Camping trip 12-1-12

As I write this I just got back from a nice little overnight camping trip at a local State Park. I was running late getting on the road, so by the time I got on site and at the Park office to register to camp, I only had about 30 minutes of daylight left. The nice girl at the desk asked me if I wanted a site at the primitive area or at a site with power and water. The latter is aimed more at campers and RVs, but I didn't really have time to burrow back in the woods and get set up, I knew I'd need a little ambient light to finish the campsite, so I took the RV site.

You can see *some* of the sand here.

I'd rather have gotten out in the woods, as the RV pads are pretty close together, and very popular this time of year, and one of the reasons I like to camp is to get away from people, technology, noise, etc. I tried to pick a site that I thought was as secluded as I could get, and the staff told me it was a humdinger for a tent. Right. Not only was I near RVs and campers, I was on a hill made of rock or stone or concrete or diamond or what diamond hopes to be when it gets older and hardens the eff up! The hill was then lightly sprinkled with sand. Everywhere. It was on top of the dead leaves at the site. I really didn't see how bad my conditions were until the sun came up the next day, thankfully. None of this ruined the trip, by the by.

Camp set up just before dark, luckily!

I pulled up to the car parking spot on my pad, and began to feverishly unload the gear. I set a land speed record getting my tarp placed and staked down, which is a feat considering I do remember trying to put a little bit of thought into the location of the tent. I then put the tent up and staked it down, and got the rain fly ready and draped half-assed over the top, for when it got colder. While I still had a sliver of daylight, I went ahead and got my fire bundle ready for the base of my fire, and placed the rest of my kindling and my firewood nearby. By the time I started loading the tent, the light was failing. I managed to get my camp pretty much set by dark, when the temperature started to dip a little.

Fire just beginning to get going.

I waited to start my fire, as I had not brought much firewood, and what I did have was more for a fireplace or fire pit  The logs are more made to smolder and glow red hot, not so much create a roaring fire like I prefer for a campsite, but I didn't really have time to check with the ranger staff about buying any additional logs. I decided to wait to fire it up until I really needed the light and heat, knowing I'd only get 3 or 4 hours out of it total, including the last little dying, pitiful, piddly little fire ember pit deal. No big deal though, I would be ok without a fire for a while. As my eyes adjusted to the dark, I noticed that several of the RVs and campers had Christmas lights strung up nearby, and my neighbors even had a fully decorated and lit tree up! It added a pretty nice air to the site that I would have missed if out in the woods. I also noticed at this time small little "streetlamp" type lights dotted throughout the grounds. One was at the corner of my lot, about 15 yards away from my tent. It was a soft light, not enough to see any detail with, but enough to navigate and see by. Later, the moon came out in force, and it lit up the grounds something awesome. It really was a beautiful night.

The air was great, clean, with just a slight chill and the smell of campfire dotted here and there. It smelled like outside. Oh, yes. I love being outside, I have since I was a kid. Maybe it comes from being Southern, or maybe the way I was raised (which may be the same thing, by the way), or it could be genetics. Ok, those could all be the same, who knows. I took the opportunity to get my sleeping bag and pillow ready, check a few other things, and just sit in my chair quiet for a while. Around this time I noticed that my neighbors were not the "be quiet" types. A grandmother, apparently on her own in adult-land, had 3 grandchildren with her. They were noisy and chaotic, one in particular, who liked to cry, scream, wail, and shout every time something did not go 100% his way. To make matter's worse, the granny was not very good at reeling things in, offering only a half-hearted attempt to get the kid to be quiet or behave. Her words always, no matter what she said, had the tone of someone lazily saying "laa daaaa daaaaaaaa" as if they could not be bothered to care at all about what they were saying. "Don't do that." "Go inside." "Put that down." I almost let this ruin my night.

Fire dying down.

Once I needed to put on a pullover fleece, I decided to get my fire going, around 7pm, and after that cook my dinner. I had a bit of trouble getting the fire to take, as some of the kindling was damp, and as I discovered later, dew and condensation was beginning to form like mad on everything. My tent was covered by 8pm. It sounded like light rain around 5am due to the water collecting and dripping from trees, tents, campers, etc. Once I got the fire going, and had nursed it to a decent blaze, I decided to eat. I tried one of those freeze dried lasagna in a bag meals for the first time. It was much easier than I thought it would be, and was piping hot when I started to eat, and for a good while after that. My only complaint was the amount of water needed to re-hydrate the meal made it ultra-soupy. Overall, I was impressed and will be eating more freeze dried meals in the future. My biggest turn off with these up to this point was weight. You save tons of weight going freeze dried, except that you now have to carry two cups extra water for every dinner. I think you either break even or maybe come in on the heavy side with freeze dried victuals , due to the water weight. Ha. Water weight. Ahhhhh.

It really was dying, as the flash shows here.

I spent the rest of the evening just relaxing by the fire, taking in the air. Or trying to, anyway. There was a large group of unsupervised children around 200 yards away from me that were screaming as though they were having their legs fed into a wood chipper all evening long. Little girls, with that distinctive, glass breaking, high-pitched scream until the lungs have no more air were going at it like they were getting paid in ponies. Little boys were whooping and yelling. And somewhere, a group of irresponsible adults who were letting these hellions run amok were not aware of how lucky they were that I didn't have a night vision scope and silencer. I watched the fire slowly die down, and decided to try to hit the sack around 10pm and watch the last of the fire through the window in my tent. By around 10:30 I know I was nodding off, and I closed the window and called it a night. I slept fairly well, only waking up when the arm I was laying on began to hurt or go numb, which happened more often than I'd like. Yelling kids, the same distant ones from the night before, woke me up around 7:30, despite my alarm set for 9am. I tried in vain to roll over, cover my head with my sleeping bag, and ignore the ruckus, but soon the "local" kids were back at it, riding scooters and bikes and just having a time of making the place a zoo.

I begrudgingly crawled out of my sleeping bag, put my contact lenses back in, and unzipped the tent door to a bright day. It had already warmed up to the point that I no longer needed the fleece I was still wearing. I slowly got my things together to make my cup of coffee, and realized what a mess my site was. My tarp, which I place under my tent and makes me a sort of "porch" at the front, was covered in mud and gritty sand. My tent was dripping wet and covered in ants. My chair was sitting in a big dirt patch. I tried to find clean places to set things down, and realized pretty quick that I need to bite the bullet and invest in a camping table. I got the coffee made without spilling anything or scalding my skin off, and had breakfast. After I got everything cleaned up and put away, I decided to check out some of the area that I had missed in my hurry to set up camp the afternoon before, and give my tent and tarp a chance to dry out.

View of the island from my site.

It turns out that there was a pier right across from my lot, going out to a little island with a picnic table on it. I made my way slowly down the pier, looking at the lake bed the whole way. The water was very, very low, possibly 4 to 6 feet low from the look of it. The island was a tiny spit of land, nice enough, but covered in goose shit. The geese had been cutting up a bit at night, and most of the morning. It seemed like this island was their little spot to congregate. Just to the left of where the pier was, in relation to my spot, was a playground of sorts. It had mostly wooden structures for kids to climb on, but looked interesting. I decided to head back, break camp, and go by the primitive sites before leaving the park. I also was getting a serious craving for either another cup of coffee or a Mountain Dew, and I cut out almost all soda about a year ago. I'll drink one every now and again. I decided to forego the coffee, snapped a few photos of the camp site, and packed up.

I drove out to the primitive campground, and got out of the truck to walk in and take a look around. This is where I wish I had camped. Most of the spots were 50 to 100 yards away from the nearest RV pads, and were great spots for tent camping. The place was deserted, I only found one family in a tiny little corner nook, almost hidden by underbrush, near the opposite end of the loop. When I go back, this is where I plan to dig in. There was plenty of kindling and scrub to be used as tinder, nice flat grassy spots to pitch a tent, and you can even drive your vehicle in and right up to your spot, which is handy if you are hauling a bit of gear or need access to a vehicle quickly. After getting a good look around, I went back to the truck, and made a quick pass through again to make sure I could maneuver around well in there.

I made a leisurely drive back home, reflecting over the trip, with a little low volume ZZ Top coming from the cd player for background fill. Looking back on it then, as I do now, it was a great trip. Sure, there were little issues, but none were enough to spoil my night. I felt pretty good, despite being awful sore from being out of shape and all the stooping and bending and squatting I did at the camp site. I hope like hell I get to make more trips this year. Camping really is a way to get away from it all and recharge your batteries. You might want to get out there and give it a try. Some people don't like "roughing it" and prefer to be cozy. If tent camping isn't for you, consider renting a cabin or cottage. Maybe an RV or pull behind camper is more your style. There are lots of ways to enjoy spending the night in the outdoors, some are just more outdoor than others.

Campsite.

Another view, including fire pit.

Playground.

Good view of tent and mess on the tarp!

-Owen