So in mid-September, Jaime and I went on our first camping trip together. It was such a hit that we decided to squeeze in one more camping weekend before Winter set in completely. This ended up being last weekend, when it was scheduled to rain with an average of 40 degrees all weekend. Not surprisingly, most of the usual camping cohorts quickly opted out. With some scheduling changes, we conned — er, convinced — one other couple to join us at the last minute.
After a short, but longer than it should have been, trip to get firewood (note to self: it’s north, not south), we set up camp at Goodenow Grove. We had the tent completely up in 15-20 minutes, much better than the previous time of 30-35 minutes, though to be fair it was pitch black upon arrival for that trip. After a relaxing lunch, the other couple arrived and we went for a hike to take in all of the Fall leaves changing colors (sidebar — where were all the bright reds this year?!). It was the only hike we ended up taking, so now we have an excuse to go back to Goodenow Grove.
As the evening began, we set up the campfire for some grilled chicken and potatoes (yummy!). After dinner, we had some obligatory s’mores as we sat around the fire and chitchatted. Night quickly fell upon us and Jaime announced she was tired and asked what time it was — 7:15. The early sunsets in Winter had fooled us all into thinking it was near a reasonable bedtime!
After a couple of hours, Jaime said we should look for an outlet to blow up the air mattress we brought. Normally, I like “roughing it” when I’m camping, but after last month’s sleeping-on-a-bed-of-walnuts left me in severe pain for a week, I caved. Certainly, there would be power at the camper/pop-up sites. Nope. How about by the bathrooms? Nope. Jaime and I decided to turn our night-walk into an electricity-finding mission. Success! We found a single outlet at the base of the only light pole in the park about a half mile from where we set up camp (tip: it’s next to the Nature Center).
We went back to the campsite to get the air mattress, where I asked if we needed to bring a flashlight to hook up the pump. If you don’t see the flaw in logic here, rest assured no one else did either at the time. See Lessons Learned below for the (now-obvious) flaw. After filling it up, we carried the monstrosity back the half mile through other people’s campsites, which afforded us a lot of strange looks. Did I mention that it was slick and had no handles?? We only dropped it 5-6 times, which I consider a success.
Lessons Learned:
- Get commitments from guests before the weather is forecasted
- Call in advance to see if there is any electricity near the campsites
- If the only power source is in a light post, you DO NOT need to bring a flashlight (doh!)
Sadly, camping season seems to be over for the year, but we know what we need and, more importantly, don’t need for next year! I’ll post news of the big trip coming up soon. We’re also planning a few smaller trips as well. This site is becoming an inspiration to travel even more than we originally planned.