a short & sweet backpacking adventure

This past weekend my family (including Josh) and some friends went on a backpacking getaway in the Mark Twain National Forest in Southern Missouri. We left early Saturday morning and started hiking around 11am.  We stopped for lunch shortly after beginning the hike and then continued hiking until around 4:30pm.  We chose the Mark Twain National Forest because campfires were allowed and apparently the trail has a good upkeep.  After hiking 30 minutes downhill in the wrong direction we realized that maybe the trail wasn't kept up so well; we had trouble seeing some of the trail blazes and were confused a couple times about where the trail actual was!  Finally we came across a beautiful stream (seen in the picture above) so we set up camp, filtered water, started a campfire and made dinner.

 

The vegetarians had prepackaged Indian curry with rice, while the meat eaters ate pigs in blanket.  I've found that meals on a backpacking dish are always incredibly satisfying and tasty.  After dinner we toasted s'mores and drank hot cocoa.  We were living the high life on this trip, considering we only had to carry our food for one night.

I felt a little nerdy because I was so intrigued and amazed by all the cool rocks on the ground!  I kept seeing all these sparkly rocks and rocks that looked like a tie-dye sunset.  Does anyone see where I'm coming from?  My love for the rocks quickly faded during the night when I found a rock jutting into my thigh.  But, I soon fell asleep and forgot about that unfriendly rock. 

Josh slept in a bivy on the flat rocks. (so cute!) Everyone in my tent (Mom, Dad and Lay) woke up the earliest on Sunday morning and pretty much woke everyone else up.  But then we enjoyed breakfast couscous, coffee or cocoa and a morning campfire.  The hike back to the car was rather short for my taste-only about 45 minutes.  Despite the shortness of the trip, it was refreshing to spend time in nature and not think about work.  Plus, Layla found a turtle on the way back! 

  

Are you going on any adventures this weekend?