"Indian make small fire to keep warm-white man build BIG fire and burn his butt"

To celebrate our anniversary (which seems to be a week long EXTRAVAGANZA) Ted and I headed to the hills for a little snow camping, the boys headed to Aunty's for a little soda/candy sleepover!

The original plan was to backpack/snowshoe into Blue Lake near Cascade I-da-ho. That never came to be, as we turned onto the road to head up the mountain toward Blue Lake, we were stopped by a dead bolt and gate and a dauting sign, "Road closed to ALL public use." After a quick stop in at Trinity Pines to ask "yo' whats the dealio'" we where advised to find another location for our winter adventure, lest we be shot by the local rancher! Opting to forgoe the bullet-dodging we headed over to Horsethief Resevoir.

We arrived at Horsetheif and looked for a place to park the car, opting for a wide spot in the road (which will later prove to be not the best choice) we unloaded our gear. The gear list:

1. Syd's pack weighing in at about 20 pounds-loaded with gear and clothes
2. Ted's pack weighing in at a whole lot more then Syd's-loaded with gear and clothes
3. A sled loaded with firewood, a shovel, and the food bag!
4. 2 bottles of water
5. A pair each snowshoes and trekking poles
6. I reserve the right to add to or take away from this list as I remember things...

We strapped on our snowshoes found a trail with a simple gate (a pole and some wire) and no "no trespassing sign" and headed off. We hiked in a mile or so, found a spot to make camp. We dumped our gear, made camp and ate. What did we eat? The food list:

1. 6 packages of Chicken Flavored Top Ramen (a delicasy in some parts of the world!)
2. 6 Packages of Maple and Brown Sugar oatmeal
3. 6 Frozen microwave burritos wrapped in tin foil (we are sooo high class)
4. a bag of trail mix
5. JERKY!
6. Coffee (were you expecting anything else?)

(We didn't come close to eating all of this food. And while the menu isn't gourmet it works for us...we're simple folk!)

After we dined we headed out of camp sans the gear, and had a great hike. We snowshoed about 4 miles or so and found ourselves back at camp. Teddy made a fire (a BIG fire, hence the title) and I made some dinner...top ramen and burritos, yum!

It had started to snow before we even left the car and snowed the whole day! By the time we were off to bed there was at least an inch of new snow, on top of the two foot that was already on the ground.

It was soon dark, so Ted and I climbed into the hammock. Yes we shared the same hammock, no we did not get cold (due to the sleeping bag liners we made at home, and the boiling water we put in water bottles at the foot of our bags), yes it was UNCOMFORTABLE, and no we did not sleep well! However, when Teddy is in the hammock alone he sleeps like a million bucks! But with all the sleeping bags, boot bags, windproof/waterproof pants and TWO bodies there just wasn't enough room to get comfy, BUT we were sure warm! Temperatures over night dipped to around 10-12 degrees.

In the morning we got up made breakfast...and COFFEE!! We broke camp and headed out. As we approached our car the BRIGHT orange sticker on the drivers side window caught our attention. The Sheriff had but a warning sticker on our car, we had exactly 48 hours to move it or they were going to tow it! Which begs the question, what if we had had some kind of back woods emergency...and fought or way back to the car broken, bloody and bruised to find our car had been towed...at our expense? I'm just saying!

Figuring we were still within our 48 hour time frame we loaded the gear into the car (now a whole lot less since we had no more firewood) and hiked down to the lake. We scrambled down the embankment on to the frozen lake (this is not an endorsement for this kind of behavior...you can make GOOD choices!) We walked around on the lake, peering into the ice fishing holes, and the lake, and the clouds, and the trees, it was fun!

So the cliffs notes:

Where: Horsetheif Reservior, Cascade ID

Who: Ma and Pa

Pro's: We did it! We spent the whole night, in butt-freezing cold and still liked eachother. Plus, anytime spent on an adventure (with your spouse especially) is SO amazing!

Con's: Boiling snow for hours...not all that fun! Two people sleeping in the same hammock, not easy...but warm! And here's the biggie-We really missed the boys!

What did I learn: How to start a fire with a cotton ball and vaseline. How to warm my sleeping bag with a water bottle. And that I can hack it in the butt-freezing cold, with the right layers, and my husband!

Would I do it again?: Yeppers!