I <3 Camping

I just got back form a beginner backpacking trip with the Boy Scouts. It was fun. First off, we got to carry a heavy pack up a hill. There were many toads and millipedes. I think they liked it because they had many mosquitoes to eat. We didn't eat mosquitoes, though. We ate apples and crackers and cheese. Then we slept, amid the noises of the night (crickets, toads and scouts).

I slept like a baby (I woke up every two hours and cried). I woke up at 6 AM, dug the rocks out of my spine and got up. The boys were eagerly cooking breakfast on tiny camp stoves. These stoves put out an amazing amount of heat, but only heat a spot the size of a quarter, which makes cooking pancakes interesting.

After breakfast we started out on our trek. It was only 5 miles, but what they didn't tell us was that was the vertical distance we would travel. We saw mines, waterfalls, and hill tops. For wildlife we saw ticks, a large black snake, ticks, toads, ticks, hawks, ticks and ticks. There were many ticks. It was raining ticks. we had lunch on top of a hill then hiked more valleys and hills. Because of the ticks, I was wearing long pants, despite the 80 degree heat. I discovered new places to sweat from.

Finally we got back and started on the dinner planning. We had a delicious tomato and lentil stew, and built a roaring campfire around which to sit. There were no mosquitoes the second night. I think it was either because we stunk so much from the hike even they couldn't stand us or because they figured the ticks got all our blood already.

We did have a raccoon visitor we named "Chuck". Chuck the Raccoon says "Hey kids! Remember to leave food and dirty dishes out for me".

Sleep hit me like a ton of ticks - er, bricks. I woke at 6 AM again and climbed out of my tent to see a bear! Not in our campsite but at the one directly across the trail! We all talked about it as we made breakfast and ate. After a while he started coming to our site despite the fact that we were still there! I guess he wanted to see what food we were going to leave. We took the food, but left in a hurry. I guess he'll have to survive on ticks and mosquitoes.

After a million hour drive, we got home, where we got to set up the tent again to clean it out, unpack the backpacks, do laundry etc.

I love camping!

Posted in: backpacking,bears,boy scouts,camping,hiking,ticks