Asher11
St. Louis MO
New Member
Joined: 09/29/2005
View Profile
 Offline
|
My sister asked me and my girlfriend and the dog to come down to thier campground (about 2.5 hours from home) for the day. Since we only planned on coming down for the day and driving home that evening, we headed out with a cooler, swim suits, and beach towels. So we get there and they spent the rest of the time asking us to stay for the night. I told them we didn't bring anything to camp in and had no extra clothes, tent, etc. Well the weather was absolutely beautiful and I was getting a little tired (didn't feel like driving home). The next thing you know we are taking a ride up to the walmart to but a cheap tent to camp in, well since the weather was so nice I decided to skip any sleeping bags, etc. I figured that the beach towels would act as blankets, and I would roll up my shirt for a pillow.
Sure sounded good at the time....
So we are sitting around the camp fire and see lightening off in the distance, I didn't think anythng of it. We start having a little camp fire party and before you know it the temp started dropping. Well I took off my shirt and gave it to my girlfriend to double up with and I just got a little closer to the fire. Bed time came and I planned on having a nice big towl to cover up with. Well next thing you know is that towel somehow made it under her head as a pillow and the other towel was her blanket.... Here I am lying there on the tents bare floor on my side in a halfmoon position with nothing but some damp swim trunks trying to snuggle up against "miss I took the all towels"... finally I fall asleep (maybe passed out of hypothermia)... Of course I am woken up from lightening, pouring rain, and the dog dancing around in the corner of the tent and the temp dropped to about 50 degrees. I first thought that he got shaken by lightening, but then as my senses started waking up I realized that I had a mini stream running into the tent, against my back and down my leg, and down to where the dog was sleeping.... that poor little guy was standing in about 2" of water and trying to do his best with what he had but it just wasn't working out.... BUT needless to say, "towel girl" was dry, warm, and sleeping since my body was redirecting the river flow around her...
So at that point, I made a decision, it was everyone for themselves, I got out of that tent grabbed the dog and spent the rest of the night in the car... I used my remote start (15 minute timer) and would fire up the car with the heater on full blast and fall asleep just before the engine would automatically shut off.
So long story short the dog and I slept really good the rest of the night, and someone crawled out of that tent the next morning looking like they had been in a bar fight (and lost)... Boy I sure do miss her... LOL...
|
mechmagcn
El Dorado AR USA
Senior Member
Joined: 01/12/2003
View Profile
Offline
|
Our worst tent camping trip was on the Buffalo River in No. Ar. We went to bed with thunder in the west and woke later to find that the water had risen and the only dry land was the very top of the gravel bar we were camped on(the water was just outside the door of the tent). We had to stay there an extra day to wait for the water to go down so it would be safe to get back into the canoe.
When you canoe the lower Buffalo River, there are no landings to take out if things go bad. You have to complete the trip.
Jeff & Donna
99 NU-WA Snowbird 34+2 102 SE 5er "Dawghouse"
71 Mack R600 Toterhome "SuperDawg"
|
puddleduckrv
Virginia
New Member
Joined: 10/07/2005
View Profile
Offline
|
Okay-is everyone ready for a good chuckle??? A few years ago on Memorial day weekend my husband and I in our TT, my cousin & his then GF in a pop-up and my husbands uncle & GM in a 3 room tent. Okay, picture this. We were staying at a campground just outside of Williamsburg, VA...right on the Chickahominy River. Well, those of us in the younger crowd were in the TT drinking and playing Monopoly (yeah, I know). Well, it had been raining hard for about an hour or so, when the TT door burst open and my husbands uncle poked his head in screaming, "The tent collapsed and Mumma is trapped"...After a minute, we all jumped up from the table and ran outside to pull her out...picture this....four adults,slightly intoxicated, barefoot, 2 inches of rain on the ground, lightening, under a tree...trying to get a tent back up, metal poles.........come to find out, the uncle never fully staked the roof down....well DUH!!! Needless to say, we alway's check behind him now. This is a family favorite now.....LOL
Last effort to use the TT!!! Up into the 80's this weekend! How ya' like me now???
|
Gerania
NJ
New Member
Joined: 10/10/2005
View Profile
Offline
|
Biznaga wrote:Mine was more years ago than I wish to remember.
I was in the Army in France on leave with a fellow GI. We went to Italy.
Got into Rome late one night and it was, of course, dark and couldn't find a campground. We did find an open field that looked like a good place just to pitch our then for the night.
Next morning we found we were in the entrance to the city garbage dump. The huge trucks woke us up. We packed prety fast.
It rather remindsme of my dad. He was sent to the midlands of England, near Birmingham (1943?) to a camp that was still forming. You know how it is, set up the mobil hospital, set up the kitchen and the latrines and so on, the housing comes later. He spent much of the fall and winter in an Army tent, in a sea of Army tents in a muddy and sometimes frozen field, rain, fog, cold. He says he's never been that cold again in his entire life.
At the end of the war he had to sign on for 3 extra months as a Department of Defense employee because of a huge paperwork mixup. The Army sent him to Paris, not too bad duty. He and his friend got to the outskirts of town late at night and couldn't find the camp! They wandered around till they found a barn or haystack or the like to fall asleep in. He said it was fine because at least it was warm outside.
|
Central Michigan Mom
Waterford, Michigan
Full Member
Joined: 10/07/2005
View Profile
Offline
|
Well, this one happened quite a few years ago but still remains the worst/best camping trip I ever went on. My two cousins and I decided that we were going to go to the Florida Keys and camp for a week during spring break. We're talking about 3 females between the ages of 18 and 20. So we begin our trip in my cousins Chevy SS, leaving Michigan and heading down to the keys. As we are heading through Kentucky the water pump on my cousins car quits working so we have to pull off of the road and go to a gas station where they charge us a insane amount (according to her dad) to fix the water pump. Remember we are in the middle of the boondocks and have no other option but to pay any amount they demand to fix it. So if finally gets fixed and we are happily on our way and know we are going to have a great time in the Keys. We finally get to the Florida Keys the next morning and begin setting up my uncles very very old canvas tent which has a few patched holes in the floor but hey it was great to have any tent and be together in Florida so no big deal. When we finish setting up we change into our bathing suits and go lay on the beach. The wind is blowing in off of the Ocean and even though the sun is nice and toasty it seems a little cold but we lay there anyway baking away. That night we all have sun poisoning and the night winds are blowing and all of us are totally freezing in the tent. So we close all of the windows and plug in an electric space heater and put it in the tent. Now you have to realize that all of us took about 20 min just to slip into our sleeping bags because we were sooooo badly burnt. It's around 2:00 a.m. and someone wakes up smelling smoke and seeing that the floor of our tent was on fire. The extension cord had melted to the plug of the heater and started a fire. We jump out of our sleeping bags in about 2 seconds and start hitting the fire with clothes and broom and put it out. Well the tent is now full of smoke so the rest of the evening we had to sleep with all of the windows open. It was tough to live through but as soon as we got home (being teens) we said it was the best camping trip we ever had and that Florida was great!
|
|
|
koalamazed
Eugene/Springfield, Oregon
Full Member
Joined: 06/06/2004
View Profile
Offline
|
when we were married only about 2 years, we and some friends of ours were going to go tent camping together. they had a huge cabin tent and we only had a dome tent, but we were going to all bunk in the big tent.
we got the car all packed to the ceiling with gear. being the good boyscout that I am I made sure to bring EVERYTHING. enough food for all of us, and even our little dome tent "just in case".
we get to their house to head out, and my buddys wife is all miserable and says, man, i dont feel good, and is all whiny and stuff. (turns out she was pregnant) my buddy says well, i guess were out. sorry.
so since we were all loaded up we left anyways.
it rained like crazy the first night. spent a while the next day in the laundromat drying out our stuff. got a roll of visqueen plastic and a box of grommets. made a nice network of tarps over the site and our $20 two man dome tent. the tent was so small that a full size air mattress stretched the tent out square, when it was supposed to be octagon shaped. it got down to 38 degrees that night. good thing we were dry at least and found ways to keep warm, since we werent sharing a cabin tent after all. that was new years eve, a "bun got put in the oven" but we stayed warm and dry. woke up and all our food was gone. racoons tore into everything and stole the edibles.
we got mousetraps and nailed them to the picknik table, baited them with marshmallows. the next day there was white gooey handprints mashed into the tripped traps, and doo doo piles on the rug in front of the tent flap.
a few days later when we got home we found out my buddys wife was pregnant, my wife was bummed cause we had been trying for 1 1/2 years. and a few weeks later we found out that we were expecting as well.
so thats not our worst tent camping trip ever, for the little jewel that we took home, but if it werent for that, it would be.
'71 Open Road 17 foot travel trailer, fully loaded. 3200 lbs, 400lbs tongue weight.
pulled by either:
'75 Ford F-250 Supercab Ranger 2wd 351W this TOUGH truck can pull a rig forwards or backwards, with full hitches front and rear. and a gooseneck ball in the bed. beauty and the beast all in one!
|
Downunda
Melbourne Australia
Senior Member
Joined: 02/17/2005
View Profile
Offline
|
This involved one of my fellow hikers. He was hiking the Appalachian Trail and was camped in his tent near one of the hiker shelters that are scattered along the AT.
Anyhow, during the night the said hiker had to visit the john (dig a cat hole in the ground) so he moved downhill some distance away from the shelter to do his business. Problem was it was pitch black and he couldn't find his way back to his tent so he spent a miserable night bedded down in the scrub until daybreak.
|
4runnerguy
Glenwood Springs, CO
Senior Member
Joined: 03/10/2003
View Profile
Offline
|
Like others here, we've endured many a rainy, windy night, which is especially disconcerting when you've backpacked in 10 miles and have to hike back out. But what got us into our first camping unit (a camper) was a trip to North Fork Reservoir (11,000' elevation) above Salida one fall weekend. It started to rain in the afternoon and by evening, wet snow was coming down so hard the Coleman stove wouldn't stay lit. We ended up in the tent eating PBJ's for dinner and decided to look into buying a camper.
But the worst bad-weather experience I know of was my friends who were camped up the Big Thompson River, below Estes Park. The rain started in the afternoon so they went into the tent to escape the worst of it. The rain increased in intensity and it got louder and louder. Finally, they peeked out to see what was happening and saw the river was coming up toward them. They bailed out and in the darkness climbed to higher ground. Many people died that night from the floods. My friends were lucky that they climbed when they did. But they still camp. Just last month, we got together for a group camping trip, just off the Poudre River this time. I guess after this many years, they've had to overcome any fear of rivers that they gained that night.
Ken & Allison
2 Camping Cats (1 diabetic)
1996 4Runner, TRD Supercharger, Edelbrock headers
2007 Fleetwood Arcadia, Honda EU2000i
4 mountain bikes, 1 canoe, 4 tents, 8 sleeping bags, 2 backpacks
(You get the idea!)
|
JimQPublic2
Southern California
Senior Member
Joined: 09/25/2002
View Profile
Offline
|
When we met, my wife had never camped. In the next few years we bicycle toured (camping), backpacked, even camped on a three week cycle trip to Ireland. She learned to ski, both downhill and cross country. She really seemed to love the outdoors as much as I did.
So about our third or fourth winter I suggested a snowshoe backpacking trip. I had done lots of winter camping before we met and generally the night time temps in the southern Sierra Nevada would drop to about 15F, sometimes a bit lower but not usually.
So the appointed weekend came- just after Christmas. We left the car parked at the gate on Bishop Creek (up the hill from Bishop, California) and started hiking up the snow covered road towards South Lake. It seemed colder than normal but it wasn't bad with the sun shining while we exercised.
We got to South Lake and found the sun trying to slip behind the mountains before 3:00. We got the tent set up and started dinner. As soon as the sun set the temperature just seemed to plummet. I got out my little thermometer; by 5:00 it was dark and the temperature was -5F. I have no idea how much colder it got, but that was definitely the coldest night I've ever spent in the Sierra. I would guess that it went down to -15.
The next day we cut our trip short and headed back to the car. The starter would barely turn over. When we got to my parents home 50 miles away in the Owens Valley they reported that it had been the coldest night they had seen in their 20 years there.
What a time to choose for my wife's first winter camping trip.... Now that I think of it, it was also her last until we got the trailer!
We did spend two weeks skiing at Lake Louise in Canada and the high temperature the first week was about -15F! At least we had a warm lodge.
Jim
2002 Chalet Arrowhead
2004 Subaru Forester XT
Long Beach, California
|
Will_F
AK
Full Member
Joined: 09/11/2005
View Profile
Offline
|
JimQPublic2 wrote:
We did spend two weeks skiing at Lake Louise in Canada and the high temperature the first week was about -15F! At least we had a warm lodge.
That reminds me of a boy scout camping trip I was on years ago. The scout master decided a winter survival camping trip would be a good character building experience, so planning began for a 2 day camping trip near Anchorage, AK. If I remember correctly, the time of year was about Late Jan early Feb- Typically the coldest time of year.
Anyway, the fateful weekend arrived and we assembled at the starting point early evening to hike the 2 miles into the camp site. I remember it was pretty cold- Wearing bunny boots, long johns, snow pants, a down jacket, winter mittens and a wool hat, I was shivering. Somebody said it was about -10. water sources were solidly frozen, so we were packing our water in 10 gal. jerry cans strung on poles between two scouts. Turns out that was a complete waste of effort since the cans froze solid before we arrived at the camp. It also was feeling a good bit colder than -10. Even hiking with 83 lb cans of water + backpacks, we were cold. We started setting up the tents, but it was so cold people were slow and clumsy. We got really cold almost immediately. After about 1 hour, we had almost nothing set up and several scouts were obviously hypothermic (uncontrollable shivering, groggy, confused) me included.
The scoutmaster was smart enough to see a disaster in the making and broke into a cabin located at the site. Luckily somebody, probably the scout master (I don't remember this part), got a fire going and we spent the night in the cabin with the stove going flat out and all of us packed as close to it as we could get.
Next day we packed out. We were glad we survived with no loss of fingers, toes etc. The temperature reported in the newspaper was 35 below 0, but the area we were in was probably 5 to 10 degrees colder.
That was the last time I ever went on a winter camping trip that didn't involve insulated walls and a heat source.
'05 Jayco 19H
'05 Nissan Frontier CC
|
|
|
|
