2009 April Spring Break

This week was our spring break and bi annual trip as a family. We were going to goto Bryce, but the kids said that they wanted to go camping and dirt biking instead. So we planned a trip to 5 mile pass. We have a favorite camping area to stay at.
The area is near trees, nearby tailings with large hills to climb, and near a flat area where the little kids can have a great time riding.
For this trip, we borrowed a motorhome from my friend Al. He was very gracious in allowing us to use this toy. We treated it as our own. Sunday before we went out to camp, we picked up the large vehicle from Al's home, and brought it to our house. It was nice to have it at our house to load and pack at our leisure. Monday was a warm day, and we were able to load some things into the motorhome. Tuesday and Wednesday were terrible weather days. In between rain storms, we would run out to the motorhome and load it up with items. Some of the items we loaded into the storage of the motorhome, instead of the back of the truck, because of the rain and possible snow. I laugh at that last description, because there was no possible snow by Tuesday night, it was actual snow. We were unable to load up the motorcycle trailer, because it was going to rain and then snow. Instead of heading out Wednesday afternoon, in the insane snow storm that dumped 6 inches on us, we just stayed at home, with everything loaded in its various places in the motorhome and motorcycle trailer. Instead of spending the night out at 5mile pass, and possibly getting more snow, we stayed home, and planned on going the next day.
That night (Wednesday night), it snowed even more. Before we were able to leave, I got on top of the motor home and removed the 6 inches of snow on the roof. More snow was removed a second time from the back of the truck. The wood that we had picked up on Monday for the fire, had been rained on and snowed on a few times, making it useless for the fire. This was unloaded and stored on the driveway. The sun was up, the weather was getting better, the snow had stopped, and we hoped for a large enough window to get finished packed and get out to the camping area. The weather seemed to be cooperating with us so far. We got loaded up and headed out around noon. We stopped by the gas station and loaded up the LP and gas, which ran about $130. There was still snow everywhere we could see, and yet we were loaded up to go dirt biking in the desert.
Once we got out to 5mile pass, we setup our camp area as much as we needed too, with the fear that it might still snow or even rain that night. Much of the camping supplies were left in storage in its various locations. The kids bikes were unloaded and they were allowed to start riding. They ride a bit, then play in the trees, build some forts and 'houses' within the trees, they climb the nearby hills, they simply have a blast out there. Thursday was a bit cold, and most of us hung out dressed up warmly, and tried to play. Some of us went inside for most of the day. The night was cold, but the lure of a fire drew most folks out into the cold to do the mezmorized dance nearby the fire. I, for one, love to make and enjoy the fire of camping.
The next day, it was a bit warmer, and we played a lot more. Dad's actually got out and did a couple big bike rides and had some fun. I learned that my shoulder is not up to 100% from before, as a hill I have bested before, got the best of me this time. After lifting the bike up a bunch of times, i was noticeably tired and affected physically. I was still able to ride better than I had hoped, but not as amazingly as I had hoped.
Saturday was a lot warmer than the previous days, which had some of us complaining already about the heat. It was mostly dry wherever we went, with small puddles of water in the lower places on trails. Rarely though were these encountered. When we got up higher, we did see a lot more water and mud. One trail even seemed like it was made up of a slick layer of goo with a river running thru it. We stopped for a bit and watched rock crawlers attempt to climb some serious rack walls. We had 2 big bike rides on Saturday. One of the tips even led us to two trails we have never ridden before. The area amazes me when we can find a new trail, after all the other trails we have ridden over and over before.
The first day, Treyson wanted to ride his bike. We rigged it up with the training wheels and the rope governor. We used a rope with a handle to attach to the back of his bike so that someone could run behind him and control his progress in the wrong direction, should such an event occur. At one point, Christy broke the rope, and we decided to try him out without parental control. We would go along with him on a flat area and tr to get him to ride a small pattern over and over. When got good enough for this, we 'd expand the area. At one point on Saturday, he ended up doing some 40 loops on a large area until he was so sore and tired, he couldn't ride anymore. He has improved so much over these last few days of riding. At one point, he wrecked, ending with himself under the bike, between the training wheels and the front wheel. He was crying and scratched up on the back, and thru the tears, answered the question 'do you want to go back, or do you want to keep riding?'. He wanted to keep going. So we did. He was so proud of his accomplishments.
Alyssa had a small wreck that tweeked her handle bars and broke a cable control for the throttle. We fixed it up, and she was out riding again soon. Kylie rode a lot as well, but looked like she was outgrowing her bike. We'll have to revisit this again sometime soon.
All in all we all had a great time. The motor home heated us up in the night. We ate outside all of our meals, as we love o do. We had fires each night and loved sitting around and talking. We looked at the stars and showed constellations and stories. The kids even told scary stories to each other.
Friday night, as I was sitting by the fire late at night, we saw a UFO. It was a bright blue light that seemed very close and lit up the entire camp area briefly. Looking up, and to the east, we saw a bright blue light travel across the sky and burn out quickly. As the excitement caught us, I exclaimed that I wanted to see more. A few minutes later, we were treated to another similar event, on the other side of the sky. We have no idea what it was, but enjoyed the experience.
After spending 3 full days and 2 full nights out there, we returned home late Saturday night. It was too late to unload, so we took some items in, and went to bed. Today, most of us just laid around after church, and chilled. It was a great trip with lots of fun had by all.