Adventures in Camping: We Survived, Barely

Can you fathom that it takes this much crap to spend ONE night out of doors with a family of four.

Well it does.

We were supposed to go to the redwood forest with tall, tall trees that smell amazing, but somehow someone booked the wrong dates at the County park. When we drove up to the kiosk to enter our fantasy destination we were shown this error in our MY reading skills:


(I booked our reservations for August because I am a DUMB ASS. Good thing it was only a 15 minute drive from home.)

Devastated by the error I had made, I was grief-stricken and close to sobbing tears, but my husband Mike made a quick phone call to our friends who have 100 acres of hilltop land between the redwoods and our house. We arranged to camp at their place instead. I mean, how can we not camp when it takes longer to pack the car then it takes to drive to the camp site? We had to do something!

This is the entrance to our wilderness expedition into the oak woodland.

The black oaks were showing various color changes from orange to yellow, gracing our trip with shades of fall.



Here is the view from the top of the ridge where we camped.


Imagine The Sound of Music playing loudly in the background and Julie Andrews singing angel-like as our little family traipsed merrily across the dry grasses on hilltops, hoping that the vegetation did not spontaneously burst into flames during our camping experience.


With a bright pink shirt I was hopeful that I would be visible under any circumstance and not mistaken for a deer and get accidentally shot by hunters.


Then after eating dinner by the fading rays of the sun, we stoked up the campfire for the obligatory smores eating. Ella had to be cut off rather quickly from the fun since she inhaled something like 10 marshmallows almost instantly.


The marshmallows were roasted to perfection. Well, at least perfection in my mind. I can skip the chocolate and just eat toasted sugar for dessert.

Then we slept.

And awoke to find THIS!

Hmmmm. Does anybody know who was prowling around our campsite during the night?

That is the heel of my size 12 foot next to a feline print, softly embedded in the loose dirt. This is the hind foot print of a large yellow cat that came sniffing about the edge of the camp ground. (The top print is a front foot. They are smaller.)


And a set of tracks showing both front and back. I am sure you know who our guest was by now. Yes, it was a mountain lion, possibly a small female, but more likely a juvenile. Since normally mountain lions avoid the smell of people and human camp sites, I would place a bet this was a recently "fledged" juvenile just checking things out for himself.

And here is where you all are supposed to faint in terror.

At 3:00 am, Ella had to climb into the sleeping bag with me and share my spacious cot. So if the jr. mountain lion was really hungry and it was somewhere after 3 am when it came to see us, it would have been in for a real treat. A two for one special. Call me crazy, but I'd camp here again and not think twice about it, just inside the tent. I am not stupid after all. There is safety in numbers.

A morning moment at the campfire after my close shave with teeth and claws. My son is still addicted to his thumb. Some day I am going to coat his fifth digit in hot pepper sauce. Wyatt promised when he turned 5 he would stop sucking his thumb, but said, "Mom, I can't stop it. I just can't do it."


Below is a picture of comforts from home for Ella with her blanket and not so comforting experimentation with a new tool of destruction for Wyatt at the campground.


What camping trip is complete without a boy and an ax?

Eat your mush boy! We've got some hikin' to do!!!!

And to prove I don't accidentally blunder into poison oak here is a picture of a little beauty for the Olde Dame herself... but I don't get poison oak anyway so there!

While hiking I saw lichens that I really liked... That's a fungus and an algae teamed up in a symbiotic relationship for their mutual benefit.

The oaks were loaded with little presents for the fall season. These acorns represent new oaken lives just waiting to happen, or not....since most get eaten before they have a chance to germinate and start new trees. The deer ravage the ground beneath the trees once the acorns start to drop.


I think the acorns are like a promise that life will renew it self, someway, somehow, regardless of what we humans do.



Then before we went back to our house, the kids got a turn on the tire swing and screamed instantly to get off because it was too scary. Yes, that is a look of panic on Wyatt's face and Ella was yelling frantically at this point. Since they had been begging us for upward of an hour to ride it and we finally obliged them, they had to endure a couple swings that were unsolicited. Payback is hell.


So another adventure is complete. Now I have to redeem myself and prove I can make reservations for our next trip to the forest. October, that is month 10 I believe...

And I promise Shmo's story finale is next. It's half written already. Yes, Pooba you will have your answers.