We have been meaning to take the teardrop out for a short trip close to home, and Carnahan Creek finally worked out. Unlike our longer trips, this one needed almost no planning because the park is on the east side of Tuttle Creek Lake, about 30 minutes from Manhattan, so we loaded up after breakfast and were set up before noon. Tuttle Creek is a flood control reservoir first and a recreation lake second, so the pool level moves around a lot.
In the park, there stood Carnahan Creek Church. It is a small white building on a limestone foundation, with a sign over the door that says "Established 1867". We have seen a group that is still maintaining it, evident with the fresh paint and a new sign out at the road.
Our site was in a stand of trees (no idea what is the species 😅. The trees are packed tight enough that they blocked the wind on three sides. We had shade all afternoon and relatively clean, dry needle floor underfoot.
We went for a walk in the park the next morning, and the dogs found a seep in the woods. Not a creek but just a seep, where groundwater bleeds out slowly and the leaf litter stays saturated and breaks down into something the consistency of pudding. One of them went in first and roll in the mud pudding, while making eye contact with Hannah and I 😓. The other followed. They came out uniformly grey-black with that rotten-egg smell. We walked them to the water/ lake while they rinsed off by jumping in and out of the water.
It rained the second afternoon, which is the whole advantage for a teardrop over a tent. We sat inside with the front window streaming, chilling, radio on, chips and salsa on the table. Hannah had the Leinenkugel shandy. I had a Great Divide Titan IPA, which is all the best things a rainy afternoon actually calls for. We watched the trees move around for about a couple of hours and did nothing else.
