(Inspired by last week’s This American Life: “Notes on camp”)
Summertime, summertime,
sum-sum-summertime…
When a (not so?) young person’s thoughts turn towards the great outdoors.
Anyone going camping this summer? Where are you going? Got any camping stories? Tales told around the campfire? Here’s you’re chance to share.
The TAL episode reminded me of my time at Camp Cuyamaca in the mountains east of San Diego. I didn’t really get into it for some reason. I did pretty good in archery, but that was about it. I got busted for using my flashlight after lights out. They confiscated the special flashlight I had brought just for camp. That really sucked, I’ll tell you.
I can’t go camping this year because of practical considerations (like a car… and a driver’s license…) but next summer I should have them, so I’m hoping to start small with road trips, hanging out at the day use areas (there’s some real nice ones around here that Dad would take us to as kids).
Lots of good memories though. Camping with Dad and family friends, all 6 of us like one big family. Me torturing the boys (and vice versa). Best one was the summer we all got super soakers. We get to the campground and Dad pulls them out. All of us take off with them to the lake and hardly left the lake the entire weekend. (I got such a bad burn and sun/heat stroke too but man that was the best weekend.)
Then there was summer camp. The first one was a revelation about myself (a 5 day hike in Kananaskis would be a revelation about anyone), the other one I went to was a lot more fun. Running around outdoors, swimming every day, campfire every night, one day out of the week designated as a ‘game day’ and the theme depended on what was big that year (Olympics and Survivor for example) and there would always be a mud pit.
I’ve seen pictures from more recent years that look exactly like pictures of past years on the same except the people were different. People caked with mud, head to toe, and then floating down the river. Then there was the year we played fish volleyball, where the volleyball was a fish.
I miss it, and I plan to send my son there when he gets older. Just as I can’t wait until I have a car and can take my son camping myself.
I did an overnight at Merrick State Park (Wisconsin). Managed to get a shore site. Kinda rocky, but still better than loading the kayak on the car, go to boat launch, unload boat, paddle, load kayak back on car routine. It was a spur of the moment decision. Actually the park is close enough for a day trip, but I felt like camping.
I plan on doing some more, since I got a Wisconsin park sticker for Christmas. But all the popular parks are booked months in advance.
I plan on doing “Tour da U.P” which is a supported (they haul your luggage) bike tour. This year we will be at Porcupine Mts State Park (Michigan) 2 nights and Lake Gogebic State Park one night (the remaining night will probably be at a school field)
I only did “summer camp” once, as part of a sixth grade trip. I had fun though I did get sick. Did plenty of camping with the family as a youngster. I remember swimming and hiking and campfires and food. It was the only time we got fancy cereal like Fruit Loops (in those little boxes). I also remeber “bull’s eyes” (take a piece of bread, cut a hole in it with a cup, put egg in center. Fry bread + egg)
My camping this year and last has proven that food while camping tastes better.
I just did a 4 day hiking/backpacking/fishing trip in the Flat Tops Wilderness Area in Colorado the first weekend of this month.
The first day was pretty tough because we gained about 1100 feet of elevation in the first mile, starting at about 9700 feet. Being a Midwesterner, I am used to oxygen in my air. That coupled with my pack being much heavier than I what I carried on my training hikes made that first mile pretty tough, but it was better after that.
It was a great trip, hiked about 12 miles total, experienced some great trout fishing amid gorgeous scenery, and cleaned my system out with some mountain air and exercise.
My husband and I go just about once every 2 months or so.
Our most recent trips include Samuel P. Taylor Park in Marin in February, Big Sur, Monterey in April, and Yosemite for a week last month. We’ll probably be going for another few days in the next couple of weeks. We do a lot of hiking, swimming, canoeing, star gazing, and just plain lounging. Love it. We used to have our gaggle of children with us, but lately it’s just been the 2 of us (and friends.)
I’ve only ever done the group youth camping thing once, in 7th grade. Went with the Girl Scouts to some camp in Northern New Jersey. It was alright I guess, but I didn’t love it.
I did 10 days in OK/TX/NM last March, and in August I’m going to Rocky Mountain NP to camp. Then I’m going to swing by Devil’s Tower WY on the way home.
We just got back from camping at 1) Indian Line campground in Brampton/Metro Toronto and 2) the KOA campground in St. Phillipe, 20 miles south of Montreal. The weather was good, and the KOA was a nice place. Indian Line was not as nice, but better than shelling out $120/night to stay in a hotel.
I love camping. I grew up going for at least a couple of weeks each year, and I’ve continued that with my children, although they don’t go on every trip I do (they’re in school during hunting season.)
I have a ton of equipment, and it all lives in my trailer so all I have to do is pack some food and clothes and go. I mostly stick to the Sierra Nevadas, just outside of Yosemite these days, but now that the kids are getting a little bigger, I’d like to take some longer trips and explore the west a little more.
Jus’ got back from backpacking in the St. Croix State Park in Hinckley, MN this past weekend.
Thursday night was gorgeous. Friday’s & Saturday’s hike (just 13 miles), on the other hand…
[ul]120+ woodticks (each) [/ul]
[ul]chiggers galore (24 bites on the left leg, 15 on the right) [/ul]
[ul]90-92 degree temperature [/ul]
[ul]90-95 % humidity [/ul]
[ul]Heat rash [/ul]
[ul]minor case of heat exhaustion [/ul]
Can’t wait to do it again next month! I’m packing a flamethrower!
We took the dogs to the beach in May. We camped at the campground on Jekyll Island, on the Georgia coast. It was the first time we’d taken both dogs with us to the beach, and the first time we camped down there.
It was fine! My husband was a little apprehensive about camping (no AC, no ESPN, bugs), but he handled it all well. We were only out 2 nights, and while it rained a little the day we left, it wasn’t bad at all.
One disappointment: no campfires. That was when there were fires in south GA, and the campground folks were taking no chances on burning up the island. But we had a stove and lanterns, so no real problem.
However, we both came home with ticks. And we weren’t even really in the woods. Jeezopete.
Going this weekend for the first trip of the season. Beach camping in southern MD. Going out on a friends boat during the day as well. The weather’s supposed to be fantastic; should be great!!
Have you been there before? The KOA right at the entrance is really nice. They have primitive spots right along the the river, and clean, hot showers. As an added bonus, they show “Close Encounters” every night at a small outdoor theater.
I love Devil’s Tower. My first time there, there was a hellacious lightning storm in the middle of the night. The Tower lit up with flashes for what seemed like hours. The NPS campground is in amongst some big trees, and the lightning threw spooky shadows all around. One of the coolest night of camping I’ve ever experienced.
No, I haven’t. I’ve been to the Black Hills but never made it to Devils Tower. I watched Close Encounters a few weeks ago and decided to swing by there.
The only problem I have with KOAs is they’re too expensive - $26 for a tent site! If I had kids or something, maybe I’d go to one, but I look for cheaper camping.
I’m going to Yellowstone Park in one week. I have not been there since 1989. This week is going to be utter torture. I wanna go now!
I had a dream a few days ago that we were on our way, and I could just see the mountains, and I realized that I had forgotten my camera. And all of our clothes–the entire family. I realized I was dreaming at that point, and I still couldn’t wake up!
Food while camping always tastes better! Last summer, we tried Breakfast in a Paper Bag. Even that disaster was strangely edible…even delicious!
I always preferred family camping to sleepaway camp, but I enjoyed both.
I’m going to be at a KOA for part of my trip, and I balked at the expense, too…but there’s free wireless internet and a pool, and it’s cheaper than a hotel.
Last weekend my eldest & I had a fun camping trip to Calvert Cliffs in Md.
The Good:
1/2 mile hike to a secluded beach where you can gather fossils & shells. (Bring water shoes or sandals unless the bottoms of your feet are hardened steel)
Bringing a camp chair down made the day much nicer.
Good kids, good friends, much sharing of provisions made for a wonderful trip
The Bad:
Ticks galore and Cutters lasted 2 hours, not the can’s promise of 8.
Feral HS kids from a Church Youth Retreat at a neighboring site*.
(*We had unknowingly pitched tents at the side of a common field bordering our site. Field was a football field in length; we took about 3 yards of sideline up lengthwise. The church youth group came a day later & started using the common field for soccer. If they had granted us any distance/courtesy, we’d have been OK with it. Instead the Jack Chic Youth played full field, running & passing around our tents & gear. We asked them to stop, they ignored us. We waited until nightfall & thought they’d go back to Hell/Bible study when they lost daylight but No. These minions from the 700th club level of Hell brought out glow-sticks, marked the sidelines of the field, and kept on playing!!! Never in a camping trip had I ever wanted to impart so much rock-salt wisdom as I did at midnight that night with them still running what seemed like laps around my tent.
I got up at 5AM and noticed a group of them preparing to gather again. I also noticed a sign at the edge of the field: “Alternate Parking Area”. So, I grabbed my keys, left my primo parking spot and parked alternately in the center of the common field but close to my tent. It was leaving day and it helped me load my car, but the hateful stares of the Hell Spawn across the road who couldn’t play soccer made it well worth while. Guess for one day they had to interact with their parents and, oh, I dunno… camp…?)
I have a camping trip planned to Carlsbad Caverns NP next month. Just a long weekend, out on a Thursday, back Sunday. Two days ought to be enough time to see a lot of it. I’m hoping to skip across the border to Guadelupe Mountains NP for an afternoon if time permits.
Last year was Yellowstone Park which is always fabulous. We had rain nearly every day and half the nights. That trip pretty much destroyed the tent - I had to get a new one for this year.
Camping is a means to an end for me - just a way to see things affordably. I’m sure I’d be more willing to go camping if I had a simple pop-up trailer - it’s the sleeping on the ground thing that really bugs me about it. I like the hanging around the campfire thing and some of those times, it’s really the tent part that rankles.