What a weekend. About all the outdoors I can handle for a while. Seven of us when camping this long weekend. Friday morning we woke up, pack, and got ready to leave. We left around 11:30 in 2 cars. We stopped in New Bethlehem for lunch. When we finally got to Marienville, we stopped to buy a few things and then went to the campsite. We found a plot and setup our tents and equipment. We had dinner and marshmellows and sat around the fire talking for a while. Finally we went to bed, and all the trouble started.

It hadn't been too cold and it was comfortable sleeping 3 of us in my tent... until it started to rain. My tent isn't waterproof and I knew this, but I hadn't really planned for rain. It can hold out for a while, but it rained for close to 15 hours. After a few, enough water had leaked in to soak the part of my sleeping bag that wasn't on the therma-rest (the floor of the tent was a puddle). I moved to the smaller tent that we had left empty. For a while that was drier but it was small and so the places where I touched the wall got very wet. By morning I was soaked as was all my stuff. It was still raining and so in new dry clothes and thick jackets we ate eggs and oatmeal.

Now we had the discussion whether we should stay or go. I expressed my serious disinterest in staying. This was partly because I was the wettest one, with nowhere to sleep the next night, but mostly because I just don't enjoying doing things in the rain, however well prepared. In the end we decided to stay and try and make it work. We went to town to buy some tarps to cover the wet tent and cooking area/table and some dry firewood. We also bought half a bushell of apples. When we got back, I took a nap in the dry van while everyone else set up the tarps. By the time they were done setting up it stopped raining. They all took a hike but I ended up staying at the campsite. I chatted with our neighbors who were surprised that we stayed (they had a camper).

When everyone returned we made a stew for dinner. It was very good. We also made applesauce out of some of the apples. The fire was nice and warm, and some of us stayed there long into the night. I got some pictures of it and of the moon that we could see brightly from the field. Last night I had to sleep in the van since I still didn't have a dry sleeping bag, only a fleece blanket which wasn't that warm.

This morning we had pancakes and a fire with the last of the wood. We packed up and headed home. Other than the trouble with the rain it was a good time with some great friends. Alot of the trip was spent on eating but the food came out really good. It was nice to get away from the world for a while, but it is also night to be back where there is heat.

See pictures from the camping trip