Anthony Lakes 2008

This last week we had the great opportunity to go back to Anthony Lakes for the Tolman family annual reunion. I decided that since I didn't have to work this year that I wanted to go up on Wednesday instead of Thursday this year. So we headed up Wednesday night and it was so nice to get up there earlier and have an extra day to play.

Thursday we decided we were going to get the geocaches that are up there, so we headed out hiking. There were 12 of us total on this little adventure, there was our family, Jaime's sisters family and a couple of cousins, so it was a pretty big group.We got the first and second caches pretty easily and they only took about and hour or so.

Here is a picture of all the kids at the first cache.

So from the second we decided to go up Angel Peak to get the cache at Angel Pass, however to do this we had to go cross country and didn't have any hiking trails to be on. As we got hiking up the mountain we looked across the draw that we were climbing and saw a big mountain goat. The last time that we saw one when we were up there it took off as soon as we saw it, this one was just sitting on a ledge on the mountain and in the pictures it almost looks like he is at a zoo. After we took time to take pictures of the goat, we headed up the mountain.

Well as we were going up we saw a storm coming in so we started looking for places to take shelter. When you are on the side of a mountain at over 8000 feet, there aren't many places, so some were able to be under a rock and the rest of us were under a tree. I have never been on a mountain during a thunder and lightening storm, so I didn't know what to expect. Well the lightening was all around us and the thunder was right above us. It was pretty scary. The kids did real well Ben got real wet and cold, so when the rain stopped we had to pretty much get some of his clothes off of him so he wouldn't get hypothermia. We then booked it off the hill and got back to camp shortly after the second storm hit. So we didn't get our last cache that day, but we had a good hike.

Friday we pretty much just did family stuff. We visited went fishing and the kids played with all their cousins. It was also potluck night and to me there is nothing better than food while you are camping. There was so many good things to eat and I think that is my favorite part.

They played survivor Anthony Lakes while we were there and this is a picture of the boys shooting the blowguns.

Saturday we decided to try to get the last cache again, only we were going a different way. We have a cache up there so we decided to check on it and head up to the other one. We got to ours and we were only .75 miles from the other one, so we head up. This time it was just our family and we thought it would be fun for just us to get away from everyone else. We got within 500 feet of this cache and knew it was time to start climbing. Well the higher we got the more the kids started crying, not only was it hard for them, but I think a couple of them are afraid of heights, which they get from there father!! So we finally make it to the top and look over the edge of it and it is a straight drop off, so automatically the kids are told to sit and not move, so they don't fall off, while Jaime and I continue looking for the cache. We are now at 8495 feet and getting pretty close to the cache.Well I climb up onto the top of the ridge thinking no problem, well the wind was blowing pretty good and then I made the mistake of looking down, well as I already said on side was a straight drop off and the other wasn't much better. So with 28 feet left to go before I got to the cache I chickened out, I was pretty scared and decided to choose my life over the cache. But it was well worth the 5.45 mile hike just to see the view and it gave us some good exercise.

Jaime and Ben got a little father son time and Ben got to learn to use his hatchet. He loved it.

The kids all helped build a fort while we were there and this is a picture of them and their fort.

Sunday is always a busy day, we have to pack up and come home and after you have been there for a few days there is a lot to pack up and I'm always amazed at how many dirty clothes we seem to accumulate. But it is alway a great weekend and we love going.