Camping Duathalon

We completed the first ever Smith Camping Decathalon. The event started with a kayak/paddling adventure. We did a loop around Manzanita Lake this morning. It was a small lake, but the weather was perfect with blue skies and warm enough to be just a little hot. We saw deer frolic, Mike came face-to-face with a deer enjoying her lunch (they were maybe 5-10′ apart), baby ducks, young geese, small nutria-type critters swimming across the lake, and lots of birds. The rainbow trout were really jumping and getting some good horizontal distance on their jumps. We saw a goose attack a nutria and Mike paddled after the goose and chased it away. Our kayak leg of the Decathalon was peaceful and wonderful.

The next leg involved hiking Bumpass Hell Trail. It is a popular, moderate 3 mile hike with grand vista views that ended at a volcanic, stinky sulfur, hydrothermal basin with mud pots and fumaroles. We had to cross several fields of snow (really, large clumps of left-over snow). It was a fine hike, but it was a bit touristy with too many people. We both prefer woodsy hikes, like yesterday’s hike, over this one. But it was interesting and worth doing.

We are celebrating our accomplishment of completing the Decathalon at camp. While Mike grabbed a Coors Light (oddly, our preferred beer of this trip), I made the much-threatened and barely-anticipated fruit salad. Mike was sweet and ate the bowl of fruit salad that I gave him.