Stepping outside around 1pm on Saturday afternoon to tie up Thunder I found it to be a beautiful day. It was cloudless and bright. The air had just a hint of crisp fall cold in it. Back inside, jealously looking at hiking pictures of Dartmouth alums along the Appalachian Trail from the “AT In a Day” event, I decided it was time for my own outdoor adventure.
“Kyle, want to go camping?” in a voice that was probably more demanding than questioning.
“Sure,” he less than enthusiastically replied.
A few minutes later our friend Karis stopped by, wanting to go for a walk. I excitedly told her my idea of going camping later instead. Karis agreed to come by after dinner and then we would head out with backpacks and find a place to camp for the night. Around the same time, Kyle ran into our friend Shaun and invited him to go camping as well. The group was set, what a great adventure it would be!
While Kyle read and took care of some things at school, I flitted around the house pulling out all our camping gear. Backpacks. Check. Nalgenes. Check. Sleeping bags. Check. Tent Chck. After about half an hour, all our gear was sitting out in the living room, ready to go.
As 7pm rolled around, our gear was still sitting in a pile on the living room floor and Kyle and I were still in our sweatpants. We heard a knock on the front door, and Karis sauntered in.
“Guys, I camp every night. I live in tent for goodness sake! Why should I go set up a tent somewhere else?” Karis exclaimed.
This was in reference to the fact that Karis lives in a yurt (yes, like the Mongolians had), with a woodstove and no running water. Her observations were correct, it really is just a big tent.
I could tell that Kyle’s enthusiasm had waned as well. “Man, we’re gonna have to take down the tent and walk all the way back here for our bacon, eggs, and hash browns in the morning.”
Then Shaun knocked on our door and walked in, “Hey guys, are we still on for camping?”
“Well….” I said with a long pause, not actually sure what our decision was.
After a bit of chatter, we realized that we were all feeling a bit lazy. So we decided to just go for a walk on the beach and build a bonfire instead.
After walking for about 15 minutes on the beach, we found what looked like a good spot. Unfortunately, as we soon found out, our choice was not the best. To get the driftwood for our fire we had to walk across a small “frozen” section of beach grass. I say “frozen” there because it turned out that the layer of ice was only about ¼ inch thick, and we soon found ourselves broken through the top layer with wet, muddy feet.
All well. Soon we had a roaring bonfire going and were able to warm our feet by it. Shaun passed around hot tea from his thermos. We roasted marshmallows. We ate smores.
After the fire died down, we walked back to town, our cheeks nipped by the cold. We were happy to have gone outside, but joyous that we could sleep inside in nice warm bads. I’d say our lazy “camping” trip turned out quite well.
Looks beautiful and fun, but also very chilly.