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Survival at Byers Lake

I won't tell you about the giant blister on my heel.

And I won't tell you about freezing my butt off at night or the number of layers I cocooned myself in to obtain sleeping status, nor the leak in the tent that the buckets of rain discovered.

Neither will I talk about the cruel tricks of mother nature and the number of Midol I shoved down my throat to keep from wondering if leaving one's uterus in the woods constituted littering.

No. I will speak of none of those things.

Instead, I will speak of a two-mile hike that culminated in a great view of Denali National Park.

Of a long suspension bridge that really freaked my dog out so much that she was nearly crawling across it.

Lacey freaked out with the newness of everything, just like she always does. But once she made a best friend in Anna, life was good again. Anna would not cease with taking my dog for walks. Or, rather, having Lacey take her for walks because Anna was only twice Lacey's size and pretty much just followed Lacey around on her leash.

I also convinced everyone to eat some freshly picked fiddlehead ferns just by admitting that I had eaten them and they were "kinda like brussel sprouts." And I wasn't kicked out of the camp because everyone actually liked them. Even Jesse, the kid who won't eat anything, ate two large helpings of them.

So, yes, I survived to tell the internet of my tales. And if mother nature had played along, I might have actually enjoyed myself.

But don't tell Steve I said that.