Flashback Friday: Snow Camping

Have you ever come up with an amazing idea and then gotten into the middle of it and realized how NOT amazing that idea was??  Flashback to February of 2001 while I was living in Liberty square with some of the most adventurous and fun loving girls I'd ever met.  Our good friends in the ward had come up with an idea to go snow camping in the middle of a blizzard.  This was a late-night spontaneous decision, so instead of our previously planned warm movie party, we all quickly threw on some layers and piled into the back of two vehicles; a covered pick up truck towing four wheelers and an SUV.

We should have had a good idea what our evening would hold when both cars got stuck and almost slid off the face of the mountain we were trying to climb, but we pushed onward.  What should have taken us a 25 minute drive up hill to our camping area, ended up to be a two hour adventure getting stuck and unstuck while huge flakes fell from the sky.  We had some determined guys with us though and somehow we made it to a safe enough pull out to set up "camp" a little after midnight.  We had two tents that slept four each, the back of the covered pick up, and then the rest of the guys were busy digging holes to make snow caves... I wish I would have gotten more pictures from our crazy night!

While camp was being set up, Beth and I took the four wheeler for a ride.  Bad mistake, since neither of us had driven a four wheeler in the snow, let alone a blizzard!  We ended up driving off the road into the trees (luckily on the opposite side of the cliffs) and getting it stuck pretty bad.  We then had to hike all the way back to camp, inform our friend who owned the four wheeler what had happened, and then hike all the way back to help get it out of the snow banks.  Good thing we were with pretty laid back people, because everyone thought the whole process was pretty funny.

Needless to say it was the coldest night of my life.  I remember curled up in a group of five or six of us in the back of the truck thinking when the night was going to end.  One of the guys let me wear his big hunting overalls to help cut the chill a bit, but I was still shaking and chattering all night.  Good thing my roommate, Lisa and I were already used to snuggling!

We woke to a gorgeous sight of beautiful snow flakes and a warm fire that one of the guys had made while we were sleeping.  Even though it was the coldest night of my life, I look back at it and just laugh.  I really have been blessed with amazing friends in my life.  Friends that have been spontaneous, fun, accepting, and willing to make and create such memorable experiences.  I can't believe it's been ten years since living with these girls.  It feels like just yesterday I was losing feeling in my toes and laughing at how ridiculous we all were for thinking a blizzard was a good time to go camping!