Venturing Through Yellow River

By: Nathan Hoy

The fire flickers as seniors Bailey Borcherding, Hunter Lavallee and myself kick back in our chairs, brats in hand and breath visible from our mouths. The temperature is pushing 40 degrees, but wrapped in layers of clothing and after stocking up on firewood for the night, we are beyond prepared.

The three of us have a passion for camping and the outdoors. Growing up, I have gone up to Yellow River every year to camp with my entire family. Due to football practices, I have not been able to attend the last two or three years, so I decided it was time to make the trip. Of course I asked my closest friends who love nature and seek adventure almost as much I do to accompany me on this road trip that I had been looking forward to for so long.

We headed straight to the campsite where I had gone every year since I was just a little guy. After setting up the tent and getting a fire going, we prepared for the long cold night ahead of us. Camping in the cold is an art, something that most people would not consider. Even though it’s technically still fall, it gets pretty brisk at the end of October when the sun goes down.

Going on this trip, we were determined to get some cool shots. The main one was a shot of us sitting around a fire with high exposure so we wouldn’t have to use flash. Hunter climbed up into a tree that was next to our campsite and snagged this picture of Bailey and I around the fire.

The next morning we woke up and went on a bluff hike. We hiked to the top of a bluff that overlooks our campground and grabbed some shots of the view.

After eating lunch we headed up the other side of the campground to a secluded pond and scenic campground that is kind of hidden. While there, we found some tall trees that were easy to climb, so I climbed up two of them and set up my eno (hammock) and had Hunter boost me up to get inside of it. While high up in the hammock, Bailey snapped some shots looking up into the trees, and Hunter grabbed one looking down whilst above me.

For our last adventure, we climbed up to the top of an old fire tower as the sun started to go down, and we took some pictures of one the most eye opening sights I’ve ever seen.

As we drove home, we couldn’t help but be a little sad to go back to a place where we have to worry about stuff again. Our adventure and time of serenity is over, but we all know that there will be many more to come.