I am…camping

What you see when camping
What you see when camping

We did lots of this when I was growing up. My favorite memory is when I got to sleep on my own inside our one wheel trailer. My dad made a tent over it. Then I grew too big and didn’t fit in it anymore. My brother got to sleep in the trailer next. We went to parks in northern California. Standish-Hickey State Recreation area was our favorite place to camp at. Each day we hiked a long trail down to the North Fork of Eel River to swim and eat lunch. Several years later they put in a road and campsites on the other side of the river which made reaching the river much easier. I read lots of books during those vacations.

When I got married we spent almost every summer camping, hiking and back packing in Yosemite. I like being to be outdoors in the fresh air. In the summer time we would also ride bicycles around the Valley. It wasn’t so much fun over the memorial day weekend in 1980 because of the Mammoth Lake 6.0 earthquake. Rocks were falling off the walls and onto trails and roads. Some of these rocks were the size of pickup trucks. The park actually closed the exit for awhile to clear and make roads safe to travel on. I remember our family riding bicycles to El Capitan meadow as we had another after shock. I was in the lead and thought the car ahead of me was moving. Turns out I was actually seeing the earth rolling up and down from the aftershock. One winter my husband and I cross country skied out to Glacier Point and camped overnight. It was very foggy as we arrived there but during the night I woke to moonlight. Zipped open the VE24 tent to see a full moon over Half Dome. It was a spectacular sight.

I have lots of fond memories from my camping trips. Like singing around the campfire and roasting marshmallows to make smores. Oh, and let’s not forget the smelly stuff I would lather on to stop mosquitoes from biting. This was especially important during a hike to a lake early one spring in Yosemite high country. And then there is sunscreen also lathered on before hiking. I found how important that was one year as I got the back of my ears sun burned on a hike to Water Wheel falls. I had pulled my hair back into a pony tail and neglected to put enough sunscreen on the that area. Very uncomfortable. Lesson learned.

I think the following John Muir quote is so true. “Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out going to the mountains is going home; that wilderness is a necessity…” – John Muir. Here’s to spending time going home. I am…camping. How about you?

Light hearted Quotes on camping:

“Some national parks have long waiting lists for camping reservations. When you have to wait a year to sleep next to a tree, something is wrong.” – George Carlin

Camping is nature’s way of promoting the motel business. – Dave Barry

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