Our First Camping Trip

At the end of the summer, we decided to do something Richard had never done, and I had never done on my own. We went backpacking. We went to Green Lakes which is just outside of Grand Teton National Park, but you start near Driggs and head up and over the mountains. It's about 6 miles in and then 6 miles back going up to 9,000 ft above sea level. It was very tiring, but it was so beautiful. When we got to the lake it was so picturesque, just like a post card. It was perfect! After setting up camp, we walked all the way around the lake. It was small, and surrounded on one side by pine trees, but it was a deep blue and had nice sized fish in it. That was another thing we did. We got fishing licenses (making Richard the first person in his family to own a fishing license), plus a pole and a few lures, and on the second day there we fished for our supper. The weather was beautiful! We set up a hammock between two trees by the lake, and took turns reading or napping while the other person went out and fished. While we were together, Richard caught the first fish in the morning, a nice 12 incher, and I showed him how to kill it and put it on a stick for carrying. After lunch, I went out alone and caught a 14 in cutthroat trout. Then just after that, Richard went out again and caught a 11 incher. We could have fished all day, but we decided that that was enough for one meal, and so we quit. Richard cleaned his own fish all by himself and we made a deal, that from then on if I would kill them, he would clean them. (He didn't like the killing part). Still was extremely fun, and the fish were delicious! We just wrapped them in tinfoil with a bit of lemon pepper
and threw them on a bed of coals. Mmmmm! Before bed, we had to make sure our camp was completely clean and our packs were tied up in the trees so that bears wouldn't be attracted. We were deep in bear country, but luckily we didn't run into any. The nights were cold, but we learned fast to bundle up in lots of layers. In the mornings we would start a fire again and have hot chocolate with our oatmeal. I wish we could have stayed longer, but we had to get back and get ready for school to start.