Friday the 13th (July 2012):
We've been planning to take a camping trip for a little while now. We bought an awesome tent last year, never used it. This week-end we decided we were going NO MATTER WHAT.
Since it was a last minute decision we didn't have reservations in a campground and if you know Colorado, you know you can't get a reservation past January (the campgrounds are booked as soon as they become available). I had heard of a nice trail where backpack camping was authorized fairly close to Boulder so we decided we were going there. That was, until an hour before leaving Russell called the rangers and discovered the fire ban was still on in undesignated campgrounds, so we wouldn't be able to have a campfire (1st sign of bad karma). But we had decided nothing would stop us and since it was impossible to call any campground to reserve a spot (where campfires would be allowed), we loaded the car and decided to try a few campgrounds on the road.
As we were getting things ready and pulling stuff out of our storage unit, I twisted my back so badly I ran out of air and had to lay down for 5min before I could move again (2nd sign of bad karma). By then I could barely breath without feeling needles in my back, but we COULD NOT cancel (I should say, Russell was not as stubborn as I was, but I told him I'd be ok).
Russell finished loading the car while I struggled to get the kids ready with a twisted back. At last we were on the road, marveling at the beauty of the scenery along the road. This was going to be a great trip! And it was, until William puked up his entire lunch on himself and his carseat 2 minutes before arriving at the 1st campground. (3rd sign of bad karma).
We cleaned up, used the 2nd set of clean clothes we had for William and continued to the campground. Of course the first campground was full, and so was the 2nd (bad karma again, or just bad planning) Now we had to choose between driving 30min to check if there were spots in another campground or, go back 10min on the same road to the trail where we had first decided to go backpack camping. It meant giving up on the campfire, which was a tough decision but we also knew we'd for sure find a place to camp there. So that's what we did.
Our friends who recommended the place were absolutely right about it. It was a beautiful trail and we found a perfect spot 5min from the beginning of the trail, right next to the creek. We set up, let the kids play in the creek a little and left for dinner (we'd brought hotdogs for dinner but now we didn't have a campfire so we had to change plans). We went to the nearest little town where we found some sort of pub (the only "restaurant" in town). Dinner was crappy and overpriced but nothing could diminish the excitement that we were actually doing it! CAMPING Yay!
The bridge that leads to the trail.
our campsite: you can't really see it but there were logs to sit on and a spot for the campfire (we were not allowed to light sadly), a small clearing for the tent and the creek just a few feet away.
plenty of rocks to throw...
And that's when the battery of my camera died (Karma?)
After dinner we went back to our campsite just before dark and prepared for the night. We played shadows on the tent and let Josh and William play with their flashlights. We were pumped up about the great campsite we'd found, the royal tent, the boys' enthusiasm and the air mattress we were going to sleep on. The boys fell asleep quickly and so did we.
crappy phone pictures...
Now we could stop here and it would have been a decent experience if you omit the twisted back, the fire ban, the wasted time finding a camping spot, the puke, the crappy food... but no that wasn't even half as bad as what happened the rest of the night. At about 11pm, after we'd been sleeping for about an hour, we heard two kids run to our tent in the dark and unzip our front opening while yelling "we need help, we need help! Our Daddy's drunk!"
It was pitch dark and those poor kids were somewhere around 8-9 years old. Their campsite was about 100-200 yards away, so we'd not talked to them or seen them before. Russell went with them and spent the night with them (there were actually 5 kids there!) after their Dad had passed out and I "slept" by myself with Josh and William freaking out for those poor children and unable to call the authorities because we had no phone service anywhere close by.
In the morning the whole group walked near our tent and the children waved at us while their Dad purposely ignored us.
It was pitch dark and those poor kids were somewhere around 8-9 years old. Their campsite was about 100-200 yards away, so we'd not talked to them or seen them before. Russell went with them and spent the night with them (there were actually 5 kids there!) after their Dad had passed out and I "slept" by myself with Josh and William freaking out for those poor children and unable to call the authorities because we had no phone service anywhere close by.
In the morning the whole group walked near our tent and the children waved at us while their Dad purposely ignored us.
And that was our first experience camping as a family!
On the bright side the kids slept really well and had a ton of fun playing in the creek and hiking the next morning.
On the bright side the kids slept really well and had a ton of fun playing in the creek and hiking the next morning.
2nd camping fiasco:
Every year for our July event we do a camp out for the Family Housing. We set out our tents in the field near our apartment and have a fun night eating potluck food from all over the planet, smores and singing songs. The last 2 years I worked here, we didn't have a tent (or had a one week old baby!) so we didn't sleep outside. This year I felt it was my turn to sleep out and I signed up for the shift.
The boys were excited:
Josh had a blast playing soccer with his friend Sammy and a French boy who was here for the summer:
William flirting with Clare (our cute neighbor):
The giant bubble game:
The smores (Don and Sam):
With my neighbor and friends Deanna and Miriam:
Kelly and Emily singing camp songs accompanied by Russ:
Quiet time in the tent:
It was awesome right? Well the night not so much. I woke up around 2am to the sound of a deluge pounding on our tent: the grounds crew had forgotten to cancel the sprinkling cycle for the night and we were right near one of the sprinklers. I got out and people were running around moving their tents and emptying gallons of water from inside their tents. One family (the French family visiting) had set their tent right on top of one of the sprinklers. They were completely soaked. I called emergency maintenance and they sent our grounds guy to turn off the water (30 or 45 min later though!)
I couldn't sleep for at least an hour after that, wondering if people had gone home or if they were still outside, if they'd be super mad in the morning... I was pissed off and exhausted. Turns out when I woke up the next day, most of the campers were still here and seemed to have barely been bothered by the incident. Russell and I however, did not appreciate this second night of camping tragedy.
Only good thing about this is now we know our tent is fully waterproof.
Here are the kids having breakfast in the morning. I think most of them slept through the deluge (except William who woke up screaming but went back to sleep rather easily).
Phew! Let's hope the curse is lifted and we can enjoy some normal camping in the future. Or is there such a thing as "normal camping"?
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