New places, new friends and fresh air
- Bob Hanna: Someday
- August 26, 2018
- 1285
We have been wanting to go camping all summer long, but things just kept getting in the way. Finally we just took our own advice and went, so I write from our campsite on the Mohican River near Loudonville.
Camping reminds me so much of hunting. For a camping trip, you spend 40 percent of your time preparing, 20 percent enjoying the trip and 40 percent getting back to normal. Also, just as in a hunting trip, you tend to overpack and take 50 percent more stuff than you will ever use. Taryn and I tend to be gadget oriented both in hunting and camping. Our gear room is stocked with “gotta have this” items.
When you say the word “camping,” it conjures up different opinions, depending on a person’s past experiences. Classification of the word can range from the very stick and tarp tent in your parents’ backyard to the Hyatt on Wheels as I refer to them. So what is it about camping that brings thousands of people to the great outdoors?
When you go “out there” to camp, you need to decide if you’re going primitive, partial or full hookup. Primitive is for the die-hard nature lover who wants to rough it. Among my fondest memories are the trips we made to Canada on the French River as alumni for Round Lake’s Wilderness Camp. We would take about 20 young people, most of whom had never seen the wilderness before.
Primitive also can have its own separate classifications from full backpack mountain camping to finding a grassy spot and setting up your tent. Mosquitoes, snakes, cold hard ground, no running water (except the river), wet sleeping bags, no flushing toilets. Fun, huh?
When you go hunting, this is a class 4, where you need to be in top physical shape to hike and haul everything on your back. The best satisfaction comes from conquering nature and living to tell about it.
Partial hookup is where they provide water and electric but no sewer hookup. You can still rough it but more comfortably. We have a pull-type camper that we bought at a deal because the owner had bought it new three years previously but never used it. It’s small but adequate for just the two of us. Problem is you need the vehicle to tow it, the place to store it, license, insurance and a whole other set of household “necessities.” Good news is heat, air-conditioning, warm dry bed and generally affordable, especially a nice used one.
Then there’s those fortunate enough to afford the fully furnished pop-out rooms, a luxurious condo on wheels. Nice, but you need a parking lot to turn around and someone with truck-driving experience to maneuver them through traffic. I have been in some of these that you just walk in and say, “Wow!”
So what is it that makes camping so fun? Getting away from the normal grind, forgetting for a moment the pressures of day-to-day living, making memories with friends and family, putting down the cellphones and talking to each other, new places, new friends, fresh air, hiking, biking, laughing, loving, the campfires, the s’mores, the hot dogs, the singing, the boating, the kayaking, getting to see nature as God created it. All these things.
This evening as we sat next to the river watching the campfire send its sparks upward into the sky, I thanked my God for his blessings to allow us to enjoy this moment of peace and solitude in his world.
Thank you God.