this month?

Do you have any traditions for yours or your spouse's birthday?

Greenleaf State Park (Muskogee, OK)

For our first camping trip of 2014, we took a two hour trip down I-40 toward Muskogee, Oklahoma to backpack at Greenleaf State Park.   Tyler did all the research for the trip, which has a 22 mile round trip hiking trail with two primitive campsites along the way.   We packed our bags and were set to leave Friday afternoon once everyone in our party was off work.  After a few setbacks, we finally left mid-afternoon and arrived at the beginning of the hiking trail.  We didn't realize there were two ways to begin the trail, and it turns out we started at the alternate trail head, which made our hike an additional two miles longer.

Although we really had enough time to make it five miles to the first primitive campsite had we not begun at the alternate campsite, we had only made it to mile marker three of the real trail by the time it was too dark for us to continue following the trail.  

We saw this beautiful sunset only one mile into the real trail.

We took a break at the swinging bridge and got a group picture.

Me with my little Eagle Scout.  :)

I love those reflections!

After getting to the third mile marker (however we'd actually traveled about 5 miles), we decided to set up our tents just off the trail and not risk getting lost off the trail or bitten by snakes.  Little did we even know how many snakes were out there that we probably just couldn't see while we trekked through the dark.

This was my view waking up the next morning!

Our makeshift camp area wasn't so bad despite the fact that we were practically rolling down a hill in our sleep.  Waking up here was quite peaceful in the morning.

Then we met our first of five (or maybe more) water moccasin friends of the day!  This guy (and his other buddy) were just chilling in the creek right outside our camp site.

Seeing two poisonous snakes chilling out together right outside my campsite isn't really the ideal way to start my day, but I guess that happens sometimes in nature.

I don't mind, however, randomly seeing someone I haven't seen in years randomly on the same trail!  It was great to run into Heather who was the adult chaperon for a group of teenagers I led on a summer trip about five years ago!

After cooking breakfast and packing up our gear, we headed off toward Mary's Cove - the first primitive camp site.  Along the way we saw some pretty flowers and plants.

While going through these photos, I keep expecting to see an unexpected snake in the background...I guess I'm still a little jumpy!

This park was particularly mossy, which is pretty cool.  I haven't seen too many places in Oklahoma that grow much moss, but maybe it was just the time of year.

Oh, and we saw another snake.   This is only snake number 3, and we saw 3 or 4 more snakes throughout the rest of the day. Let's just not talk about the 4 foot long one I almost stepped on.  Eek!

Another interesting looking fungi...

When we made it to Mary's Cove, we ate PB&J sadwitches, talked with some other hikers for a few minutes, and walked around.  Before long it was time to head back so we could make it to the car before dark!

I just love some of the patterns that you see in nature.  The patterns in this tree bark are just great.

Once we made it back to the swinging rope bridge, we knew our trip was close to being over! I think everyone's feet and shoulder muscles couldn't wait to relax in a soft, comfy car.

Tyler had the heaviest pack with the cooking gear, he was dog tired! (And his Aussie hat makes that all the more legit, right?)

On our next break we took one last timed group photo!

After the photo it was time to pack back up!

Its so interesting how varied Oklahoma terrain can be with just a few miles.  This area was grassy with shorter, shrubbier trees while most of the other parts of our hike were more rocky with taller trees.

Although the field was just here for the telephone poles, the grass waving in the wind was really pretty. They knew what they were talking about when they wrote a song about Oklahoma's waving wheat.

Our drive home greeted us with one more beautiful sunset!

And that was our trip to Greenleaf State Park!   This was our first real spring and summer type outing this year.   What outdoorsy things have you already done or do you plan to do this Spring?