I got me a patch! A wilderness basics patch! This past weekend was the WBC Reunion at Lake Moreno Campgrounds. I got there Saturday morning went to send a text and remembered there is zero signal. Really Verizon. So I wasn’t sure when the Liz or Betsy were gonna get there. Turns out Liz (and Mark ) were pretty much right behind me. They pulled up as I was whipping together my tent. (Betsy wasn’t feeling well so didn’t make it. Feel better girl!!!)
The first hour was kinda chaotic; we were trying to get our tents set up prior to the Land Navigation hike and for some reason our camp site was hot and treeless. Yes, exactly last week I was freezing my butt off a week later l’m roasting, cray, cray. We ran back and forth to the registration table, the ranger’s office, and then moved all our stuff to the shade only to move it back into the sun. Finally we gave up and went hiking.
Jim and Diane did a swell job with the Land Nav/Scavenger Hunt. Whenever we finally found a spot there was a cache box with candy, toys (even Hot Wheels), and a clue to the next spot. We sorta worked as a group, but Mark was like a bloodhound finding those things. It was a great hike, a little rock climbing, the lake is very very low. But not totally dry, one wrong step and you could sink pretty deep in the mud.
Afterwards (ie after beer run) we realized that we had set up our tents basically where we were supposed to park the cars! Oh well. Later, there was a PCT presentation and a great potluck dinner. I was so full from dinner only had room for one smore at the campfire.
But before the smores there was a graduation certificate and PATCHES!!!
There was also a astronomy presentation complete with two super telescopes so we got an up close look at the moon! After chatting around the camp fire we turned in. I slept like a baby.
Sunday morning instead of hiking after breakfast we opted for sitting around camp soaking up the sunshine and chatting. Sometimes you just need to sit and connect. So glad we did. A friend told me to take the wilderness basics course you’ll meet some cool people that will end up being your long time hiking buddies …..he was right!
wandering chardonnay 