When I was a kid my grandparents in New Mexico used to take my brother and me camping a lot. I didn't always appreciate it, what with all the bugs and no shower for days at a time, but I still have fond memories overall. Other than my college orientation when I spent one night in a tent and another night under the stars (I went to a "granola-y" school), I haven't been camping in several years. Until this past weekend.
Sunday Josh and I loaded up my car (and boy was it loaded) and headed to the mountains. After our first choice of campgrounds was full (I'd checked out a book at the library with Virginia camping spots) we drove to Todd Lake, in the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests (why doesn't TJ get a first name?). I think it was a great spot for our first camping experience. We had a picnic table, fire pit, tent pad (which was not padded, just a flattened area of dirt), and water pump just across the road. And one of the best parts, the camp ground had flushing toilets and hot showers!
After getting the tent set up we walked over to the lake, which was pretty small, and then hiked the four-mile Trimble Mountain trail. Pretty much the whole loop was uphill (he he). We sang to keep potential bears away, starting with patriotic songs for the 4th of July and ending with Disney tunes and Josh scatting when we couldn't come up with anything else to sing. Josh was quite the task master and forced us to sing everything to an uptempo marching beat (which worked well for the patriotic songs but required some artistic license for the Disney tunes) in order to keep moving up the mountain.
Once the hike was over we were more than ready for a swim, so we put on our suits and went back to the lake for a dip. Then we read on the sandy beach (in the shade) for a while. By then we were getting hungry so we went back to camp, took showers, and made dinner. My Aunt Judy lent us her camping stove, and with it we cooked hot dogs, beans, and green beans. Then we had to eat the beans out of the pot and cut Sobe bottles to make cups for the green beans because we forgot to bring the paper plates and plastic ware we'd set aside (doh!). It worked though.
After dinner we played Yahtzee, then we made a fire and roasted marshmallows. I love roasted marshmallows.
We slept
okay, considering the raised alertness to scary forest predators and the hard ground (blankets don't cut it for padding, I'm getting a sleeping pad next time). I ended up sleeping in quite a bit in the morning, which wasn't my original intent because I looked forward to sitting outside reading. Oh well. When we finally got up we packed up the tent and then made breakfast: fancy scrambled eggs (fancy because they included onion, green pepper, cheese, and a little steak), bananas, and juice. Once again we ate right out of the skillet. After dishes and packing up the rest of camp, we were gone by 11:30.
So yes, we only camped one night, but it's a start, and hopefully we can go again this season.
Since we still had lots of our holiday from work left, we drove over to the Luray Caverns. There was a long line in the hot sun, but we endured and toured the place, including the history and car museums that came with our admission tickets to the caverns. Then we took Skyline Drive through the Shenandoah National Forest most of the way back home.
There were no fireworks, but it was a great 4th of July weekend.
