Into the Woods

Earlier this month my sister and I both had some free time on our hands and husbands who were very busy studying and working. So I dropped Riley off at his Grandma's house for a couple of days and Audra and I went on a backpacking trip to Grandaddy Basin in the High Uintas Wilderness Area.
For the most part, it was a lot of fun. I say for the most part because, well to be perfectly honest, I think backpacking in and of itself is a pretty stupid idea. You strap a monstrously heavy bag on your back and climb up and down steep hills for hours on end. But the chance to really be away from civilization and some of the most beautiful scenery on earth totally makes it worth it.
I'll be honest, all the seclusion and the no husbands around part of this adventure did get to me a bit. We were there two nights, and each night I could have sworn we were about to be eaten by a big fat bear. It must not have been a bear, because it didn't touch the enticing honey offering that we left on a stump to distract it away from our tent. I'm pretty sure it was some other big animal....but my imagination does tend to get away from me sometimes. Maybe it was a chipmunk on steroids.
On our way into the Basin, it started snowing and hailing. No, I'm not kidding. You can tell by the way Audra and I are dressed that we were ill-prepared for such an event. We broke all wilderness safety rules and huddled under a tree for about an hour with our one measly plastic poncho until the snow turned to rain.

Here's a photo of Grandaddy lake, the biggest in the Basin. Isn't the view beatiful? The lake and all that nature stuff looks pretty okay too (ha ha..i'm so dang funny)






For some reason, my sister was bound and determined that we catch a fish, clean it, and eat it. The only problem was that we weren't having any luck with the whole catching part. After casually observing some Scouts in the area who were catching fish one after the other, we figured we must be doing something wrong. So we went over and asked them if our pole set-up looked okay. Our first clue that we had done something wrong is when the Scouts started coughing to cover up their laughs. Apparently fish are smart enough to realize they shouldn't eat something if it's an inch away from a huge red and white plastic bobber. Go figure.
So, after we got some great advice from the Scouts and made a few adjustments, I caught a fish on the second cast. The next part was the hardest. I told Audra she had to kill it. She closed her eyes and hurled a rock at it's head a few times. Turns out its pretty hard to aim when your eyes are closed. Then we cleaned it, cooked it and ate it.
The meat itself tasted pretty good, but I could only manage to eat a few bites. This may sound a little hypocritical because I do like meat, but I've decided that I have to be far, far away from the actual killing process if I'm going to enjoy whatever it is I'm eating.
After that little adventure, we didn't fish anymore because we were too afraid that we would catch some poor little fish and not be able to figure out how to set it free.



All in all, it was a pretty great adventure.