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Only 4 short weekends left until school begins…YIKES, we’d better pack the camper and head for the mountains. We were a bit helter-skelter leaving. Derrick returned from Butte shortly before 4pm and we left our house about 4:15. Needless to say, we forgot some stuff. You always make do, right?

We headed up to the Crazy Mountains. We’ve only seen this small range from the Interstate and never driven into them. It’s a relatively small mountain range that is truly “crazy” because it’s surrounded by rolling prairie on every side. By the time we navigated the gravel roads, it was after 6:30 and the campground was full. The off-roading sites were limited so we were forced to make do with what we could find.

We couldn’t believe how bad the mosquitoes were (you’d think we’d learn after our adventure with Melissa and Ben.) Thankfully, we made friends with some other campers who were also too late to get a site at the campground who very graciously shared some bug spray with us.

I awoke in the middle of the night and heard this distant ringing bell. I figured it was just a camper who put out bells at night to scare away bears. Soon, the ringing was closer and I hear a loud, “Bluuuuuuu.” Derrick (who was dead asleep until this) jumped up in bed and is ready to engage the bear spray. “What was that?” I think it’s a horse. As we mustered up enough courage to open the window and peer outside, we saw about a dozen horses grazing right up next to our camper. The moon was so bright, you could see everything. After the sun rose, we heard the owner call the horses and they all went home apparently.

There aren’t many trails through this mountain range and besides the Big Timber Creek that ran through the valley we camped it, there were no lakes except for those up the trail. With the extreme heat predicted for the day, we figured our best bet was to make it to the lake. Unfortunately, the lake was a 9-mile round trip hike. I won’t say it was all roses getting Madison and Breanne motivated to get there.

However, it bewilders me to no end to see how much energy they can muster up when we arrive at our destination. Let’s just say there was an endless supply of Gatorade, motivational speeches, “talkings to,” and a bit of bribing along the way.

The return trip, was marked by a mid-afternoon mountain thunderstorm which Madison and Breanne were not excited about. After the rain quit and the sun came out they were little chatter-boxes all the way back to the camper.

That evening Madison was so tired she could barely eat dinner and shortly after eating a little, she went to bed (even without having a s’more.) Our night owl Breanne did enjoy a s’more with dad and soon after, we all retired for the evening.

Everyone slept in Sunday morning and enjoyed a camping breakfast that Derrick made for us. It was great to get away and now, it’s great to be home…in air conditioning!