Camping at Shawnee National Park in Scioto, Ohio

As promised, my camping adventures from last week!  It was cold, it stormed, I got so bored that I packed up camp at 11pm and came home.  Lesson learned: next time bring people.

All packed up!

Adjustments

Anyone who has ever been on any trip at all knows they call for all sorts of adjustments.  This one was no exception.

First my down comforter, even when compressed in a vacuum bag, took up about three times as much space as I had budgeted. It didn't even fit in my backpack.  At all.  So plan B: bring my large fleece I had with me on my last camping trip.  It only took up the entire main compartment, relegating my Camelbak bladder to its own pack.   *sigh*

Then I got to the address listed online for the backpacking trail only to find that it was actually the address for the camp office, which is of course closed for the winter.  Even with my maps I couldn't find the entrance to the trail head.  I had noticed a gorgeous lake on my drive over, so I quickly gave up on my plan to find the trail head and settled for a spot near the lake, even though they were your typical campsites.  Typical, maybe, but still completely vacant!  Score!

The site

I immediately fell in love with this site: tucked furthest away from the road, I could at least pretend I was in the wilderness.  (With the doors to the bathroom and shower houses -- not 100 meters away -- locked, I may as well have been in the wilderness.)

Step one - clear the deck of all leaves that may be concealing snakes and all sticks that are sure to become increasingly annoying the longer they dig into my hip while I try to sleep.  
Check.

Step two -- eat Dunkin Donuts and drink coffee I brought with me.  The cashier at the gas station donut shop eyed my hatchet and knife hanging off my side and asked "What's with the weapons?"  I matter-of-factly answered "Oh I'm going camping" very dismissively.....and then -- because I am me and can not avoid being awkward -- I added "It's ok, I'm not planning any sort of crazy spree or anything."  Then I ducked my head, poured a ton of sugar in my cup, and bolted out in embarrassment.

Step three -- Set up the tent.  As I mentioned previously, my two-man tent from Target (which is really only big enough for one girl, come on, we like to spread our stuff out!) claims it can be set up in 2 minutes.  I highly doubted its claim, assuming I would take close to twenty or thirty minutes before it resembled something I would trust not to collapse around my ears.  I was pleasantly surprised to find it did indeed take less than ten minutes.

"Outside the box"  --------------------------------- Very much inside of a box
These are the things you find amusing when you're all alone

Adventure in the great wide somewhere

Next came the adventure of accumulating enough firewood.  I had two large piles of different size sticks and found a couple logs left over from previous campers.  While transporting the logs I invented a new workout: log soccer.  At the time I knew it was tiring to roll the log up and down hills using my legs, but had no idea what killer exercise it was until the next day.  Ouch!  If I did that every day I'd be in marathon shape in no time!
The fire itself was a major pain in my ass as well.  Nothing was dry (thank you, Ohio) so all that would burn were the tiny sticks.  I did finally get the fire sustained long enough to cook a few hot dogs and attempt to dry out my socks (more on that later), but I was so bitter toward it that I refused to take a picture of the fire that ate half my matches.

Before I had my fiery fiasco, though, I had taken some time to explore while I still had the sun:  Down at the lake I found all sorts of animal tracks that I think I was able to identify.

Deer?  Lots and lots of deer?

Raccoon?

Human.  Pretty sure of that one.

The lake itself was gorgeous.  The water was green in places and reminded me of the Gulf of Mexico.  Only colder.  Much much colder.  It was so tempting that of course I had to try and hop from one side to the other via the moss-covered rocks jutting out of the shallows.  This is how I managed to soak my socks.  And my jeans.  And my running tights.  But what can I say?  I love rocks!  I love climbing them, jumping on them, throwing them.  When I was little I would even collect them.  Rocks are great.

It's amazing what an iPhone can and can't capture.