Mammoth 2008 Part 1

We went on our annual vacation in our toy hauler this past week. What a wonderful time we had! We were accompanied by 4 other families from our riding group In The Dirt; the Kearleys, the Northrups, the Peltzers, and the Richters. We stayed at an RV Park in Mammoth and really enjoyed ourselves!

We drove a good portion of the way on Saturday morning and another family and us stayed over night in Lone Pine. That evening we sat down all together and watched Rick Warren's political forum. I am not a political person at all but this election has captured my attention from the beginning and I am very excited to go to the polls to vote...especially after today!

Sunday morning we woke up and decided to head the rest of the couple of hours on 395 to Mammoth. On our way we stopped at a local diner for breakfast. There is something about small diners that I just love. Not sure if it is the sticky table cloths, worn chairs, smell of the food cooking, or eating a great meal that just gets me excited every time! It was seriously one of my favorite parts of South Carolina...Waffle House type places :-) At this diner we also did a Geocash which we have just started getting into thanks to our friends who are addicted!

We met the other 3 families in Mammoth and had fun together even setting up and getting settled in. We hung around camp for the afternoon and ordered pizza for dinner. We were so thankful to be on vacation!

On Monday morning, early Dan and 2 friends rode their dirt bikes. Drew loves to see Dan get ready to ride and get on his bike and go. Although he would like to be going with him, he is just as excited to help him get ready and hear the bike start...sooner than I know they are going to be riding off together. I am ok right now with him staying close to the trailer with me :-)

We all headed down to Convict Lake late Monday morning to do some fishing! From the moment we had told our kids the different things we were going to do while in Mammoth the thing they were both the most excited about was fishing...so basically the goal of the week was to just catch one fish. We didn't care where or how...just that we got a fish! Two families rented a boat on the lake while the other 3 families decided to walk down the trail around the lake and find a fishing spot and place to eat lunch. A couple that passed by as we were walking kindly let us know that a bear had just taken their cooler. We figured the bear was long gone and enjoying what he had found.

We did some fishing on the beautiful lake! The kids absolutely loved it although total fish to be caught=0. We were hoping for the next time! After having lunch we decided to take a little hike around the lake. The guys and Lisa, who is about 7 months pregnant went and took the coolers back to our truck, which was the closest, so we would have less to carry. On their way back they decided to keep their eyes open just in case for bears. Dan was in front of everyone and right in front of him saw this brown thing walk across the path. They backed up and then realized it went down to the lake to get refreshed. They came down to where we were...just about 100 feet down the trail to tell us about the bear and that we needed to pack up and get moving. Being the smart individuals we were, we took all the kids back to see the bear. As we were watching him in the water he decided to get out of the water and start heading up to where we were watching him. At this point my heart was already going 100 miles an hour. I had Kendra in my arms, trying to stay calm, I turned and walked quickly down the trail. Lisa, who Dan was most worried about continued to take pictures as she slowly walked down the path back towards us. Yes, it definitely was coming down the trail towards us!

Our fishing spot!...Beautiful!

Eating lunch at the picnic table.

I never saw the bear start walking down the path, all I needed was to hear them say he was walking towards us to believe it and get movin! What cracks me up most is at this time Drew fell asleep on Dan's shoulder as we were heading up to the main road to get off the path the bear was walking down. We ended up walking back to the truck on the main road although I was scared to death. I know that they are scared of us but that doesn't mean I am not scared of them! We told some people who were down by the lake as we were walking away from the bear there is a bear coming...now you would think they would hear those words and pick up there things and get going...I seriously think they thought we were joking.

As we were leaving Convict Lake my parents were just pulling in as they too were staying in Mammoth for a couple of nights while we were there. They drove up to the lake and actually saw the bear from the road and he was getting into the people's cooler we had warned about the bear. We all headed to the Fish Farm (hatchery) where they raise the fish to supply the lakes and rivers in the area. It was very cool for the kids to see the loads of fish. They had gumball machines with fish food in them for you to feed the fish. It was so fun for the kids to do this and see the fish go crazy eating the food. We all wanted to go get our fishing poles to stick into the water so the kids could all catch a fish!

Walkin' to go see some fish.

Lots of fish!