Went camping at Pt Mugu, about 30 miles above Malibu, over Father's Day weekend. Had some camera issues so playing a bit of "catchup" on the family blog here.
Great trip, we all had a blast.
Pt. Mugu is one of those state parks that has a little something for everyone - mountain biking, hiking, and a beach. The campground is located inland from Pacific Coast Highway in a canyon called Sycamore Canyon. From there you can reach anywhere in the park. We'd scramble onto our bikes and ride up the canyon for as far as the littlest legs among us cared to go, which would usually be about an hour. Then it's all downhill coming back.
Plenty of hiking, too. We took a "no bikes allowed" trail that branched off to the south from the "main drag" about a mile up sycamore canyon, and it meandered up another little canyon whose name escapes me. But it was a beautiful hike. The pic of Gina is that hike. We stopped and ate some fennel bushes. We found a stream, dipped our toes. The boys spotted plenty of butterflies, and we learned some new botany of the area. Monkey flowers and lemon bush among them. Also some fuschia.
Chase found something called a "wooly bear caterpillar," which looks a bit like Abe Vegoda's eyebrow with legs.
Also I'd like to point out this was the maiden voyage of the "dutch oven," that big cast iron pot thing in one of the photos above. We cooked an amazing "mountain man scramble" - sausage, hash browns, eggs, cheese. Later we cooked a peach cobbler thing for dessert that was delicious.
The boys befriended a family staying at a nearby campsite, they were delightful to pal around with for the weekend. We are coining a new term - "camp friends." The boys made some more camp friends this last week camping at carpinteria state beach. more on that trip later.
We learned two nights is not enough for the amount of work that goes into putting on one of these camping trips. It's more of an expedition than a trip. This camping trip was the first in a while, and we spent about two days prepping all the gear. We were just getting warmed up there and boom it was time to go home. No good. So we'll stay longer in the future. Had some great rides, great hikes, and "kicked it" on the beach for an afternoon.
Sleeping the first night in Mugu was rough. There was a guy snoring somewhere nearby - deep, jet engine snoring - and Levi was squawking all night, and our air mattress needed some more air. I call it the "equalizer" night -- because the 2nd night, everyone was so exhausted, they all slept like rocks. Things were equalized. There were some pro mountain bikers camping next to us. I know they were pros because they had huge pictures of themselves painted on their fancy biking van. "Lopez #55". Too funny. They had some wicked cool gear.
This was a great trip. We love camping. We haven't been out for a couple of years because we've been busy breeding, so this was our "welcome back" trip and we enjoyed it thoroughly.
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