A Most Memorable Vacation

I remember a vacation,we went on,when the children were only 5--4--and 2 years of age.Left on a Friday for a week of fun to the mountains,to do a little fishing and relaxing.I had a cj 5 jeep back then,which i pulled a 6 foot trailer with.We purchased a 12 foot by 9 foot Army Tent made of Canvas.It was a heavy tent,but we really liked it as it didn't let the wind or rain in no matter how hard the weather tried.I made a propane stove out of a kitchen stove and built a stand for it.Packed the 2 year olds play pen with a few toys. The girls took their dolls along .Had a weeks worth of food,frying pans,eating utensils, a bath Aluminum bath tub.All the rest of the essentials for living and away we went.The trip to Strawberry Lake was close to 120 miles from the house.About four hours long.Well we got to the turn off,which was a rocky trail made for 4wheel drives and I stopped to put the jeep in 4 wheel drive.Took off up the trail to the lake which was 3 miles further.The kids were now getting anxious and tired as you can imagine.We got to within 1/4 mile from the camp spot when in front of us was a 3 foot snow bank to get through.I shifted the jeep into low and tried to break a trail through,but the snow wasn't packed hard enough to stay on top.Now I had to get out the shovel and start scooping a road through.This took me a good hour plus.Got back into the jeep and headed on the rest of the way,praying that we would not encounter any more obstacles.As it was we were lucky and made it to the lake.I was tired,but had to get the camp set up before dark.Got it all set up and cooked dinner for all.We were the only people at the lake for 7 days,except for 2 fishermen who hiked in for a few hours.That week we caught 60 brook trout.Didn't need a freezer as we had a snow bank about 4 feet high by camp and I just made a mail box hole back in it ,put the fish in and covered them up with snow.They froze up real good.The kids had a real good time as well playing in the snow and the boy played in his crib inside the tent.We have been on many camping trips like this one and always had alot of fun as a family.As you can read,it doesn't matter how old your children are to take camping,but it does matter how old they are to go hiking.I found that out the hard way,but that's another story.These are the things parents need to do with their children to learn them the basics of life,getting along with others and survival traits.Thank you for reading and I wll be back again with more tales from the trail.