Into the Woods Once Again

What's up, Internet.

This weekend, while Kris was away at her annual Momcation (which pales in comparison to our much-grander and larger-scale Brocations), I headed out into the woods in order to camp out with my old high school buddies - Sean, Trevor, and Scrunge, this time around. Once again we settled on Trevor's family property (which we last frequented in February), and this marked the first time that I had been out there when there wasn't snow on the ground since frickin' High School.

This was a family camping trip, unlike our usual get-togethers in the woods, so Trevor had his wife and kids up there, and much of the Hages clan - his siblings and their families - were all up there as well.  They had all headed up there Friday morning, but since Kris was out of town for the weekend, I had to have my mom watch the girls, and she could only take them on Saturday night. So I drove up late Saturday morning to meet everyone up there, just missing Matt Lee's departure (he had hung out Friday night and left shortly before I arrived.)

Anyway, not a very long trip into the woods, but better than nothing.  Check it out, folks. . .

Upon arrival, I found about 20 people sitting around having coffee and slowly getting around - a clear indicator that the night before had been a crazy one - so I got to work setting up my tent.

Base of operations.

They set up camp in the middle of the track that leads from the main road up to the cabin (which was not used at all this weekend.)

I pitched my tent (the blue one) in the middle of the McNerney clan's tents. . .

Later on in the morning, we started motivating people to get off their ass - we were going to go lead the kids down to the creek and screw around there for awhile.

To get to the creek, you have to descend this pretty steep hill - almost a cliff.

Sean attempts to take down a flaming pyre with his wrist-rocket

The Cabin.  Not featured in this blog post.

Trevor's family are a bunch of frickin' slobs.  They've got stuff like this strewn everywhere.

Meanwhile, back at the creek. . . 

They decided to build an auxiliary fire while we were down there.  The shade and water made for a nicer hangout spot than the main campsite.

At one point, Trevor ran out of beer, so him and I decided to run into the nearby village of Rosebush in order to pick up some more.

Rosebush is little more than a populated intersection, half-way between Clare and Mount Pleasant on Mission Rd.  This gas station/party store is probably the most important building in town.

Stocking up on some essentials.

By the time we got back, it was lunch time, and Sean's sister had put out pulled pork and some various side salads for everyone.

Scrunge and I had both parked our vehicles farther away from the campsite so that we could leave easily whenever we needed to, without having to go through the hassle of having people move vehicles and all that nonsense.

It isn't camping in the woods unless you get to shoot off some guns. . .

(This is Sean's current girlfriend, by the way - I didn't bother learning her name, she won't be around by the time I hang out with him again.)

After shooting some guns, we moved everyone back down to the creek to hang out - there's more to do down there for the kids.

They had established a pretty decent setup down there. . .

Sean decided, at one point in time, that we should try and re-route the river in order to create more of a hangout spot int he middle of the river.  This was fairly easy to do because the water level - much like the water levels everywhere else in Michigan - is ridiculously low this summer.

We dug a trench to divert the water along the eastern bank, which dried out the impromptu hangout area.  I guess that was the whole point, but who knows.

We felled this tree farther up the hill and then sent it crashing down into the river below.  Pretty dangerous, but fun to watch for sure.

They used this to further dam up the flow of water. . .

Eventually they wrapped the tree with a tarp in order to prevent water from flowing through underneath it.

Spectators.

Sean and his niece.  The Hages clan is definitely a bizarre bunch.

In the early evening, we made our way back up to the main campsite, having become bored with drinking beer and damming up rivers and what-not.  Sean had previously carved this weird totem-looking figure - not sure how or when, he just randomly has stuff like this that he pulls out of his truck without warning - and he wanted to burn it in the night's bonfire. 

Sunset over this scummy-ass pond.  Frickin' gross.

Sean brought up this huge torch thingy he constructed, too - something he uses at like music festivals and stuff like that - and so of course he let the kids play with it.  'Cause Sean.

Good ol' fashioned, family fun.

They had created a treasure map with clues for the kids, having buried caches of stuff randomly throughout the property in the previous weeks.  Definitely a cool idea, and it kept the kids - ranging from 4 to 16 years of age - occupied throughout most of the evening.

Sean's weird totem figure standings guard over the beginning of the evening's fire (they had built a 'child safety rail' around the edge of the pit the night before - can't be too careful.)

(Not sure where these came from.)

Sean's totem friend meets his untimely end - that fire grew pretty big and soon engulfed everything.

Sean and I grabbed a bunch of pallets we had found farther back in the woods, and were going to add them to the inferno we had going, but Trevor - thank God - made us put them back, as they belonged to his cousins.

At the end of the night, Scrunge broke out his camera and took a few creepy pics of the scum-covered pond.  Most folks went to bed around midnight - pretty damn early for this group - so all in all it was definitely a chill day in the woods (unlike most of our hangouts.) I guess that's what I get for showing up on Day 2 once everyone is exhausted and partied out.

- Brian