Going Camping

On Thursday afternoon, we got out of school early for the start of quarter break. This is what passes for spring break here at Woodstock. Halfway through each semester, we get a four day weekend to help us recover from the quarter before. We definitely needed a break this weekend...we've been busy almost the entire time since we got back to India after Christmas. Initially, we had big plans to go on a hike to Nag Tibba—a 10,000 foot hill not to far from here. After getting home after school on Thursday, though, we decided that we didn't have enough energy for that hike. Instead, we decided to take on Flag Hill—only a 40 minute hike from our house.

We'd been to Flag Hill several times before, but wanted to get some use out of the tent that we lugged all the way to India, so we decided to camp.

Even though we were so close to home, we had a great time setting up camp and watching the sun set behind the hills. We also had a nice tasty meal of Wai-Wai (one of the local versions of ramen noodles).

We thought about bringing marshmallows to roast over our fire, but decided on hot chocolate instead.

We didn't get a lot of sleep in our tent, because a little mountain scops-owl (Otus spilocephalus) decided that he wanted to keep us company until about 2:00am. Early this morning, though, we were still able to get up to watch the sunrise over the Himalayas. It was a beautiful sight!

After about an hour admiring the mountains and the rhododendrons, we broke camp and started heading home.

Even though it was just a short trip and we didn't go very far from home, it was the first time that we've gone camping in India. It was much more relaxing than a major expedition up a mountain would have been and we even made it home in time for lunch this morning. This was a great warmup for whatever great peak we tackle next.

Dave and Beth