Share some of your favorite camping stories

[thoer]

I think I need refuge and some positive fun here somehow.... let's try this. The stories don't have to necessarily be positive but, well you know....

[thoer]

Ok, in 1973 two friends and I left from the University of Illinois in November. We wanted to get to warm weather as soon as possible so we went mostly south. The first night we stopped at a park in Missouri, spread our sleeping bags out on the ground and went to sleep. Sometime in the middle of the night I was awoke by some noise, looked around and found about 5-6 skunks scurrying around the site and sniffing my sleeping bag. I slowly pulled the bag over my head, somehow feel back asleep and was amazed to wake up the next morning not smelling of skunk. Good thing 'cause we didn't have a stock of tomato juice on our gear.

[Losangeles]

Years ago while I was trying to convince my wife that we should buy a Casita, we rented a tiny teardrop trailer for a weekend. (just to try it out)

Our daughter was very small, and my wife wisely said "you should bring a tent, just in case the teardrop trailer is too small"

She was right..... so I ended up outside, sleeping in the tent.

About 4 am wild turkeys invaded the campsite, and were 'gobbling' all around my head. I thought I was dreaming!

They finally wandered off, and I got back to sleep..... next up, at about 5 am, were the wild pigs who wandered thru the campsite, snorting and sniffing at everything....

Needless to say I increased my efforts to convince her that we should get a Casita.....

[emers382]

In the vein of Eric's story about not getting skunked, the following experience was not favourite but certainly memorable.

Back in the late 80's when we lived in Thunder Bay and my sister and family in Winnipeg we decided to meet each summer at Rushing River Prov. Park near Kenora in far northwest ON. We had enjoyed the previous year's get together

One night this second year, we had a terrible storm We had our new to us 13 ft. sticky, our boys were sleeping in a tent, my sister and family in a tent in next site. The wind and rain were so harsh the boys got soaked out of the tent, the trailer bounced around, Beth was afraid it was going to roll down the rocky hill right behind us. Meanwhile my brother in law was standing inside their tent trying to keep it from blowing away.

We got up in the morning to discover we'd actually had a tornado, many trees down, on trailers, blocking vehicles into their site, etc. Six miles away at a bible camp a six year old boy was killed when a tree fell on his tent.

We felt pretty blessed to not be hurt and no damage to our equipment

Adrian

[thoer]

Wow - Adrian, I was going to share my Northern CA rainstorm night that pulled the stakes out of the mud soaked ground, dropping the pup tent end onto our faces about 10 times one night - but a tornado!

Very glad you and your crew were unscathed.

[cpaharley2008]

We drove to Indiana in February 2007 to pick up a new toy hauler for my Harley. Returning home we stopped in Ohio of the night and guess what, no heat. It had 2 bunks and a small kitchen, but no heat. Franklin crawled inside our sleeping bag because there was frost on the floor. Next day we stopped at Walmart and bought an electric heater. All was good then.

[MyronL]

Ok so we’re going back to in the day, pre-trailer, when tents were it.

Every June after school was out my best bud and I would break out and go north. One year we took our younger brothers with us, up into Nova Scotia. We had two tents between us, the square Coleman for them, and my army issue shelter halves, for us. You make a rudimentary field tent for two by connecting two shelter halves together. I also had two army issue air mattresses. They did not. The larger Coleman had a sewn in “waterproof” floor.

We made camp outside Halifax and noticed there were train tracks about 40 feet from our spot. It was a commercial campground beside a lake, with nice swimming. That night, after steaks and many Labat 50’s we were sound asleep-exhausted when, late, I awoke, conscious of a strange, odd growing sound outside the tent, getting closer and closer. And there was this blinding, brilliant light, so strange, getting larger. This deafening roar reached frightening decibel levels, was about to ram over us, straight into our tent, then rushed screaming past, just missing the kill. Unforgettable.

Of course, it was a freight train. I was still awake that night when a sudden rainstorm then hit. So intense we turned a flashlight on to watch a stream of water passing through the tent. The air mattresses kept us high and dry. There was then a scurrying and cursing about coming from the Coleman, and our camping buddies spent the remainder of the night sleeping in the station wagon. Next morning we found a Laundromat to dry out their bags.

[Bobbie54]

Both of my tent stories are with one of my younger sisters, Betsy. First- I was hiking the Wonderland Trail (Mt. Rainier) and my sister came along for the first leg (from Ipsut Creek). We set up our first camp and crawled in the tent in the afternoon to rest, and heard some noises. A small bear was trying to get into the tent! We chased it off and got up and did a better job caching our food. (No bear cylinders in those days.) Then the ranger came by and told us that he'd been asking to have the bear removed; it was a young one whose mother had died and it would starve to death in the winter anyway. So then my sister felt sorry for it and wanted to feed it! Years later (at least 30) she made a wall hanging for me of a bear and a tent, and it hangs in my trailer.

Second story, also Betsy. I was camping across the country on the way to grad school in NH. We were in North Dakota, planning to camp at a small, free county park. We pulled in and as we were setting up our tent a man started hanging around us. He told us he was camping nearby. We finished setting up and took a walk and saw him not too far away, just sitting on his car hood, no tent, no gear. We got a bad feeling about it, and went back, struck the tent, packed the car up, and drove all night instead. I've never been sorry we made that decision. Paying attention to those feelings is a good thing to do.

[Donna D.]

When I was decades younger I did a lot of backpacking on the Pacific Crest Trail. One long weekend, three of my gal friends and I took off for a long hike in the Sisters Wilderness area. We came across a beautiful lake with a waterfall and decided to setup camp. Being hot and sweaty, we stripped to our birthday suits, grabbed the Ivory Soap and jumped in to "refresh." DANG that water was cold! Moments before we had decided it was time to get out, dry off and build a campfire we heard voices... a lot of voices. Here comes about 30 Boy Scouts and 4 Leaders. Needlessly to say, the young guys got an eye full (and we heard hoots and hollers) as four twenty-something women "jetted" for their towels which were dozens of yards up the beach.


I remember it clearly, just as if it happened yesterday. I wonder if any of the boys do?

[Losangeles]

Originally Posted by Donna D.

When I was decades younger I did a lot of backpacking on the Pacific Crest Trail. One long weekend, three of my gal friends and I took off for a long hike in the Sisters Wilderness area. We came across a beautiful lake with a waterfall and decided to setup camp. Being hot and sweaty, we stripped to our birthday suits, grabbed the Ivory Soap and jumped in to "refresh." DANG that water was cold! Moments before we had decided it was time to get out, dry off and build a campfire we heard voices... a lot of voices. Here comes about 30 Boy Scouts and 4 Leaders. Needlessly to say, the young guys got an eye full (and we heard hoots and hollers) as four twenty-something women "jetted" for their towels which were dozens of yards up the beach.


I remember it clearly, just as if it happened yesterday. I wonder if any of the boys do?

awesome story.

i am SURE they do remember it!!

I'd suggest you watch the movie Inside Out, and then think about how many 'core memories' you gave those 34 people.

[cpaharley2008]

So now we know why Donna hides behind that avatar picture, to retain her anonymity...

[Jim Bennett]

In the past I have done a couple thousand nights of camping, more than half in the backcountry backpacking, ski touring or canoeing.

One of the ones that is well ingrained in my memory is a winter ski trek. Back then we just packed up and went, never looked at forecasts, as all they ever did was discourage going. Well, the overnight lows were -40° (you pick, °C or °F ). Fortunately we built quinzees (snow shelters) to sleep in so temps inside were actually nearer freezing.

Things I discovered;
- Rum at that temperature is a hard slush, thank god we put it in wide mouth nalgenes
- The only way to eat an apple was to smash into bits with a machete and put it in the porridge.
- Firewood splits extremely easy
- You can hold your hands 12" away from hot flames
- And, the hardest substance in the world at -40° is cheddar cheese. Even the machete would barely put a mark in it. Pre-slicing happened on ensuing trips.

[Bluegrouse]

We decided to go for a week long trip on Vancouver Islands West Coast to a very busy provincial campground. Our 19 Escape was getting lots of looks, a couple walked into camp and introduced themselves and the husband had a quick look at it while his wife was talking to mine. When I opened the trailer door I hear " Oh God" he is gonna want one now ! My wife chuckled. The visitors went on about their way, on the way back they stopped and said there was another Escape and it was a 21 ' and that they had spoken and the owners would be down to see us.

Maybe a couple hours later an older gentleman walks into camp smiling and says another Escape. After talking for a bit I mentioned I had an issue with my water pump not wanting to shut off and a possible water leak from under the toilet. He leaves and goes back to his site, awhile later he returns and said his wife said go give that fellow a hand, so Jim came back and explained he was a mechanic on dentist tools and he was here to help. He brought a large funnel with a hose down just in case our tank was low on water which it wasn't but I liked his funnel and hose contraption. He had had a look around and we could not figure it out but made a few funny jokes a few laughs and disappeared. What a nice chap, never got his contact info. If you read this Jim, shoot me a pm !

[Vermilye]

Mine is also back in the tenting days, but is one of the main reasons for getting a trailer. My late wife & I made a 2:00AM distant bathroom run in a huge campground. We were talking (quietly) on the way back to the tent & it suddenly seems like we had been walking an awfully long time - yes, we were lost.

It was an interesting combination of what are we going to do until daylight, should we shine our flashlight on the tents of other people, & giggling at the absurdity of it all, but we eventually found our tent & decided then & there that we needed to find a way to skip the night time bathroom runs!

[rbryan4]

Ok, one camping story I always remember:

Back in the 80s, I was in the military stationed in Arkansas. One long weekend myself and a work buddy decided to go camping along the Buffalo River in NW Arkansas. He'd not done much camping but I loved to backpack into remote spots, tent and sleeping bag attached, etc. Even took a small campstove and some fuel.

We found a beautiful campsite right along the river bank with a cliff on the other side. Once we had cleared away dry leaves, etc from a level area, and had set up our campsite, my buddy decided it was time to build a campfire.

I guess he was having a hard time getting it started so he decided to accelerate the process with Coleman fuel. Just as he was about to start pouring the fuel, I said "watch out, the flame can crawl right up into the can. It did so as I said it. He stood there with his eyes wide as saucers watching the flame flicker in the top of the can. I said "don't throw that can, you'll spread fire all over the campground " -- which he then did.

Now we have a pretty good sized fire all over the area where the fuel splashed. He runs to the river with a bucket to get water to douse the fire. As he reaches the river bank, I holler "watch out for the bank, it's steep and you could fall in". As I said the word in, he does just that.

He comes out of the water soaked from head to toe, and between his water and my stomping and dirt throwing, we managed to get the fire put out before we burned the whole forest down.

At this point I'm having a very hard time stopping myself from laughing hysterically, but I manage to do so. As he sits down across from me at the fire, he announces he doesn't have any dry clothes, because it was only a 2 day trip and he didn't intend to change. I lend him some of my clothes.

Since we didn't have any Coleman fuel anymore, the dinner and breakfast the next morning was done in foil pouches in the fire.

I don't know what the moral of the story is, other than to not take a a greenhorn wilderness camping with you. But, every time I recall this story it still makes me laugh.

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[Greg A]

Originally Posted by Donna D.

When I was decades younger I did a lot of backpacking on the Pacific Crest Trail. One long weekend, three of my gal friends and I took off for a long hike in the Sisters Wilderness area. We came across a beautiful lake with a waterfall and decided to setup camp. Being hot and sweaty, we stripped to our birthday suits, grabbed the Ivory Soap and jumped in to "refresh." DANG that water was cold! Moments before we had decided it was time to get out, dry off and build a campfire we heard voices... a lot of voices. Here comes about 30 Boy Scouts and 4 Leaders. Needlessly to say, the young guys got an eye full (and we heard hoots and hollers) as four twenty-something women "jetted" for their towels which were dozens of yards up the beach.


I remember it clearly, just as if it happened yesterday. I wonder if any of the boys do?

Donna,
If that happened today you'd be a viral You-tube video within the hour! No one would have to remember, we could all watch it.

[Greg A]

In the 80's I'd decided I wanted to go hike the bottom of the Grand Canyon. I got a permit for Horseshoe Mesa for a week and booked 5 of my friends. Over the 6 mos waiting for the trip they all bailed. I went anyway by myself. There are only 2 permits with up to 6 on a permit for 10,000 acres issued back then so there was only a possible 6 other people camping in my 10,000 acres. I spent the whole week down in the solitude of the Canyon with nothing on but my hiking boots.
It was only months later that my friends informed me of all the Japanese tourists on the rim with high power state of the art camera lenses shooting away. We figured I was the star in many Japanese tourist slide shows for years after they got home.

[Dave Walter]

Originally Posted by Donna D.

...Being hot and sweaty, we stripped to our birthday suits, grabbed the Ivory Soap and jumped in to "refresh." ...

Originally Posted by Greg A

...I spent the whole week down in the solitude of the Canyon with nothing on but my hiking boots...

Sounds like some members of this forum will take any and every opportunity to shuck off their clothes!

[rbryan4]

Was thinking the same thing Dave. Bunch of closet nudists! [emoji23]

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[Donna D.]

Unfortunately, my birthday suit has gotten to the point it now needs to be ironed because of the wrinkles. From a distance, I'd look like I had slept in my "clothes"