Challis Camping

We went camping in Challis the weekend that was supposed to be the River of No Return Ultra. The race was canceled due to COVID, but we wanted to go run it anyways. We camped in the Mill Creek area, and it was beautiful. Definitely a place we'll go back to.

We got there on a Thursday evening, set up camp, and headed up the road to check out the lake.

Mill Creek Reservoir was so pretty. It's a beautiful little lake tucked in the mountains.

So pretty!

Here's a lot of our camping crew. It was our family, Jenn's family, and Mat's family.

RJ showed Mason and Bailey how to pan for gold. There was actually a ton of it in the creek.

Our fun camp area.

Friday morning, we got up and took a group hike up a mountain. We went until we got in the snow.

Jen-Tricia-Mark-Bailey-Mason-Mat-Carrie-McKady

Mason built a snowman on Bailey's head. :)

 Once it warmed up in the afternoon, we took the kayaks and the beaver up to the lake.

I was laughing so hard at them! They both got in it, but had no way to get where they wanted to go. 

We tied the beaver to the back of our kayak, and Mark and I pulled them around half of the lake. It was exhausting, so we finally dropped them back off at the shore and then explored the rest of the lake on our own. It was way more pleasant when we didn't have to lug their butts around.

We let Bailey and Mason have a turn exploring in the kayak too.

She can never resist jumping in the freezing water!

Mark relaxing at camp.

They love their hammock! They even tried to sleep in it, but came inside part way through the night, because Bailey was worried about bears.

Panning for more gold.

We were in charge of the dessert on Friday night. We did brownie sundaes.

 We got up early on Saturday to do the RONR course. Mark was signed up for the 32k, and Mason, Bailey, and I were signed up for the 55k. We did a hybrid of both courses. 

A bird pooped on Mason right at the start, so that was fun!

This course is either up or down. There is not one bit of flat! You climb high for the first 4 miles, so it makes for some great views.

I carried this giant tree branch for a long ways until someone finally turned around and saw me! :)

They always find time to good off on the trail.

We were all smiling, because this was the high point of the course. It was mostly downhill from here. Our uphill muscles were done!

This was the longest Mason and Bailey had gone for a long time! They were pooped!

So pretty!

We covered a little over 20 miles. It's a tough course, so we all felt pretty good about it.

Someone made a cool bridge across the creek.

Sunday morning was Father's Day. We were in charge of breakfast, so we did a waffle bar. We let the three dads eat first, and gave them a little treat.

Waffle Bar!

We gave these to the three dads that were in our group. They are all great guys!

We loved this camping spot! We Want to go again next year!