east bank adventures

we spent our days off this week going on a little bit of an adventure... the trip started with an enjoyable and mostly dry canoe trip down a mellow portion of the snake. brandon had never been in a canoe and i have only been out once with kemi, therefore neither of us were "experienced". about two miles down river from our place, we crossed over to the east bank, locked up our trusty vessel, and headed inland for bailey lake.

we had the lake all to ourselves and enjoyed the quiet as life in jackson means rarely finding a place to be alone, what with all the cone-likers and city-folk out looking for an outdoor experience. we swam quite a bit and layed on the sandy beach in peace. this was our oasis:i spent most of my time taking photos of the beautiful wildflowers and the amazing clouds. we were blessed with an afternoon-long thunder and lightening show so we spent a lot of our time in the tent--i started and finished an entire book! once the showers cleared, brandon took to fishing the lake and caught a few, although he didn't bring them back to show me so who knows how big those fish actually were! :)the next morning while i lay in my sleeping bag and brandon caught up on some sleep, i heard a grunting sound just outside our tent. i shook brandon until he woke up and quietly warned him of our visitor. i was freaked out, thinking that at any moment a huge moose would come trample our tent to pieces. he, on the other hand, was unfazed and ducked outside to get a better look. this is what he found:indeed, i was semi-correct to think a moose was going to pass through our camp. however, he wasn't interested in us and only wanted to get to the lake for his morning drink. brandon made me nervous, getting closer to this gangley guy so he could get a better photo. i kept thinking, "death by moose stomping is not how you want to go out brandon; please back away from this thing!" he didn't back away and, fortunately, he didn't get the certain death i feared.

the other thing i got to know quite well on this trip was stinging nettle. ouch. never before have i seen so much of this stuff. at one point i lost the trail and stumbled into a huge patch of it, my legs began to burn and welt as i tried to get out. i jumped across the small creek and grabbed onto the nearest plant to avoid sliding back into the water. what did i wrap my hand around? a huge nettle! so my legs and my left hand welted up and stung for the better part of 30 minutes.