CAMPING 101

For a few days each year, I get to go camping. Being an earthy kinda girl, it is something I love to do. 

For the first time in 20 years, it was a no-kid trip, only Sheldon and I. This made for a different dynamic but the basics do not really change. So here is camping 101, especially for the earthy type!

If you want to pack it in, you can bring it. This trip was a nice meander a little over an hour to the site with no portages so you bet we packed it in. 

Including this monster of a mattress, which was a bugger to blow up without a pump but pretty darn cushy. We are over 50 now, ya know. 

 Neither do we starve. Fresh salmon and a big fat angus rib-eye to share for our supper meals. Food always tastes better outside over a fire! 

It is strongly suggested to hang your food and garbage up before bed. This amuses the raccoons at night and hopefully distracts the bears from the tasty prewrapped humans-in-a-blanket sleeping in the nearby tent!

We always go for a good long hike to enjoy the beautiful scenery. This time however, we left the bug spray at the campsite. A big faux pas indeed. Just picture Pigpen from the Peanuts with the swarm of bugs around him - that would be pretty accurate. On occasion I would yell out to Sheldon "Left forearm!" or "right shoulder!" so he could actually smack a dozen off or so. 

This is the red beacon that I follow. As most of you know, I have no sense of direction. So I just follow the red beacon that will eventually lead me out of the woods.

See this lake? Billions of people on this earth. But only 2 at this lake. You can bet I took advantage of that and went vimming. Why pack out a wet bathing suit when you don't need to wear it at all? Again, this was a no-kid trip so clothing was pretty optional. 

Finally, if a tree falls in a forest, it makes a heck of a lot of noise, just to clear up that myth. Sheldon and I were sitting at our site  staring at the water when there was this cracking noise. Then BANG, BOOM, CRACK, CRASH!! 

"What was that?!?" I asked Sheldon. I'm thinking a woodland troll or mountain ogre bearing down on us, because I read J.R. Tolkien and stuff like that when I'm camping. He calmly explained it was a tree falling in the forest. Now I know what it sounds like! Sounds a lot like a woodland troll or mountain ogre!

So that's it. If you are not a camper, you now have the basics: proper gear, bug spray, what to eat and where to put it, vimming for you earthy types, and a myth busted.