Archer Vly with the Kiddies

Posted on 20 Jul 2022 by Steve Markham

Adele, Lewis and I made another quick trip to Archer Vly. Buggy and humid, and Lewis got attacked by a humongous leech while we were playing in the water. But otherwise, a lovely trip. Both kids indicated they would go again.

It was hot hot hot, so the first order of business was getting in the water.Lewis took a little convincing, but eventually got in. By then I was all wet, so there are no pictures of him in his suit, nor with a half-dollar sized leech on his foot. He freaked out about that just as much as you would expect. We got it off no problem, and then it turned from circular to elongated like most leeches are. Weird.

They played on the shore while I set up camp and made dinner. These two are such good campers. They didn’t get their cruddy boots on anything, they were helpful and kind to each other, they were patient about me having forgot part of dinner, they collected firewood, and then were encouraging me when I had trouble getting the fire really going.

We got lots of very loud thunder overnight. I wasn’t sure whether I should wake Adele up to let her know everything was OK. She told me in the morning that she had woken up and was worried, but she managed to calm herself and go back to sleep. Lewis dreamt about thunder, but never woke up. Good boy.

In the morning Lewis and I were up bright an early, but Adele slept in. Lewis helped me make pancakes.

The hike out (which lasted all of 15 minutes) involved a little complaining about bugs and heavy packs. I hadn’t washed breakfast dishes, so I offered to carry Lewis’s backpack if he carried the fry pan. We ran across a couple on their way in, who thought Lewis was banging on the pan to ward off bears. Sure, that’s what he’s doing:)

It’s not too adventurous, but that’s appealing to the kiddies, not a drawback. And you can’t beat a 35 minute drive.