![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jazzfishAfter getting poured on over Labor Day you'd think camping would go a little better this time.
The original plan was to go camping at Assateague this weekend, because that's pretty low-stress for camping and the beach is always nice, and it's after Labor Day so the crowds ought to have died down. The first time I did this was for a Boy Scout troop leadership retreat in the middle of Hurricane Andrew, so we had some of our planning sessions holed up in the bathhouse.
Anyway, I was in the middle of lunch on Friday when I got a call from the state park. Between the storms and the hurricanes and the rain and all, the beach had flooded (or was going to flood) rather impressively, so they'd closed the park and cancelled (and refunded) all reservations. Rained out again.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
uilos and I regrouped at home and worked out backup plans. No point in just abandoning the camping idea, we've bought food and packed tents and everything.
So we ended up at Little Bennett Regional Park, south of Frederick, us andtamnonlinear and rislyn and company. We set up our tent, and I was unrolling the new Thermorest ground pad I was borrowing from her, thinking "okay, so i'll need to let this inflate for a bit before i dump the sleeping bag on top of it, and. . . uh. . ."
"Hey, I just figured out why we managed to fit everything in the trunk this time!"
Minor panic.uilos volunteered to drive the hour back home after lunch, to get the sleeping bags (and camp chairs, and change her shoes), which was decent of her. rislyn rounded up firewood and the rest of us wandered along the trails for a couple of hours. Saw some more bright-orange shelf mushrooms (confirmed to be edible after the fact, so next time I'm definitely snagging a few for later cooking), crossed a stream on a fallen log, speculated on the white flowers imprisoned behind chicken wire, and generally had a good walk.
The other two had started the fire by the time we got back, so we had a leisurely several hours of flame-cooked turkey burgers and hot dogs, s'mores, and sitting around talking while the afternoon faded into night.
The next morning I felt Utterly Peopled Out, so I wandered back in the woods, found a log, and stretched out on it for awhile. That was pleasantly relaxing, if also a bit stiffening. Then I had the obligatory camping breakfast of oatmeal (plus tea), and we packed everything up.uilos and tamnonlinear and I had another brief walk through the woods, marveling at spiderwebs and woodpecker holes, and then headed for home and collapsing.
Little Bennett is a great park for car-camping and short hikes. Would go again.
The original plan was to go camping at Assateague this weekend, because that's pretty low-stress for camping and the beach is always nice, and it's after Labor Day so the crowds ought to have died down. The first time I did this was for a Boy Scout troop leadership retreat in the middle of Hurricane Andrew, so we had some of our planning sessions holed up in the bathhouse.
Anyway, I was in the middle of lunch on Friday when I got a call from the state park. Between the storms and the hurricanes and the rain and all, the beach had flooded (or was going to flood) rather impressively, so they'd closed the park and cancelled (and refunded) all reservations. Rained out again.
uilos and I regrouped at home and worked out backup plans. No point in just abandoning the camping idea, we've bought food and packed tents and everything.So we ended up at Little Bennett Regional Park, south of Frederick, us and
tamnonlinear and rislyn and company. We set up our tent, and I was unrolling the new Thermorest ground pad I was borrowing from her, thinking "okay, so i'll need to let this inflate for a bit before i dump the sleeping bag on top of it, and. . . uh. . .""Hey, I just figured out why we managed to fit everything in the trunk this time!"
Minor panic.
uilos volunteered to drive the hour back home after lunch, to get the sleeping bags (and camp chairs, and change her shoes), which was decent of her. rislyn rounded up firewood and the rest of us wandered along the trails for a couple of hours. Saw some more bright-orange shelf mushrooms (confirmed to be edible after the fact, so next time I'm definitely snagging a few for later cooking), crossed a stream on a fallen log, speculated on the white flowers imprisoned behind chicken wire, and generally had a good walk.The other two had started the fire by the time we got back, so we had a leisurely several hours of flame-cooked turkey burgers and hot dogs, s'mores, and sitting around talking while the afternoon faded into night.
The next morning I felt Utterly Peopled Out, so I wandered back in the woods, found a log, and stretched out on it for awhile. That was pleasantly relaxing, if also a bit stiffening. Then I had the obligatory camping breakfast of oatmeal (plus tea), and we packed everything up.
uilos and tamnonlinear and I had another brief walk through the woods, marveling at spiderwebs and woodpecker holes, and then headed for home and collapsing.Little Bennett is a great park for car-camping and short hikes. Would go again.