Camping at Mallard Lake

290612-300612 Friday & Saturday

We were off to camping at last! On the last weekend before the two of us leave :D Not super fans of camping, but we wanted to try at least once in Yellowstone! Have been waiting for the weather to get warmer for a long long time, now it's finally much warmer in the day, though the night was still freezing cold!

Decided to camp at Mallard Lake cos it was near, just a trail behind our dorm & about 7km away, so that we could run back in case it gets unbearably cold at night hahaha.

Here's the six of us!

Jt (thanks for carrying the heavy tent, guitar, getting the camping pass and all!), Jillian (so thankful to have her come along, bringing with her all her camping experience and expertise, sharing her tent & bring the jetboil burner so that we can have hot water. i felt so assured cos she was there haha!), Apple (who had to endure even more walking right after a whole day of work!佩服!), Tianyou (the 开心果+自拍王, brought so much fun and laughter to the group!) and Trina (thanks for painfully enduring the night being stuck in the same sleeping bag as me!!)

Setting off :D

How can Tianyou miss this photo haha

Our campsite!

Mallard Lake's known for its huge population of mosquitoes, which greeted us with great delight as we approached the lake. I think we almost finished using up one can of repellent!

We started setting up the tents and it was nightfall in no time. Sat on this rocky area near our campsite to chill (ya literally in the cold) and eat supper:P Jt and Jilliand tried to play missing by sitting quietly at the rocks without turning on their headlamps haha. Supper was chips, and corn soup (all the way from taiwan:P) and hot choc. This was our 'relief area' as well haha. And afterwards we headed back to the tents where Jt played the guitar and we sang songs. love it!:D

Trina and I had to squeeze into one sleeping bag cos we didnt managed to rent enough. Jillian was laughing so hard while trying to zip up our cocoon-like sleeping bag haha! And i was tossing and turning the whole night trying to find a comfortable position but Trina didn't complain one bit. Thank you Trina! & Thank God I had my down feather jacket too. Even with it it was still pretty cold at night but we managed to survive it!

The next morning, we woke up to a swarm of mosquitoes outside the tents waiting to devour us... 

And I forgot to introduce this: our Food Bag! This is actually Apple's bag which we emptied out to put all our food in. We couldnt find the log that was supposed to be for us to hang our food so Jt and Jillian had to try to climb up a hill and hang the bag up on a tree (i didnt even know we had to do that to prevent animal attacks at night...) Thank you both for all the effort!

Taking the bag down in the morning

More pics of us and the campsite

Our rented tent on the left and Jillian's one on the right

自拍-ing as usual:P

Group shots :D

Packing up

This is Tianyou before he attempts to take a photo on the other log to the left and accidentally falling into the water. The price of taking nice photos:P

And here's Mallard Lake

I really thank God for the whole experience. For each and every one in the group, for keeping us safe, for helping us make it through the cold night. For making this even possible, our schedules and all falling nicely into place, for helping me make it back in time for lunch and work at 2pm. I always thought that the last time i'll camp outdoors wld be 5 years ago at Outward Bound Sabah. But coming to Yellowstone, I've managed to go hiking, climb mountains, go camping.. I'm so thankful, really :)

*Photo credits to Jt & Tianyou for many of the photos in this post :)