Vistas de Montana: Camping!

It suddenly hit us that between trips and some family visits, we have only a few weekends free this summer to go camping. Since I was too wimpy to try it last summer with Claire crawling, I was eager to see how she'd handle the experience. And, in true Claire fashion, she embraced all of it with enthusiasm. Before any day trip or weekend trip, we always have a little indecision and outdoor-pursuit ADD. We just can't seem to decide if we want to focus on hiking, biking, kayaking, or fishing (I know tough problem to have!); as seen by the loaded-to-the-gills Subaru below, we usually end up throwing EVERYTHING in because the ONE time we don't bring our rods will be the time fish are rising all over the lake or river. (We actually did end up using everything except our bikes this weekend too.) The other "problem" we run into is deciding where to go. Within a two-hour radius of our house there are innumerable rivers, mountain lakes, and valleys to enjoy. Even after 10 years in Montana for me and over 20 for Nate, we haven't gotten close to seeing it all. This weekend we headed over to the Big Hole River valley and camped at Brownes Lake.

Claire loved the idea of sleeping in a tent with her own sleeping bag between Mama and Papi. She liked just bouncing around in there and zipping and unzipping everything...especially when she was supposed to be going to sleep.

After learning to walk, Claire hasn't been as happy to ride in the backpack for hikes. However, now that she understands some of the WHY she's riding in the backpack, and if I have enough bribes (one BIG lollipop), she actually lasted long enough for us to hike up to a lake about 1 1/2 miles and 1000 feet higher than the one we camped at.