Tent Camping and Other Surprises
After school on April 15th I left to go tent camping with some of the 11th and 12th grade girls. Mind you, I haven't truly been camping in about seven years, so I was not well equipped for the weekend ahead of me, but we'll get to that. My friend's mom picked me up from my house, and helped me fit all my bags and such inside her car. We arrived at the church minutes later and awaited the arrival of one more person. The most challenging part was fitting all the luggage for five girls in between our youth pastor's tiny car and Maggie's already full car... on top of being able to fit us children in there, too. The last member got there, we split up into different vehicles and then left. Or tried to, at least. Maggie (my friend Hallie's mom that I mentioned earlier) left her phone at the school she works at, so naturally we had to drive there first before we could truly start traveling to our destination.
The commute was approximately forty-five minutes, but being as exhausted as I was it was difficult to keep my eyes open long enough to stay coherent. Hallie and Meg were seated behind me while I was in the passenger seat. One of my favorite ways to pass time is to just gaze out the window and observe. We inched closer to the camping reserve, and we were trailing the path of the setting sun as we went. The sunset across the bodies of water under the bridges we passed left a beautiful reflection, which is hard to explain, but I can visualize it clearly. Anyway, after a few missed turns we ended up at our site and to my astonishment it was not a flat piece of ground, it was a platform? That's definitely not the kind of camping format I was used to, but it still worked out. We set up the tents to the best of our abilities, despite the fact we were on wooden platforms and couldn't stick stakes in the ground to keep the two tents steady.
Next came the food, our dinner. The plan was to make "hobo" meals, which include sliced up veggies and meat that you fold in aluminium and cook in the coals of a fire; the only problem with that plan was that we didn't have aluminium foil, we had wax paper! We made it work out, though. We ate turkey burgers and hot dogs instead and asked Lesley (who would be joining us the following day) to bring it with her on the way down. Our camping site was within walking distance of the lake, so we made our way carefully down to the water in the dark. There was lots of jumping from rock to rock and grabbing onto limbs of trees for support. To look out onto the surface of the water and see the lights bouncing off it like a mirror was beautiful. There was such a stillness and peace in my soul that matched the surroundings was surreal. We chatted and stuff, but for me one of the most rewarding moments was just being able to close my eyes and embrace the authenticity of those experiences. Lastly, we ate s'mores and then headed off to bed.
In case you didn't know, it get cold at night when your in nature regardless of what the temperature was only a couple hours ago. I was too lazy and tired to change into my pajama pants and I just stayed in my shorts. Nope. Bad idea my friends. Sleep almost seemed impossible because I couldn't stop shaking, and maybe the fact that ever time a car drove by their headlights would bleed through the tent threshold bright enough to wake me up. Another thing that woke me up was Kristen's extremely loud alarm at around 5:30, which is when we wanted to get up to see the sunrise. Reluctant at first, I forced myself to go outside the tent and prepare to walk down to the bank to see the sunrise. We all managed to make it back down there in daylight (it seemed a lot easier in the light of day than it did the night prior). This experience was similar to the one I mentioned earlier, but this time the brightness of the light almost seemed overwhelming. It isn't too often I get to see the sunrise since I enjoy sleeping in, but this trip I got to see the progression of the sun and how from each different angle the sun is positioned at in the sky, the surroundings change to match it. Hues of orange, yellow, pink, etc vary by the minute, sometimes seconds throughout the brisk spring morning.
Breakfast consisted of Dunkin' Donut bagels brought by Lesley that morning, and they were DELICIOUS! I love bagels. You probably wouldn't know that unless you're Hallie and you see me eat bagels almost daily. The big event of the day was the hike we were going to go on. We went to this main park HQ place and talked to them to figure out which trail would be the most time efficient. The 2 and half mile loop one was the one we decided on, and from the HQ we left to go to the trail. Per the norm, we veered off the trail shortly after starting it, but overall we ended up having an enjoyable time and seeing some beautiful scenery. The steep inclines were killer. I thought for sure I was going to vomit or pass out or something, because it was taking everything in me to try to hide the fact I was short of breath 75% of the time.
Other than packing up our camping stuff, not much other exciting things happened trip-wise, because the most important part of "post-camping" was to make sure we arrived at the church at a certain time for Hallie and Baker's surprise party. Hallie, who was on the camping trip, had no clue that the party was for her: she only thought it was for Baker. We had to find ways to "stall" since our canoeing plans didn't work out. Luckily, we ended up back at HUMC at a perfect time. Both of them were surprised. Seeing everyone's reactions to the slideshows I made for both of them, as well as getting to hear everyone share their stories and just listen to others even after a good portion of people had left was entertaining.
To wrap this up, that was just a part of my crazy weekend, but I am thankful for every moment I shared with those around me during those times. It's times like these I need an escape from the life that is constantly being thrown in my face.
Love always,
Allison
The commute was approximately forty-five minutes, but being as exhausted as I was it was difficult to keep my eyes open long enough to stay coherent. Hallie and Meg were seated behind me while I was in the passenger seat. One of my favorite ways to pass time is to just gaze out the window and observe. We inched closer to the camping reserve, and we were trailing the path of the setting sun as we went. The sunset across the bodies of water under the bridges we passed left a beautiful reflection, which is hard to explain, but I can visualize it clearly. Anyway, after a few missed turns we ended up at our site and to my astonishment it was not a flat piece of ground, it was a platform? That's definitely not the kind of camping format I was used to, but it still worked out. We set up the tents to the best of our abilities, despite the fact we were on wooden platforms and couldn't stick stakes in the ground to keep the two tents steady.
Next came the food, our dinner. The plan was to make "hobo" meals, which include sliced up veggies and meat that you fold in aluminium and cook in the coals of a fire; the only problem with that plan was that we didn't have aluminium foil, we had wax paper! We made it work out, though. We ate turkey burgers and hot dogs instead and asked Lesley (who would be joining us the following day) to bring it with her on the way down. Our camping site was within walking distance of the lake, so we made our way carefully down to the water in the dark. There was lots of jumping from rock to rock and grabbing onto limbs of trees for support. To look out onto the surface of the water and see the lights bouncing off it like a mirror was beautiful. There was such a stillness and peace in my soul that matched the surroundings was surreal. We chatted and stuff, but for me one of the most rewarding moments was just being able to close my eyes and embrace the authenticity of those experiences. Lastly, we ate s'mores and then headed off to bed.
In case you didn't know, it get cold at night when your in nature regardless of what the temperature was only a couple hours ago. I was too lazy and tired to change into my pajama pants and I just stayed in my shorts. Nope. Bad idea my friends. Sleep almost seemed impossible because I couldn't stop shaking, and maybe the fact that ever time a car drove by their headlights would bleed through the tent threshold bright enough to wake me up. Another thing that woke me up was Kristen's extremely loud alarm at around 5:30, which is when we wanted to get up to see the sunrise. Reluctant at first, I forced myself to go outside the tent and prepare to walk down to the bank to see the sunrise. We all managed to make it back down there in daylight (it seemed a lot easier in the light of day than it did the night prior). This experience was similar to the one I mentioned earlier, but this time the brightness of the light almost seemed overwhelming. It isn't too often I get to see the sunrise since I enjoy sleeping in, but this trip I got to see the progression of the sun and how from each different angle the sun is positioned at in the sky, the surroundings change to match it. Hues of orange, yellow, pink, etc vary by the minute, sometimes seconds throughout the brisk spring morning.
Breakfast consisted of Dunkin' Donut bagels brought by Lesley that morning, and they were DELICIOUS! I love bagels. You probably wouldn't know that unless you're Hallie and you see me eat bagels almost daily. The big event of the day was the hike we were going to go on. We went to this main park HQ place and talked to them to figure out which trail would be the most time efficient. The 2 and half mile loop one was the one we decided on, and from the HQ we left to go to the trail. Per the norm, we veered off the trail shortly after starting it, but overall we ended up having an enjoyable time and seeing some beautiful scenery. The steep inclines were killer. I thought for sure I was going to vomit or pass out or something, because it was taking everything in me to try to hide the fact I was short of breath 75% of the time.
Other than packing up our camping stuff, not much other exciting things happened trip-wise, because the most important part of "post-camping" was to make sure we arrived at the church at a certain time for Hallie and Baker's surprise party. Hallie, who was on the camping trip, had no clue that the party was for her: she only thought it was for Baker. We had to find ways to "stall" since our canoeing plans didn't work out. Luckily, we ended up back at HUMC at a perfect time. Both of them were surprised. Seeing everyone's reactions to the slideshows I made for both of them, as well as getting to hear everyone share their stories and just listen to others even after a good portion of people had left was entertaining.
To wrap this up, that was just a part of my crazy weekend, but I am thankful for every moment I shared with those around me during those times. It's times like these I need an escape from the life that is constantly being thrown in my face.
Love always,
Allison
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