Wanting to take advantage of good weather, I went camping this weekend with two friends from life group and church, Chad & Skip. We struck out from the Goose Creek trailhead, which is right on the edge of the Hayman burn scar, and at 8000 feet. This isn’t the most scenic place due to all the barren hills, but the scenery quickly changed as we headed north, up Goose Creek. We came to a typical forestry service bridge built over the creek and saw the clear and obviously cold (Ice in the water) water. We could also see where the trail meandered along the river for a bit before the trail and the river split, with the trail going up in elevation and the river continuing north, but down in the bottom of the valley. We continued on the east side of the river a started going up and up. I had brought Taz with me and Chad had “Nanook”, his 3 year old Alaskan Husky. They were playing well together, leading the way up the trail. The trail continued to climb in elevation until we had separated far enough from the river that you could barely hear it down below. We went approximately 2.5 miles in, and found a great campsite out on the end of a rock finger, jutting into the valley. Taz enjoyed the rocks as much as we did. There was more than enough firewood just laying around, so we got our camp together, got a fire started, and settled in for supper. The next morning, we we woke up to beautiful weather, a little chilly (27 degrees), but the sun warmed things up really quick once it topped the ridge to our east. Chad and Skip made a water run while I watched the fire. We had breakfast, then started out on our hike. We hiked the main trail for maybe another mile, then found the camping spot that Skip stayed at this past summer. We followed it down to the river for some more water and beautiful scenery. We filled up with water, then decided to follow the deer trail that ran alongside the river back towards camp. We followed the deer trail south, and saw the perfect campsite right next to the river. We grabbed the coordinates for it so we can save it for next summer. We worked our way back to camp, fixed lunch, then laid out on the rock finger to relax and soak up some sun. I told the guys we looked like a bunch of lizards, sunning themselves. We then packed up camp, made sure the fire pit was cold, then headed back to the Jeep. What a great trip! Good weather, good company, and amazing scenery.