Garth and Ellen invited us to go camping with their family over Memorial Day weekend. Their favorite camping location is Baker Island in the New River. It was a new experience for us - not quite backpacking and not quite car camping. You have to canoe all of your gear from the parking lot to the island. (Or, in our case, have Garth canoe most of it across!)
We had plans to rent our own canoe or two and then do a canoe and bike trip on Sunday. We'd had so much rain that the river was too high for the company to rent canoes. Thankfully, our traveling companions' canoe was enormous, so we had no trouble getting back and forth. It was also cool enough on Sunday to do a pleasant bike ride. We didn't miss out TOO much by not having our own boats.
Snapshot of the gear after one load had already been loaded into the canoe...that's a lot of stuff!
The kids waiting patiently for their turn to ferry across:
They all helped carry everything across the island, almost entirely without complaint!
Kids, exploring the river by our campsite:
(Brady pouting after snagging his fishing line...)
A quick game of Spot It
And, of course, boys and fire...
These two just make me smile. Such good buddies! We're no longer allowed to tease Rudy about Mary Emma being anything more than a friend, though.
After a leisurely morning at the campsite Sunday morning, we ferried everyone across for a bike ride on the New River Trail. It's a beautiful rails-to-trails ride, mostly right along the river. We did about 9 miles total, with a stop for peanut butter and nutella sandwiches at the halfway point.
Exploring a creek near the lunch spot. It was a milky gray color because of a superfine silt that was a lot of fun to play with. I left with more than a little in my hair.
Jonah and Brady exploring under the bridge. Brady spent a lot of time playing with Kate, but I think he really enjoyed hanging out with Jonah and Charlie too. I loved that he had a chance to be around some older boys who are really great role models for him.
Frisbee and football at lunch time
Nature sighting!
Kids on the trail...
The grownups didn't think it was warm enough for a swim, but the kids were much more tolerant!
I LOVE this picture that Jonah got from the water. Might be one of my favorites from the whole trip. The weird focus at the bottom and Rudy's obvious joy...just makes me smile!
One of several fishing trips. They never caught anything huge, but they did pull in a few small ones.
Rudy didn't last long as a fisherman, but enjoyed the sand just as much...
Packing up to head home. Overall it was a fabulous trip to our own "private island" (as the kids kept telling their friends and teachers). We all loved having friends around for the weekend. With the exception of the FRIGID temperatures the first night, we couldn't have asked for a much better weekend!
Happy campers!
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