Camping!
I'm washed, fed, and ready for a nap. *yawns*
Tomorrow is Ryan's birthday, so he planned a camping trip this weekend. To the little place we found last weekend, a two-mile hike down the mountain. Turned out to be not so bad a hike, actually, even with carrying the supplies and food and sleeping bags and tents and enough water to last six people two days.
We left yesterday morning, hiked down, and set up camp before taking off exploring the smaller hiking trails branching off. There were about a half-dozen little campsites down there (of course, we set up at the first one we saw, not realizing there were others), and a creek running through most of them. We hiked until the trail ran out, and then the boys decided it would be fun to keep going -- only, they would rock-hop along the creek. Val and I thought it best to go back to the campsite, as we didn't fancy getting wet.
So we went back and played cards while the boys played "adventurers", and then we gathered wood for the campfire. Lots and lots of wood, some big, some small. When the boys made their way back to us around dinner time, they chopped the wood into smaller pieces, built a Boy Scout campfire, and we cooked dinner (veggie burritos for us, steak and mashed potatoes for Jake and Val).
Once it got dark out, and I mean pitch-black, can't-see-beyond-ten-feet-in-front-of-you dark, the boys felt it appropriate to tell the story of what they found in the woods. (I hope I tell it accurately...)
Apparently, Ryan took off in search of the rest of the trail while the others hopped around in the creek a bit. About twenty minutes later, he returned... white-faced, shakey, and admitting that he was "a little freaked out, guys." What he'd found? A huge clump of long blonde human hair.
They decided they'd better go back and have another look, lest the hair still be attached to something. So they hiked up the other bank of the creek, on a path that was less a trail than just someplace someone had walked through before and pushed branches out of the way. They said the "trail" got narrower and narrower, and they had to duck under a number of branches and brambles until they got to a bit of a clearing.
And there, in the clearing, was indeed a huge clump of long, blonde human hair. And not a small clump. They said it was as if someone had decided to cut off all their hair. Freaked out, indeed. It didn't look to be attached to anything (no scalp or burried head), so they went a bit further up the path.
There, they saw something bright blue through the brush. At first, they thought it was the back of someone's shirt. But it wasn't moving. As they got closer, they realized it was a balloon. A helium balloon, with a radio station logo on it. What was a balloon doing in the woods? They had no idea. Ryan cut off the string and the balloon had enough helium left to float up, up and away.
A bit further down the trail brought them to a complete dead end. No place to go, nothing branching off. One trail in, one trail out. They had to go back past the hair.
On the way back, they noticed the hair was by a wash of sorts, so it could have been carried down from anywhere up the mountain. Kenny decided to pick it up, inspect it... and they hurried back to the campground.
So this story was told in the dark, around the fire, and it was absolutely, 100% freaking true. Val and I were so freaked out! There could be a psycho clown killer loose in the Angeles National Forest! Cutting off people's hair and leaving balloons as his calling card! And the boys hadn't felt it necessary to pick up camp and leave while it was still light out?! Because now, there was only the light of the moon. It was a two-mile hike up the mountain to the cars, and there wasn't another soul at the campground. No one to hear the screams. Ack!
We tried to calm ourselves down by roasting marshmallows and getting into a discussion on the Church and marriage (Jake and Val are planning their wedding) and reincarnation and anything to help us forget what the boys had found in the woods. I made them promise not to make me sleep in the one-man tent. So freaking scared.
Then, Kenny says, "there's more to the story." And Val and I said "More?!" and Ryan says "Should we tell them? I don't think we should..." and Val and I are shaking in our freaking boots we're so scared. We force them to tell us.
When Kenny picked up the hair? He discovered it had come from a plant. The hair was from a freaking plant. Weird plant fibers that the plant was shedding. In most cases, the fibers were still connected to the plant, or were at least clumped and obvious they were from a plant. The pile of "hair," however, was not clumped or otherwise attached to anything. It really looked like a pile of long human hair. It wasn't until they'd found the plant, pulled off more fibers to compare, that they were convinced.
So, yeah. After that, we went to bed. It was freaking cold and I didn't sleep well at ALL, but it was really nice to be in nature, away from the smog and traffic and people on cell phones. We woke up this morning and toasted bagels over a little propane stove, then packed up and hiked back up the mountain. I have to say, as far as camping goes, I'm a big fan of hiking down first. Because then the uphill portion is with lighter packs. Heh. It still took an hour and a half to hike the two miles up, because we had to stop for frequent rests.
But I had a really good time! I'm very glad I went. And I'm very glad the hair wasn't real human hair. Heh.