Spring Seems a Long Way Off at Spring Creek Park

In a moment of clear-headed honesty and self-awareness, I'm ready to admit that I'll always be a fair-weather camper. Just imagining myself trying to pitch a tent in a thunderstorm brings a vision of me, in a muddy, crumpled heap, howling tears of frustration. But this weekend was beautiful, and perfect for camping - despite a wind advisory and temperatures falling into the mid-thirties at night.

We camped near the site of an old Confederate powder mill. Cannon powder was made at the mill for the Confederate Army from 1861 to 1863. An explosion at the mill in 1863 killed three men: William Bloecher, Adolph Hillegeist, and Peter Wunderlich. In 1966, the marker shown below was donated by Mrs. E.B. Hillegeist and her sons, Earl and Roy Hillegeist, and was erected by the Harris County Historical Survey Committee, Spring Creek County Historical Association, and the decedents of those killed in the explosion.

Here's a little Lord of the Flies moment:

Boys. Sticks. Axes and pocket knives. It doesn't get much better than this, does it? Well, maybe it does - when the day is done, there's dinner.

We had pasta, followed by a Dutch oven dessert competition.

I won, with a scrumptious lemon pound cake that reminded our Scoutmaster of his grandmother's cooking. But it was a close race, and we all got to enjoy a taste of the entries. Here's my stiffest competition - he and I have challenged each other to a cook-off at the next camp-out. Our Scoutmaster says we have to come up with new recipes, though - no repeating what we did at this camp-out.

Cold-weather camping means fewer bugs and less sweat.

Wait. Scratch that. Fewer mosquitoes, maybe.

This little guy decided to hitch-hike home on my abdomen. All together now: Ewwwwww! Nothing like getting into the bath and realizing that the fleck of dirt or leaf you're trying to brush off your tummy has...LEGS. Eww.

@#$%. The downside: I get to worry about all the dreaded tick-borne diseases out there for something like 12 weeks. Fortunately, none are "common" and most tick bites are harmless. The upside: William got hands-on experience removing a tick, something he's supposed to know for his First Aid merit badge. He did a lovely job of it.

Anybody out there know what kind of tick this is? To me, it looks like a dog tick (no snickering from the peanut gallery - that is NOT proof of anything!) but it could be a Lone Star Tick (now we know the REAL reason Texas is known as the Lone Star State!). Tenacious little suckers. They hang on for dear life and are not at all easy to pull out.

Anyway, we had a great time. It was cold, and I'm wind-burned and tick-bitten, but it was fun.