Sheep Creek

During Matt's week off in August we went camping... twice.  We didn't want the summer to pass us by without camping in this beautiful state we live in.  We've had a busy summer with tons of company, our big Oregon trip, and a few mini trips.  Between all of that and Matt's busy work and church schedules, we hadn't found an opportunity to camp.  So we made it happen in August.

Our first camping trip was to Sheep Creek in the Little Belt Mountains.  Rain was predicted, but we risked it and ended up with fine weather.  It was chilly - it got down into the 40s during the night.  But the days were warm enough.

We camped at a fishing access point with a pit toilet.  We saw a few other fisherman, but no one else was camping.  All was quiet - except for the elk we could hear bugling in the distance and our children.

Wild raspberries were ripe along the river.  Willa and Oliver ate every one they could find...

 

Matt and the kids fished.  They didn't catch anything the first day.  The second day, an old man took us to a little fishing hole he had luck at.  Clark caught a little trout on the first try.  But we didn't catch any other fish.

Willa and I had a competition to see who could find the coolest natural thing. 

I found the raspberries.  She found a bird's nest.  Unfortunately, we didn't select a judge so we couldn't pick a winner.

Willa and her nest

We spent our evening sitting by the fire.  We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows.  Oliver didn't do so well during the night.  He's barley 2.  He refused to go to sleep until it was pitch black outside - which is late in Montana in the summer.  And he got up at first light.  That made for a short night and a tired Oliver.  I was worried about him being cold in the night so I pulled him in my sleeping bag to keep him warm.  That made for a tired momma.  Willa and Clark were great.  They had cold weather sleeping bags and slept soundly.

We headed home before lunch the next day.  We actually stopped on our way home and bought two more cold weather sleeping bags.  We live in Montana.  We need winter sleeping bags in the summer when we camp in the mountains.  We didn't bother unpacking our gear when we got home since we knew we were going to camp again that week.  We just did some laundry and unpacked the cooler.