camping trip: the quest for sleep
2009-Aug-25, Tuesday 11:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mellowtiggerI happened to have Friday off of work and also the weekend free of the pager, so I joined some local Bears for a camping trip. I left home 3pm on Friday and returned 9am on Monday. I didn't get to see a whole lot of wildlife. I did, however, get to see the Milky Way. That was nice. It's probably been 8 years since I was last far enough away from city lights to see it like that. That first night, I also saw 9 satellites and 10 falling stars.
Here are photos of the Bear group that I camped with, plus one shot of me dozing off in a catnap trying to catch up on missed sleep after a morning of stripping down to just my bike shorts and being butch while swimming out to rescue a drowned tent. (They say that good authors use a "hook" at the beginning to keep the reader interested in the rest of the writing. *laugh*) I'm the short, skinny guy in this group... and I'm also the old man needing his nap, apparently. *more laughs*
Day 1:
The site turned out better at first glance than expected. There were just a few campsites at a trailer park for a marina. The campsites were right on the edge of the water, which seemed really nice (*foreshadowing*). You can see here the view out onto the water from where we put our tents. Notice the tent still under construction in the foreground. That'll be important on day 3. My tent is the small greenish dome. That night was great. I laid out under the stars and watched the night sky for a long time. The new moon made the night sky really beautiful to see. I stayed late to make sure the campfire had lost its embers, then I went to bed too. I didn't get much sleep, though. Bears, it turns out, snore terribly loud. :(
Day 2:
The other bears rode off in a vehicle for breakfast... and were gone for many hours. Not sure what adventures they had. I thought that I was going to take advantage of the great opportunity to catch up on sleep. It wasn't long, though, before a woman's voice was shouting "What are you doing?!" A few shouts later, it turned to screaming, "Bill, get out of there!" I rushed to find my glasses and get my shoes on. I got outside to see a wet man crawling onto a boat. I looked where he came from, and I saw the back end of an SUV sinking underneath the water. Another man on shore was already on a cell phone calling 911, and I overheard him saying that everyone was safe but they needed help getting the car out of the marina ramp since nobody else could get in or out now. Crowds gathered over the next few hours, and the noise kept me from sleeping. *sigh* Eventually the machinery finally arrived to get the vehicle up onto shore again.
1) The man is standing on top of the SUV's hood, after he dived underwater to attach a chain to the bumper. 2) He's making sure the doors are open, so that 3) the water can drain out. 4) The vehicle and trailer are safely on shore again.
Day 3:
I had gone to bed earlier since I still needed to catch up on sleep. No such luck. Around 1am, high winds started blowing in from the south, across the lake onto the beach. I got up briefly to better secure my rain cover on my tent. Tried sleeping, but it was scattered. Sometime around 2am, I heard a weird "flapping" sound that was different from all the other flapping sounds of tents in high wind. I poked my head out of my tent door... and noticed the tent in front of me was GONE.
I scrambled for glasses and shoes again. I got out and found the tent upside down in the marina, blocking the path that boats would take to get out to the lake. I woke up the guys in the 3rd tent, trying to find where the other tent's owner had gone. Had he joined them? Was he unconscious at the bottom of the submerged tent? What? Found him in his car. He had taken refuge there earlier. Whew! Okay, well, swimming in the water during the dark seemed a bad idea, so nothing to do for now but go back to bed. Oh, smart idea, we drove our vehicles up to serve as wind blocks for the remaining 2 tents.
I woke up about 6am as sunlight reached the sky. I ended up putting on bicycle shorts and then getting into the marina to get that tent out of the way of boats. The fishermen had already had enough "excitement" this weekend without us adding to the drama. The water was too deep for me to just pull the structure toward the walkway. I ended up "rolling" the tent to walk it across the lake bottom. Mike (the tent's owner) and some kind local (from a nearby trailer home) stayed on the walkway to lift up the metal frame onto the shore. I remained in the water to drag the water laden tent canopy (a fully enclosed plastic thing) all the way to the landing. An air mattress was trapped inside the tent, so even with all the water, it was still floating. I dragged it through algae that was almost as tall as I was. The plants and their trapped air went all bubbly on my body as I trudged through them. I almost know what it's like to take a bath in champagne. :)
Once I got it to the landing, it took all 3 of us to get it up onto land where the water could drain out. Mike rescued what items he could. The tent frame was shot, though, and wouldn't fold up again. I ended up taking my hex screwdriver and dismantling the thing piece by piece. Unfortunately the tent canopy was also torn while getting it onto the landing, so nothing of the tent could be salvaged. :( Mike had no dry clothes, either, so he drove home that morning. We managed to take the group photo at top before he drove off.
Later in the day, we went to a nearby park at the beach. Everyone else was out in the water watching the parasailers (parasailors?). I, on the other hand, still needed to catch up on sleep. I catnapped as much as I could (see picture at top).
After night fell, we drove to a nearby casino. It was my first time inside one. Plenty of cigarette smoke. I think that Facebook's free minigames are more addictive than the hundreds of poker machines around, but that's probably a good thing. We had icecream cones (which were good) and drove back to camp.
Day 4:
I went to bed right away. Still windy. Still snore-y. Got more sleep than before, though. Woke up at 6am as sunlight brightened the sky. Packed up the tent, and I took the 2 hour drive home. Unloaded the bicycle and a few things from the car. Took a shower. Went to work at 1pm and drank Mountain Dew for caffeine to keep me awake until 5pm.
Went home. Slept. :)
Here are photos of the Bear group that I camped with, plus one shot of me dozing off in a catnap trying to catch up on missed sleep after a morning of stripping down to just my bike shorts and being butch while swimming out to rescue a drowned tent. (They say that good authors use a "hook" at the beginning to keep the reader interested in the rest of the writing. *laugh*) I'm the short, skinny guy in this group... and I'm also the old man needing his nap, apparently. *more laughs*
Day 1:
The site turned out better at first glance than expected. There were just a few campsites at a trailer park for a marina. The campsites were right on the edge of the water, which seemed really nice (*foreshadowing*). You can see here the view out onto the water from where we put our tents. Notice the tent still under construction in the foreground. That'll be important on day 3. My tent is the small greenish dome. That night was great. I laid out under the stars and watched the night sky for a long time. The new moon made the night sky really beautiful to see. I stayed late to make sure the campfire had lost its embers, then I went to bed too. I didn't get much sleep, though. Bears, it turns out, snore terribly loud. :(
Day 2:
The other bears rode off in a vehicle for breakfast... and were gone for many hours. Not sure what adventures they had. I thought that I was going to take advantage of the great opportunity to catch up on sleep. It wasn't long, though, before a woman's voice was shouting "What are you doing?!" A few shouts later, it turned to screaming, "Bill, get out of there!" I rushed to find my glasses and get my shoes on. I got outside to see a wet man crawling onto a boat. I looked where he came from, and I saw the back end of an SUV sinking underneath the water. Another man on shore was already on a cell phone calling 911, and I overheard him saying that everyone was safe but they needed help getting the car out of the marina ramp since nobody else could get in or out now. Crowds gathered over the next few hours, and the noise kept me from sleeping. *sigh* Eventually the machinery finally arrived to get the vehicle up onto shore again.
1) The man is standing on top of the SUV's hood, after he dived underwater to attach a chain to the bumper. 2) He's making sure the doors are open, so that 3) the water can drain out. 4) The vehicle and trailer are safely on shore again.
Day 3:
I had gone to bed earlier since I still needed to catch up on sleep. No such luck. Around 1am, high winds started blowing in from the south, across the lake onto the beach. I got up briefly to better secure my rain cover on my tent. Tried sleeping, but it was scattered. Sometime around 2am, I heard a weird "flapping" sound that was different from all the other flapping sounds of tents in high wind. I poked my head out of my tent door... and noticed the tent in front of me was GONE.
I scrambled for glasses and shoes again. I got out and found the tent upside down in the marina, blocking the path that boats would take to get out to the lake. I woke up the guys in the 3rd tent, trying to find where the other tent's owner had gone. Had he joined them? Was he unconscious at the bottom of the submerged tent? What? Found him in his car. He had taken refuge there earlier. Whew! Okay, well, swimming in the water during the dark seemed a bad idea, so nothing to do for now but go back to bed. Oh, smart idea, we drove our vehicles up to serve as wind blocks for the remaining 2 tents.I woke up about 6am as sunlight reached the sky. I ended up putting on bicycle shorts and then getting into the marina to get that tent out of the way of boats. The fishermen had already had enough "excitement" this weekend without us adding to the drama. The water was too deep for me to just pull the structure toward the walkway. I ended up "rolling" the tent to walk it across the lake bottom. Mike (the tent's owner) and some kind local (from a nearby trailer home) stayed on the walkway to lift up the metal frame onto the shore. I remained in the water to drag the water laden tent canopy (a fully enclosed plastic thing) all the way to the landing. An air mattress was trapped inside the tent, so even with all the water, it was still floating. I dragged it through algae that was almost as tall as I was. The plants and their trapped air went all bubbly on my body as I trudged through them. I almost know what it's like to take a bath in champagne. :)
Once I got it to the landing, it took all 3 of us to get it up onto land where the water could drain out. Mike rescued what items he could. The tent frame was shot, though, and wouldn't fold up again. I ended up taking my hex screwdriver and dismantling the thing piece by piece. Unfortunately the tent canopy was also torn while getting it onto the landing, so nothing of the tent could be salvaged. :( Mike had no dry clothes, either, so he drove home that morning. We managed to take the group photo at top before he drove off.Later in the day, we went to a nearby park at the beach. Everyone else was out in the water watching the parasailers (parasailors?). I, on the other hand, still needed to catch up on sleep. I catnapped as much as I could (see picture at top).
After night fell, we drove to a nearby casino. It was my first time inside one. Plenty of cigarette smoke. I think that Facebook's free minigames are more addictive than the hundreds of poker machines around, but that's probably a good thing. We had icecream cones (which were good) and drove back to camp.
Day 4:
I went to bed right away. Still windy. Still snore-y. Got more sleep than before, though. Woke up at 6am as sunlight brightened the sky. Packed up the tent, and I took the 2 hour drive home. Unloaded the bicycle and a few things from the car. Took a shower. Went to work at 1pm and drank Mountain Dew for caffeine to keep me awake until 5pm.
Went home. Slept. :)