autumn camping weekend

Whatever you may call it.... Autumn, Fall, Herfst ..... it's arrived!  Chilly mornings and evenings with that distinct autumnal smell in the air, but still lucky enough to have blue skies and sunshine during the day.  Love it!  Can't wait for all beautiful colours of the trees in the coming weeks.

This weekend we had, probably, our last camping trip for this year (yes we are much better at fair weather camping than damp chilly and wet days out in the wilderness!).  And what a glorious weekend it was.

This time we headed up to Clear Lake at Mount Hood, OR, only about 2hrs driving, even at Friday evening 'rush hour'.  Still, the light had almost gone whilst we set up camp, fumbling around with tent pegs, getting a roaring fire ablaze, warming toes, keeping one eye on the kiddos running around with their head torches on throught the trees.

View from my chair whilst enjoying the sunshine and my glass of Pinot!

(well, someone's gotta do it!)

So much planning and packing goes into just a couple of nights away - and so much stuff!  We are not campers that pack light!  Even more thought seems to go into what we'll eat!

Our two family camp had made banana bread, two focaccia loaves, chilli con carne and pulled pork.  We of course had the obligatory hot dogs, s'mores and bacon and eggs.  And our trusty 12 cup Bialetti espresso coffee pot came along too - gotta have that first cup of the day around an early morning campfire.

A little hike (in the loosest sense of the word!) up to Timberline Lodge at Mount Hood, to admire the wonderful clear view was about as strenuous as it got!  And then Saturday afternoon we took our chairs down to the lake and the mums and dads relaxed in the gorgeous sunshine with a glass of Pinot Noir, whilst the kiddos built rock walls, climbed old trees, paddled and played - there was hardly a cloud in the sky.

 View from Timberline Lodge, to what I believe is Mount Jefferson

Hope you had a fabulous weekend.