Big Sur

Last weekend I went backpacking with some old friends.  Casey, Richmond and I drove down south while our college friend, Colin, drove up north with his girlfriend and friend to meet up in the middle at Big Sur.  Without a map and functioning phones, it took us some time to fine each other, but eventually we did and started off.

The start of the trail was interesting, with plants overgrown and WAY too much poison oak everywhere.  It was three miles in, and well worth it.  After passing a few, campable spots, we found our way to the most beautiful camp sight ever.

 Right next to a flowing creek with plenty of room to spread our legs, we quickly took our packs off and jumped in.  The first one in was Colin, who immediately lost one of his Crocks in the water.  So, we all hopped in to help find it.  Here's Colin triumphantly reunited with his lost footwear.

 After the steep climb in, we rested and took in the remnants of the day.

After rest time, it was food time.  We pumped and filtered some water from the creek and got to cooking.

Colin and Megan put together a delicious meal of indian curries, quinoa and naan.  With warm food in our bellies and fun camping games to play, we had an awesome night under the stars.  

We woke up the next morning to an even more beautiful camp sight.  There's nothing like drinking hot chocolate and tea and eating oatmeal with the morning sun shining through tall trees.  

After breakfast, we packed up our tents and decided to play some cards.  Being so close to the creek, why not play cards over it?  We had a large boulder to play the cards on, but not much seating.  So we moved this fallen log over to the rocks and made a bench.

Everyone looks comfy and ready to play "Oh HELL!" a game we learned from our friend Ryan and subsequently have been teaching to everyone we know. 

After the game, of course, we had to lounge around again.  We each grabbed a sunny spot and basked in the sun.  Here's a thing I learned: If you look up and this is what you see, life does not suck.  

As sunny as it was inland, the coast remained foggy.  That's Big Sur for you.