The word I would use to describe the conditions that day is "yucky." It was drizzling/raining pretty steadily all day on the day we had planned to go, and it had rained all week, so the ground was also quite muddy. But we had been planning this trip for over a month, so we decided to go for it. A total of seven people loaded up into 3 cars and we caravan-ed it out to George Washington National Forest, only a 30 minute drive away.
Now, for those of you who live under rocks, the government was actually closed for a pretty significant amount of time just recently. Something about a budget issue I think, who knows. Technically in GWNF it is legal to park and camp anywhere, except for in registered campsites where they ask either a fee or a donation for entrance. The government decided not to let anybody into these nice campsites while it was closed. They called it trespassing on federal property. So we showed up at Hone Quarry campsite, only to be deterred by a blockade telling us to go home. Foo.
Our solution: drive approximately one mile down the road and camp there instead.
Yeah, take that government!
We started setting up camp pretty late in the evening, so we had to use the headlights on the cars to illuminate the clearing by the road that we picked to camp at. It was rocky and muddy and there was a ton of tall grass, but we got camp set up and a fire going despite the rain within 12 minutes. We were smart and brought our own firewood.
One of my co-workers is a camping top-chef, and we feasted on pre-cooked chicken sausages, homemade quesodillas, and in the morning....the worlds most satisfying pancakes!
We had a lovely evening braving the rain with our warm campfire, good company, delicious food, and Angry Orchard Hard Cider. Then things took a turn for the worse.
We had thought the rain was going to let up. At least that was what Weather.com had told us. (The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was not reporting the weather that weekend. Thanks again government.) It most certainly did not let up. As a matter of fact, it got heavier.
It started to get cold and we started to get tired, and fortunately our tents have waterproof tarps, so we decided to turn in for the night. My tent was the largest, so my friends Sarah, Richard, Johnny, myself, and Johnny's pooch Piper piled into my tent. It's an old thing, but I do love it. Not sure where it's from, but I've been camping in it since I was a girl scout. We all bundle up and go to sleep.
I wake up some hours later. It's still dark out. The rain seems to be louder on the tarp now. But that's not what woke me up. There's a strange, repetitive sound down by my feet. It sounds like someone is rubbing their finger over a synthetic rain jacket over and over again. I look up and click on the flashlight. It's Piper. She is walking around the perimeter of the inside of the tent....licking the walls. Her tail is wagging like crazy, and as she completes another lap, it whaps me in the face. I'm wondering what the hell is up with this dog, and as I sit up, my head brushes the tent wall, and a trickle of water cascades down my forehead. The tent has soaked through. I scan the floor of the tent, and there doesn't seem to be much water, but there's a small pool starting to collect close to where my feet are. I look over to the other side of the tent, and Sarah and Richard are gone. I reach over Johnny and put my hand down on the floor. There's a quarter inch of water that ends just before Johnny's sleeping bag. The dog circles around again, and I feel she is soaked also.
Good grief.
I wake Johnny up, and we bring the dog's crate in from Johnny's car to keep her dry and warm, and also to keep her from licking the tent all night. Johnny tells me Richard woke him up an hour earlier because he and Sarah got soaked, and they were trying to go sleep in one of the cars to get dry. Since they didn't come back, he imagined they found their way into a car and were fine. We fell back asleep, hoping the tent wouldn't totally flood before morning.
And then morning came.
Brian, semi-soaked.
Poor Piper, stuck in the muddy swamp that is now my tent.
Poor Brittany's nice new canopy got ruined by the rain.
The fire was all but extinguished. One lonesome log was salvageable and still emitting warmth. Thank goodness too, or we would not have had breakfast.
Piper LOVED the mud.
We found Richard and Sarah in Brittany and Matt's car. Both of their sleeping bags had soaked through in the puddle. Brittany cooked us all some grub, and then we loaded up our soggy gear into the trunks of our cars. We were all about ready to get home. Then Brittany realized her car wouldn't start. She had left the headlights on too long to set up camp the night before. Rats.
Fortunately, I had gone to Walmart to buy jumper cables just a few days before, and we got her car running in no time. We all went back to Britt's to hose down our gear and recuperate. It took 3 days for my tent to air out over my balcony.
I love camping. Even when it's miserable, being with the right people and having the right attitude can make all the difference. In my opinion, there is no such thing as a crappy camping trip. Everything that can go wrong might very well go wrong, but we will still find a way to have a good time.
