Hurkey Creek Camping

October 7th, 2007

Flickr photo set

Our group of camping buddies decided to visit an old camping haunt that we used to go to in our high school days. I took the whole day off to help out with the kids and to do some last minute shopping/packing before we left at noon.

The morning started out with a bird going splat into our sliding door. Micah was the one that saw it happen. We picked it up to see if it was ok and to pet it. After a few minutes it flew off.


We arrived at Hurkey Creek around 2:30pm with a temp of 52 degrees. By 8pm the temp was 42. It was a very cold night. We had our heater, but I set it on low, so it was still cold for Cindy. Our boys had on three layers of clothes and three layers of blankets, so they were fine. In the morning most liquids left out were frozen. The second night it was a bit warmer and we set the heater on high, so we were toasty.

After unpacking, I went off on my mountain bike to do a quick 7 mile look-about. The trails are beautiful, and the weather was perfect for biking. Not many things compare to exploring good singletrack for the first time. It’s sad, that t-shirt used to be loose on me a year ago..

We were surprised to find a new large playground a few minutes walk from our campsite. Here’s Cindy and Jane walking back with all the kids trailing behind.

On Saturday we had ten kids!! It’s nice with more kids, because they can play together all day without getting bored. These are Stephen and Kelly’s new chairs. I told Stephen that every new thing he brings camping turns into a toy.

Kelly, Julie, Cindy, Young, Jane, Youn. Fiona was getting her twin toddlers to take a nap, so couldn’t join us on our hike. This picture was taken at the trailhead.

Oliver saw some great rocks, so led the kids and adults on a merry rock climbing adventure. The kids were naming the rocks by food items: There were a few pancakes and a sandwich.

After hiking, I was off mountain biking on my own. Like I said earlier, there’s nothing like riding a trail for the first time. I rode the 24 hour course. I was nervous about getting lost, but realized that since the 24 hour race was only a week ago, I just had to follow the majority of tire tracks, and I was fine. The trail was a mix of swoopy fast single track and fire roads. The climbs were challenging and interesting, and the downhills were mostly smooth fast singletrack with some smaller technical sections thrown in. It’d be fun to go up here with some friends and explore all the trails.

On the last night, everyone was sitting around the campfire with nothing to do. Jane busted out a bunch of camp songs to keep all the kids and adults entertained. It was a huge hit. The next morning the kids were up singing and talking about the songs.

And here are Cindy and Jane packing up her tent that she loaned from Micah & Toby (It’s their play tent). We had a record 21 people camping with three more that came up for Saturday on top of that. Quite a fun time.