One of my favorite things about camping is getting up in the middle of the night and observing the way the moonlight streams through the trees. And yet, I can look another direction to see the sky full of tiny stars. I can look for the constellations, marveling at their beauty. I so love it. Friday night those sights were particularly enchanting up at Pickle Gulch.
Ellie and I were camping with a few families from AVS. Laura and Anna joined in, too. Maureen and Jay, whose son, Kelton, goes to our school, had organized it. Pickle Gulch is about four miles north of Black Hawk on Hwy 119. It is a lovely place to camp. The site is locked and the parking is limited. Each group section gets six parking spots. There are wheel barrows that you use to haul in your stuff. We were in group 4 which features ten lovely tent pads, a big fire ring, two picnic tables and some benches around the fire ring. We also had our own bathroom and potable water source. I would totally recommend camping there again.
We had gone up earlier in the day so that Ellie could see the race course for Saturday. I'm glad we did as it made us both feel more comfortable about how long it would take to get there from the camp site. It had rained much of the afternoon and this was a good use of our time. That evening we ate dinner and hung out around the fire. I gave glow necklaces to Ellie and Kelton. They were busy placing things (like marshmallows) in the fire and then "saving" them by pulling them out. Kelton can be a very silly boy, as well as a serious one. Right before he was headed off to bed he said to Ellie, "No Ellie, in the morning leave me a note about how the things we saved looked."
The next day was perfectly lovely. We went to Sugarloaf road early to get the girls set up before the race. The race itself was very frustrating as the plan did not work out well. The adult riders started many miles away at 8:30. The juniors were set to go off at 9:15. The official got the kids lined up only to have adult racers come through. They had to pull the kids aside over and over. The official finally simply said, "Ready, set, go" without any pause between words and sent the kids off. Half of the kids got a perfect start. Others, such as Ellie, were stuck behind a big sign and the official. They could not get past those obstacles very quickly. Within the first minute of the race there was already a gap. Ellie had a terrible start between being behind the sign and getting tangled up with a younger rider whose handlebars were caught in Ellie's handlebars. To top things off, Laura thinks the results were wrong. They have Ellie listed as coming in fourth place and Laura thinks Ellie was third. I was distracted because I had left my camera at home. Larr left me a message that said that I left it in a bag with butter and that it might be ruined.
We went back to camp and the girls had a bit of time for silly fun.
That evening we had our annual party at my mom's house. The crowd was small this year. The boys had fun with a few fireworks. Ellie just watched. I think they are a bit wild for her. I grilled the food and everyone visited. As it began to get dark the kids walked down to the elementary school to see the grand fireworks display the city puts on. This was the first year they got to go without an adult. I think it was a thrill for them.
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