CAMPING AND BLOOMINGTON LAKE

WHEN: sometime in the early 90s. I'm thinking I was only 13 year's old or so.
WHERE: St. Charles canyon...campground close to Minnetonka Cave
WHO: the Andrew clan (mom, pops, and the sibs)
WHAT: short stroll around the campsite...or so we were told
THE CLUE THAT IS WASN'T A SHORT STROLL: pops filling up two big Sunny D jugs with water and tying them around his waist with bailing twine.



Conversation that happened bright an early that day.



Pops: let's go on a short walk.
Heidi: are we going very far because I have on my Birkenstocks (sandals with two straps across the front...that might date me a bit) and I can change into my gym shoes if I need to?
Pops: no you will be fine. We will just walk around the campground and down by the outhouses.




Pops then proceeds to fill the Sunny D jugs up with water and ties them around his waist with bailing twine. WHY DID I NOT TAKE A CLUE FROM THIS ACT I DO NOT KNOW!


12 miles and 5 whining kids later (one is worn out Birkenstock's if you recall) we returned from Dad's "short walk". We hiked that day to Bloomington lake. The lake is absolutely gorgeous so looking back the hike was worth it. But don't tell pops that.



I tell you this story because Clayton and I went camping up St. Charles Canyon a few weeks ago. Our intent was to camp and make the hike into Bloomington sans Sunny D jugs the next day. Unfortunately for us I couldn't exactly remember which campground up the canyon we were at when I was a youngster and therefor we could not find the trailhead. So we took the lazy approach and drove to the lake and took the nice 1/2 mile stroll in.

Cheesy pictures of us camping

Holding the weenie roasters. We tried something new. Reece's Peanut Butter Cup S'mores. AWESOME!

Bloominton Lake

While it was super sunny and hot every where else around the state...Bloomington and Bear Lake were cloudy, windy and cold. Needless to say that we did not want to give ourselves hypothermia by jumping off of the rope swing and cliffs into the ice cold glacier water (did you not see the snow in the pictures!?!). We will save that for a warmer day.