4. S’mores are overrated. For hot dogs, Substitute brats grilled in beer with sautéed onions and bell peppers. Canned chili with Mac and cheese mixed in is also a favorite.
5. Camping in the southwest, anything with skin-walkers. From Wikipedia: In Navajo culture, a skin-walker (Navajo: yee naaldlooshii) is a type of harmful witch who has the ability to turn into, possess, or disguise themselves as an animal.
I might have had an encounter with one while backpacking in the San Juan wilderness. I was leading a group of 10ish campers with another counselor. I was hiking in-front and like 100ft away I see this hippy type young dude with a keva sun hat and chacos. He is picking and eating raspberry’s. He doesn’t look at us and just starts running down the trail. The trail turned were he was so I couldn’t see him until I got to that point. I thought “well that guy must like his privacy... or he is paranoid and on shrooms.” I got to the spot where he ran and It was a long straight-away. I didn’t see him so I thought he had just ducked off the trail back to his camp or something. The trail was fresh from a light rain the previous night, so all I saw were his Chaco footprints. The thing is the footprints kept going on the trail. There is no way I wouldn’t have seen him if he kept on the trail running once I reached the turn. But there they were and kept on going......I was getting spooked. I kid you not abruptly with the same stride they turned into dog or wolf prints. I asked, and no one else in my group saw him originally or during the hike. My group just thought I was just laying the foundation of a crazy scary encounter for them in the middle of the night.
I was tempted, but there was no way in hell I was planning to leave the tarp that night.
S'mores are overrated, bold statement, my friend. Brats with onions and peppers sound really good. I'm not sure about the mac and chili combo, I might try it.
Dude, I would tell the kids that skin walker story except I don't want them to have nightmares. I'll have to run it by Diana because I know that at least Emilio's imagination will run wild with a story like that.
Kudos for doing the hard things, fam! Just enduring the (cold) uncomfortable is no joke. I've done camping in the back of my diy camper/pickup and learned alot about cold & sleep. One really helpful tip is those little hot hands. I put on a loose bulky sock (wool is great) and lay a hot hands across my toes. A looser sock goes over it to hold in place. And, if your extremities are warm, you are warm. They're about a buck and last 6-8 hrs.
Hot Hands are an essential now. I took my oldest camping in November of last year and those things saved us, together with reflectix insulation on the floor and hot water bottles inside our bags.
We grew up tent camping and had a very similar experience when I was young - except it was rain pooling in the bottom of the “water-sealed” tent rather than freezing cold. We packed up that trip around 5 or 6am but had many many more, and I’m counting down the days until the weather is cool enough to try something with the girls, even if it’s a cabin situation rather than a tent. We’ll see what works!
I love it 😍 a few years back we did three or four years of our annual Texas Archaeologist Socirty field school - camping out somewhere in Texas and doing 5 or 6 hours of digging in the mornings. Hotter than Hades in Texas in June but an incredible experience. The last year I went was before we got married, il in Palo Duro Canyon state park, and it was an absolute blast.
I think what would get me would be the humidity more than the heat. I went camping at Rio Hondo one summer and I think the only reason I didn't mind the heat and humidity was because I was thirteen LOL
Feel free to use that one!
4. S’mores are overrated. For hot dogs, Substitute brats grilled in beer with sautéed onions and bell peppers. Canned chili with Mac and cheese mixed in is also a favorite.
5. Camping in the southwest, anything with skin-walkers. From Wikipedia: In Navajo culture, a skin-walker (Navajo: yee naaldlooshii) is a type of harmful witch who has the ability to turn into, possess, or disguise themselves as an animal.
I might have had an encounter with one while backpacking in the San Juan wilderness. I was leading a group of 10ish campers with another counselor. I was hiking in-front and like 100ft away I see this hippy type young dude with a keva sun hat and chacos. He is picking and eating raspberry’s. He doesn’t look at us and just starts running down the trail. The trail turned were he was so I couldn’t see him until I got to that point. I thought “well that guy must like his privacy... or he is paranoid and on shrooms.” I got to the spot where he ran and It was a long straight-away. I didn’t see him so I thought he had just ducked off the trail back to his camp or something. The trail was fresh from a light rain the previous night, so all I saw were his Chaco footprints. The thing is the footprints kept going on the trail. There is no way I wouldn’t have seen him if he kept on the trail running once I reached the turn. But there they were and kept on going......I was getting spooked. I kid you not abruptly with the same stride they turned into dog or wolf prints. I asked, and no one else in my group saw him originally or during the hike. My group just thought I was just laying the foundation of a crazy scary encounter for them in the middle of the night.
I was tempted, but there was no way in hell I was planning to leave the tarp that night.
S'mores are overrated, bold statement, my friend. Brats with onions and peppers sound really good. I'm not sure about the mac and chili combo, I might try it.
Dude, I would tell the kids that skin walker story except I don't want them to have nightmares. I'll have to run it by Diana because I know that at least Emilio's imagination will run wild with a story like that.
Kudos for doing the hard things, fam! Just enduring the (cold) uncomfortable is no joke. I've done camping in the back of my diy camper/pickup and learned alot about cold & sleep. One really helpful tip is those little hot hands. I put on a loose bulky sock (wool is great) and lay a hot hands across my toes. A looser sock goes over it to hold in place. And, if your extremities are warm, you are warm. They're about a buck and last 6-8 hrs.
Can't wait for your next adventure, Walther!
Hot Hands are an essential now. I took my oldest camping in November of last year and those things saved us, together with reflectix insulation on the floor and hot water bottles inside our bags.
Yep, it sure is a learning curve but worth it.
We grew up tent camping and had a very similar experience when I was young - except it was rain pooling in the bottom of the “water-sealed” tent rather than freezing cold. We packed up that trip around 5 or 6am but had many many more, and I’m counting down the days until the weather is cool enough to try something with the girls, even if it’s a cabin situation rather than a tent. We’ll see what works!
I'll take being cold and dry over being cold and wet any day of the week, that's rough! I'm glad to hear you don't hate camping today hehe.
I love it 😍 a few years back we did three or four years of our annual Texas Archaeologist Socirty field school - camping out somewhere in Texas and doing 5 or 6 hours of digging in the mornings. Hotter than Hades in Texas in June but an incredible experience. The last year I went was before we got married, il in Palo Duro Canyon state park, and it was an absolute blast.
I think what would get me would be the humidity more than the heat. I went camping at Rio Hondo one summer and I think the only reason I didn't mind the heat and humidity was because I was thirteen LOL