Wednesday, April 06, 2005
Camping Trip from Hell
Several people have been talking about their camping experiences. Kim at Catawumpus tells of their hellish camping trip on the weekend. But these girls were in cabins! Let me tell you about one of my camping trips from HELL.
About 10 years ago, I organized a camping trip with moms and their kids at a Provincial camp grounds about an hour away from Ottawa. There would be about 6 moms with about 14 kids in 6 tents sharing 3 adjacent sites. One of the moms I invited was my sister Dana, with her twins, age about 5, who had never been camping before.
We arrived about an hour before sundown on a Friday night. Those of us who knew how to set up tents went around and helped people get their tents set up. By the time I got to setting up my tent, it was dark, so I turned on my headlights to give me some light. Of course, I couldn’t keep the engine running all this time, so my battery went dead. No big deal, as I had jumper cables.
By the time we had the tents up, it was past 8 pm and we had to feed the kids something before they went to bed. We decided there was no time for a fire that night and we all just crashed. Because we were so tired, and there was a clear, starry sky, we decided not to put tarps up until the morning. Of course, about 4 in the morning, it started pouring, so not only did some of the tents leak, but many things had inadvertently gotten left outside (ie. Not in tent, not in car) and got soaked. This included kids’ clothing bags, boxes of groceries and firewood.
The next morning we had a pleasant surprise besides the soaked items to clean up. It turned out that there was a Native Pow Wow taking place at this campsite this weekend. It was very exciting, and after feeding the kids, cleaning up and getting the tarps set up, we all went for the day and had a great time enjoying the drumming, dancing and food.
For Saturday dinner, everyone pitched in something towards a huge meal and we all had a nice time. We planned for a great campfire, but it started raining right after dinner. Some people went back to their tents to relax, but I was determined to have a fire, so my sister and my friend Eileen with all of our kids had a fire which we enjoyed somewhat while trying to stay under the tarp as it poured. Now this was camping!
Now, my friend Eileen had invited another friend of hers with her children. The only problem is that these people were coming down with the flu and were throwing up all Saturday night. By Sunday morning, many of us, including myself, had fevers, headaches and nausea. These symptoms, combined with the constant sound of drumming from 10 am until 11 pm, caused me to pass out in my tent for the entire day.
That afternoon, my friend Linda’s daughter, Sierra (age about 3) was bitten on the nose by a ferret. Not some wild animal, but a ferret that some other camper had brought as a pet. For the rest of the day, Linda freaked out about rabies and kept worrying about whether or not she should take her child to an emergency room.
Another thing to mention is that this was the summer of the amazing wasp infestation. We had been camping a few times and they were especially bad that year. Because of this, we had to be extra careful with leaving drinks and food out, and we made wasp traps. When we were packing up on Monday morning, I was stung badly on my leg – and had such bad swelling that I couldn’t drive. Luckily, my friend Eileen drove my van home.
The next week, I was talking to my mom about the trip. She told me that my sister’s kids had told her all about it and that it was the best vacation they ever had!
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That is a spectacularly awful camping trip, and I have been on some doozies. The girl who got bit on the nose by the ferret will always have something to say when the conversation lulls at cocktail parties.
Criminy! That is worse than our big 5 days and 6 nights of rain camping trip, followed by the only break in the rain resulting in a serious burn to a boy in the site next to us. Oh yeah. Why am I signing up for more of this this summer?!
Kim of Relaxed Homeskool
Kim of Relaxed Homeskool
# posted by 
: 10:43 p.m.
: 10:43 p.m.
I was already to think I could tell tales of past camping trips to top this... but .. you win... I cry uncle... that was a horrible camping trip :)
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# posted by : 6:36 a.m.
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