Needless to say we planned to go camping with Michelle's family in the mountains up past Kamas, UT. (Over Pioneer Day we had a great campout near Hourglass Lake.) While there Unlce Kyle and Grandpa Petersen scouted a fabulous location by a lake further down the road which we discovered to be Blue Lake. It has a beautiful meadow to camp in and was further down the road from the previous camp site so it had to be a better spot to camp, away from the weekend, 4-wheeling crowd. Knowing that Labor Day weekend was sure to be crowded Grandma & Grandpa Petersen, along with Kyle, headed up to save our prized location early on Friday. We were emailed an old topographical map with approximate directions so that we could rondevous with them as soon as we could make it up.
Before we left I decided to set up the new tent, just to make sure we knew what we were doing (and so I didn't feel dumb trying to set up a tent in front of my seasoned, camping family). Michelle was hard at work putting together all of our supplies for the trip, making sure not to forget anything that might be important. By the time we were ready to go it was already late...in fact, after forgetting our jackets and having to return, we left our house at 9:00 pm.
Leaving that late can put anyone on the edge of a bad mood but all-in-all we were doing pretty good. The kids fell asleep as we wound our way through Provo Canyon. They were completely asleep through Heber, Kamas and our turn off to Trial Lake (up to that point we had nice, paved roads). We passed the campgrounds, all of the tents, trailers, campers, 4-wheelers, campfires, etc., and found the first landmark (the gravel/dirt road). We were feeling very confident in our navigational skills as we soon passed the first "Petersen" directional marker an knew we were on the right path. As the road became more rough and filled with larger rocks we were not too concerned since this is typical for the Petersen family camp outs. When we passed another "Petersen" directional marker we knew we had to be getting close. It was already after 11:00 pm and we should have only been about 1/2 hour from the turn-off to our camp site. While we felt good because we had located the directionals our confidence in our sense of direction and our navigational skills were feeling suspect. And then our tragic mistake occurred...
Although we didn't know it at the time we were within 50 yards of our camp site when we turned the wrong way. When Grandpa, Grandma & Kyle made it to Blue Lake there were already other campers in the area and sensing more were to come they had decided to go to plan "B" and returned to our previous camp site from Pioneer Day, at the pond near Hourglass Lake. However, in an attempt to conserve paper plates they had simply tried to correct the final plate posting and turned the plate on its side while adding the notation "Hourglass." (A close inspection of the plate would lead the average person right to the camp site.) At night paper plate are not so reflective and the name across the top (Hourglass) was not anyone we knew. However, the big sign that said "Blue Lake" pointing in the opposite direction was something we could recognize and off we went. The map we had noted that the "road" we were traveling was a "Jeep" trail. (We don't own a Jeep.) So we we continued on toward Blue Lake, but when we started crawling over boulders instead of driving on a rough road we became somewhat concerned. Obviously our rate of speed had decreased significantly over the rough terrain. By 12:00 am (midnight) we were not exactly stuck but we were hearing noises that you don't like to hear as you pass over large rocks in the road. Due to our concern we decided it might be better to go for help and stop abusing our vehicle.
So I set out in search of help, hoping to find Blue Lake and the Petersen camp site. Then we could rally the family to our rescue, get our boys and supplies to the lake and figure out how to get our vehicle back to safety. Armed with my new headlamp (birthday present on the spot) and a fully charged set of walkie-talkies I headed up the boulder mountain trail in search of help. I wandered for hours in vain searching for the Petersen Camp. I found several camper and several campsites. I talked with some friendly people who couldn't offer me any help in my quest for the Petersen camp or a white Jeep Cherokee. Finally I passed a sign of hope, a Petersen directional pointing me along the road I had been traveling, which must have meant it was only a little further. But my hopes were dashed when I realized that I was walking down a large gravel landslide; we had already navigated a similar type of steep grade, large rock, big gravel landslide earlier in the evening but the thought of having to retrace our steps and climbing 2 gravel landslides to get out of the canyon was more than I could handle at 2:00 am. So I began retracing my steps and heading back to my family.
Michelle had stayed with the kids and kept in contact by walkie-talkie. But she's not one to sit idle when she could be doing something to help. So she decided to brave the wheel and climb the boulder mountain. To say the least it was an emotional trial, taking care of the 4 children (who were awake due to the large bumps we had already crossed), alone in the darkness, with her husband over an hours hike away (in the middle of the night), not knowing where we were or where we could turn for help, and not sure that our vehicle could make the trip. But she pressed forward, taking control of the situation. With encouragement from me on the airwaves she managed to climb the boulder mountain trail and meet me hiking back down the road (part of the encouragement for Michelle was that the mountain boulder trail eventually stopped going up and more closely resembled a dirt road). We decided that we had gone far enough for one night's adventure and just decided to pitch our tent and go to sleep. The morning would bring new options and new hope for being rescued.
As we began to pitch our tent 4 4-wheelers came cruising along and they stopped to see if we needed help; they had already stopped to talk to Michelle when she was still stranded on the boulder mountain trail. We gave them an update on our situation and that we were still looking for the Petersens, in a white Jeep Cherokee, camping at Blue Lake. What, to our utter astonishment, was our surprised when they knew exactly where we were and were the jeep was. So they offer to drive me down to the lake (just over there). Even though they were slightly intoxicated they drove me right to the lake and to the white Jeep Cherokee. As we pulled up we heard, "Go Away" being shouted at us from this little tent near the Jeep. Things didn't quite look right, especially since I couldn't see the hallmark "wall" tent anywhere in sight (but that's probably because the lights were off due to the late/early hour). But upon further inquiry we discovered that it was not, in fact, the camp we were looking for. So after just 2 wrong turns we made it back to my family and began to execute our plan "B" (to wait by the road until the Petersens came to rescue us in the morning). The 4-wheeler riders offered to let us join their camp (they had food, fire, kids, etc); while their offer seemed appealing we wanted to be in a conspicous location for when the rescue party came.
Since I had just pitched the tent hours before we were able to get the tent up in no time, unload just enough stuff to sleep, but then we realized that we were short 2 sleeping bags! Those 2 bags were being brought to camp by Grandma Petersen and we hadn't made it to camp. So we had 4 sleeping bags and six people (and we didn't bring much extra bedding). But luck had not completely forsaken us and 2 of the bags could zip together to make a large sleeping bag. We put the 3 older boys in the large combined sleeping bag, in multiple layers of pjs, wrapped in their own blankets. Aleky was also put in several layers of pjs, wrapped in a couple of blankets and stayed close to mom. Michelle and I slept in our own bags. Now that it was just after 3:00 am we were tuckered out and fell right to sleep. But our good fortune was not meant to last as Aleky soon let us know of his dismay. (Because he loves to suck on his thumb he was now very cold and uncomfortable and not having the insulation of a sleeping bag he was pleading for assistance.) Michelle did the best she could to put him in the mummy bag with her but those mummy bags were not designed for more than a single person at a time (even a very small second person). So Michelle slowly lost her place in her own bag as Aleky moved in. Needless to say she didn't sleep very well and the short night became even shorter.
By 9:00 am we were all awake and ready to continue our quest to find the Petersen campsite. Since our plan for this campout was to share the meals (each family would provide all the works for 2 entire meals); our preparations didn't include a Saturday breakfast so we had to improvise with what food we had to feed our hungry family. To their credit our boys were content and made do with just a couple slices of bread and some apple slices (from fresh apples). Since the Petersens had not come to the rescue we decided to evaluate our position and begin our family search for the coveted camp site (which now began to represent rest and a reprieve--a salvation of sorts).
We visited the nearby camp site of the 4-wheeler riders but the alcohol seemed to have worn off and they were not quite as cordial as they had been just hours earlier. So we discovered the beautiful Blue Lake, the 3 camp sites (including that of the 4-wheeler riders) on the lake and determined that the Petersen camp was obviously not there.
It is Petersen tradition to be the last camp site on any given road so we were determined to hike to the end of the road. So back to our make-shift camp to load water, a few supplies and head on down to the end of the road.
Our boys are real troopers as they hiked for about 1 1/2 hours down the road with almost no complaint (they couldn't seem to drink enough water and were continually asking for more). David was the lead and Michelle did her best to keep up (she was carrying Aleky); Donovan tried to keep up with David but eventually was forced into realization that he isn't quite reached the same level of stamina and speed of his older brother yet and he was forced to walked with Daddy and Micheal. With the obviously slower pace of Michael and Donovan we had to keep in contact with Michelle and David by walkie-talkie. I can only imagine the pit in her stomache as Michelle reached the finally "Petersen" directional. It was posted on the sign we had follow to Blue Lake the night before but the directional pointed in the opposite direction. Just 10 yards down the road past the sign the "pond" came into view and only 50 yards away was the wall tent, just where we had been on Pioneer Day. I know I felt a pit in my stomache when she radioed the news to me...we had driven needlessly up the boulder mountain trail and finished hiking the rest of the loop! We had been going in circles all night and didn't know it...
On the bright side it was a relief to find the Petersen camp after all. We rushed to camp as quickly as Michael's tired legs would carry him. Grandpa was the only one at camp; Grandma and Kyle had headed back to Kamas to call and find out where we were since they had expected us around dinner time the night before. We quickly had breakfast while we waited for Kyle and Grandma to come back from Kamas. Of course we had to rehearse our adventures of the night before to them.
They never came looking for us up the loop because they had posted a sign which they were sure we would follow; we had not followed the sign because we were too focused on getting to Blue Lake and the paper plate directional didn't look like the other directionals we had seen (it doesn't have to make sense, we were driving on an unfamiliar road at 11:00 pm). Since it really doesn't matter who's "fault" it was and we couldn't change the past we just decided to go rescue the rest of our stuff (including the Highlander). As we drove back around the loop Grandpa gave us a lesson on how to navigate the rough roads: when there are big rocks in the road drive over the rocks with your tires! (Okay, it was a much better lesson than that but that statement would be the Khayyam summary of the lesson.) We also discovered that the boulder mountain trail we had driven over, while there were a lot of big rocks, they appeared much bigger in the headlights at night than they did in the daytime sunlight.
We reached the make-shift camp site, struck camp and just tossed everything into the two vehicles, not worrying about our packing job. Then we proceed the rest of the way around the loop which turned out to be much easier driving. Grandpa helped navigate and guide us over the big rocks and rough spots; Kyle drove in front giving us an example of where we should place our tires going over the rocks. It was very helpful. We also discovered that we had banged up our SUV but it wasn't nearly as bad as it sounded in the middle of the night (we scraped the skid plate over the gas tank, dented up the muffler and popped the rear bumper on the passenger side). We arrived back at camp just minutes before our third family showed up (Jared, Tosha, Ammon and Aaron Petersen).
Jared and Tosha knew we had experience difficulties because Grandma called them when she had driven to Kamas earlier that day to call to find where our family had been. So they wanted the details again, so we told our story a third time. Since we made it to camp and there was no real harm was done we have just counted this adventure as one of our family experiences.
(sorry, no cool pictures of the boulder mountain trail, the traumatized Highlander, or the hike to freedom; during this experience pictures weren't at the forefront of our priorities)
