Bears Warnings. No seriously...BEAR WARNINGS

The Brandt Fam has a new favorite camp spot.

Bear Lake.

There scenery is beautiful, it's much less crowded, there are several different trails nearby you can hike, and there is lake nearby where you can fish. The only drawback it would seem are bears. Actual bears. Both times that we have camped this month, we were greated with a ranger and a bear warning flier. Not cool. Of course the Brandt bunch is so crazy ~~loud~~ tough...that the bears haven't risked showing themsleves in our presence.

Lucky for the Bears.

The bear in the flier was not nearly this cute.

Also, sometimes we bring our own "killer" with us. Bears are scared of Puggles. Didn't you know?

You know something that's really important to look into when you're camping? Weather. When the weatherman says it's going to be cold...you should assume he is an expert in his field of work and believe him. When the weatherman issues a freeze warning and tells you to bring your plants inside...you should assume he means it. And if plant's are advised to be inside, it's probably a bad idea for you to be sleeping outside...in a very thin tent....even with 7 layers and 3 blankets.

For the first 2013 camp out of the year, we did not heed the weatherman's advice...and we suffered for this decision. The Johnson's have joined us for camping trip 1 & 2 this year. We prefer to suffer in good company.

Don't get me wrong, good times were had. Just know they were very, very, very cold good times.

This photo pretty much sums up the importance of weather forecasts and camping.

We had much better luck with our second camping trip of the season. As it was much more bearable (see what I did there...BEARable) to be outside, we got in some quality fishing time. BY that I mean, roughly 12 hrs over 2 days were spent fishing...and NO fish were caught. Next time, I'm bringing my own fish from Publix with me. That way, I can make other campers envious of my fishing skills, without having to feel the disappointment of repeatedly reeling in my empty line.

We did have smores & wine however....and both of those trump fish any day.