This morning my body rebelled and woke me up around 6:30. Gross, body. On with the camping pics! This view is what I woke up to exactly one week ago. Gorgeous.

And the other direction. We had raisin bagels smothered in whipped cream cheese and French Press coffee for breakfast. We’ve gotten used to camping without a fire, since every time we go camping here the fire danger is high.

Nothing like a tired, wet dog in nature.

Yesterday we shaved both of them. Pre-shaving I was running my hands over Bear Cub’s fur and I found A TICK. It’s kind of miraculous that we’ve never seen a tick on them before–after years of camping and playing outside and park trips nearly every day, but there it was, an ugly little bastard, too. We quickly Googled to find out what to do (I had always heard about killing ticks with a snuffed-out match, but I didn’t want to burn my dog). Josh grabbed the tick with my eyebrow tweezers (gross), pulled it out intact, and then I doused the bite with rubbing alcohol.

I generally like to avoid putting chemicals on my animals but Lyme Disease is NO FUN.

When we set off for our morning hike, we discovered that the other campers had left early and abandoned the Good Spot! Since we didn’t have far to walk and camp was easy to move, we picked up all of our stuff, grabbed the tent and hauled it over to the Good Spot to spend the rest of the day there.

These people evidently overpacked. They left this ENORMOUS mound of food on the ground after them, along with a huge pile of dog kibble (Maggie took care of that), vegetable scurf, a vomit-covered and ripped camp chair (seriously), and small assorted trash. Burning Man really taught me the concept of “leave no trace”, and it’s annoying to me now when I see…well, lots of trace! Also known as “MOOP” (Matter Out of Place).

Josh put all of the food into a garbage bag, and actually carried it back up the mountain to a safer place to disperse it on the ground for the animals to eat. He wisely pointed out that a huge pile of food at the campsite would attract bears, and who wants a bear showing up? NOT ME, EVER, THANKS. I’ve managed to camp my entire life without running into a bear. Only Bear Cubs for me.

I love camping with this dude. All those years of Boy Scouts paid off.

And ahhhhh…the beautiful beach is ours again! Mwa ha haaaaaa. Stay tuned for more beach pics!