I have returned! Barely.
What am I rambling about? Well, for the last four days I have been chaperoning our annual 4-H campout at Mirror Lake. Our group has an annual tradition of heading out to Mirror Lake Campground for a few days of fun, food, and fellowship. And sore joints.
But I am getting ahead of myself. Tucked in a valley between Highway 95 and the gigantic Lake Pend Oreille is Mirror Lake. At one end is a Boy Scout camp, Camp Stidwell, at the other end of the lake's placid waters is Mirror Lake Campground.
The campground is a throw back to another era. To begin with, it is a nature campground, so turtles, frogs, and birds rule. Well, and dogs, because every single resident appears to have one or many. Not that I mind, cause I love canines.
That said, the campground is not an overly manicured testament to modern American aesthetics. Instead it is an old family plot of land with a log cabin on the shore that is a testament to the family who settled at the edge of the lake over a hundred years ago. To say it is tranquil and unfussy there is an understatement.
Most of the campers are local people who just leave their campers in place all season. Like seriously, one of the old guys camping there weed-eated around his trailer one morning. Things move slow at Mirror Lake.
Well, not all things, as we invaded the campground with about 20 teenagers. The gentleman who is the camp host lets us have the group space at the top of the campground for our annual campout, and it comes with a field.
That field is the battleground, I mean rec area for no small amount of fun. I played more kickball and volleyball than I have since I was about twelve, and my carcass feels every slide and dive right now let me tell ya!
One of my favorite parts about the lake is that no motorized engines are allowed, so solitude reigns. Well, except at the swimming dock. It's more like perpetual king of the hill at the swimming dock. Carnage. so much carnage.
Honestly though, our group of kids are pretty swell, there was no real carnage or incidents, the imbibing older folks and their dogs made more noise than our group.
Each year I rent the kids a fishing boat with an electric motor from the nice folks who run the campground, our 4-H leader gets the kids a paddle boat, and all of us brings tubes and kayaks. We then proceed to spend hours playing in the lake. It's more than a good time!
And the dinners are sublime! All of us pitch in and group craft the campfire cuisine. My friend and I did nachos with about every conceivable topping known to humankind Friday night, and there really is something glorious about food being consumed while one's personage is coated in a respectable layer of dust and debris.
So, after days of wiffle ball, the boys scaring the girls and deflating their tents while clad in ghillie suits, friendship raft construction, sharks and minnows games galore, and no small amount of food ingested, we finally made it home. Another successful 4-H campout in the books! Not to mention that next year's spots are already reserved. Honestly, I am glad it is a year away, I need to heal up!:)