As you can see by the certificate pictured to the right, we made it  up to the top of the Devil's Head Fire Tower and were able to meet Fire Ranger Bill. I'm very excited that we achieved a couple of our camping goals for this summer, but the trip itself didn't exactly go as planned. In fact, it didn't go anything like it was planned. In the end, that was the best thing that could have happened.

My plans started to unravel Friday when my older son announced he no longer wanted to go camping. He wanted to spend the weekend with his grandparents instead. While I was disappointed, grandma and grandpa are fun to hang out with, so I understood. I also realized that this created a great opportunity for me and my youngest son to have some great 'alone' time together. Its a rarity when he doesn't have to live in the shadow of his older brother, so we were both excited about the opportunity.

Having packed most everything into bins ealier in the week, after a full day of little league baseball, I loaded the car. The more minimal approach of my ultralight family camping worked well, as I had the car packed in about 20 minutes, which included lugging everything up from the basement. Because we had a late game, this put us heading out of the neighborhood around 5:00pm, with only a stop at the grocery store for some ice and cash for the campsite. Of course, they were out of ice, which they forgot until after I had paid. After some discussion, they just gave me the bigger bag of ice. They couldn't give me cash back, and their ATM machine was broken, meaning we had to swing by the bank, and then to a store to break the $20 into smaller bills to pay for the site. Then my son mentioned that he forgot his favorite pillow, so back to the house we go. Finally, at around 6:00pm, we got on the road.

Driving towards the campsite, we could see it raining hard and lightening like crazy right where we were heading. My son wanted to return to the Jackson Creek Campground, where we had been rained out last time we tried this trip. I had only quickly looked at my GPS and decided that Jackson Creek road would get us there. Nope. It put us well North of there, but it did put us on the main forest service road that gave us options. At this point, its 7:00 pm, raining, getting dark, and we had yet to eat dinner. I asked my son if he would be ok camping by the trail to the fire tower (which was a lot closer) and explained the time crunch. He's pretty laid back, so he was up for it. About 15 minutes later we drive through the first camping loop. Packed. Head to the second, packed too. Then, on our way out of the loop, I spot one lone campsite tucked down in a little bit. After parking, I hurriedly started to put up the tent, in case the rain picked up. One pole in its sleeve, check. Second pole in, check. Third pole, wait, what? The pole was broken. Right where two of the sections combine. I didn't have a repair kit, and there was no way it was going to work. I've never seen such a hang dog look as when I broke the news to my son. I was pretty bummed too.

But then, as I'm stuffing the tent back into the bag, my son's easy going nature pays off. He asks if we can still have dinner and a fire there. Great idea! No reason we can't do that and then drive home. Things only get better. As I'm lighting the stove, one of our 'neighbors' comes over and offers us some burgers and corn that they have cooked, but aren't going to eat. I let my son decide if he wants to make some new friends, or stick with making our dinner. He chooses the burgers and friends. While we are enjoying their fire and burgers, I mention the issue with the tent. One of the guys leaves, and comes back with just the repair piece I need and hands it over to me for the night! Our trip was saved! I run back and setup the tent and pay our fee. It was close to my son's bedtime, so rather than start our own fire, I took over some of our wood and chipped in to keeping their fire going. We stayed out for about an hour, making S'mores and talking. They were a great group of people, and I couldn't (and can't) thank them enough for saving our trip.

We head back to our tent, get changed, climb into the bags, and turn off the light. My son says, "Dad, this is really fun," and falls asleep. Next morning, I watch him wake up, wriggling like a butterfly breaking out from a cacoon. He still sucks his thumb occassionally, and he was this morning. As he sees me looking at him, he gets a big grin, takes out his thumb and says, "Dad, camping is cool!" Success!

After a quick breakfast, we broke camp, returned the pole sleeve to our neighbors, and hit the trail. I was super impressed by my son. He hammered up the trail, only wanting to take one very brief break. He climbed the 143 steps to the top of the tower without getting scared (lots of people freeze about half way, as you get suspended over nothing but air). Only 5 people are allowed in the tower at a time, and it was about all I could do to get him to wait his turn! Once we entered, there he was, Fire Ranger Bill himself! He was great. Even though he was busy keeping an eye out for smoke due to the prior nights storm, he was kind enough to make time for everyone coming through.

Our trip down was uneventful. Once back to the car, we decided to head out the way we had planned to come in, down Dakan Road. Good thing I took the wrong road in, as we discovered that they have closed the Jackson Creek Campground. Had we come in that way, it would have been so late once we discovered it was closed that we probably would have just turned around. We also wouldn't have ended up next to such awesome neighbors that saved our trip. The rest of the way out, I couldn't help but think about how much the success of this trip rested on so many little things that happened earlier. If even one event went different, we probably wouldn't have been able to camp.

I'm glad it worked out how it did. My son and I had a great time, we learned a lot about making the most of situations, and he was able to experience one of my favorite things: the camaraderie of people who like camping. We even talked about how next time, it would be our turn to help someone out. I also learned a lot about my ultralight family system, but I'll post more on that later.

The best part of this trip? On the drive home, he asked, "Dad? The next time, can we camp for three nights?"

You bet!