I had a hard time with the dirt, bugs, small critters and basic lack of civility of the entire experience. My most vivid memory is when Mike, then boyfriend - now husband, took me to a remote campsite at Colorado's Eleven Mile State Park. This meant after walking a quarter mile from the car there was still no site in sight. I was asked to sit tight on the trail while he scoped out the distance to our desired location. As his footsteps disappeared up the hill, a light mist began to fall and visions of a wilderness ax murderer flashed through my mind.
Eventually, I heard rapid footsteps making their way back down the hill. We grabbed all our equipment, supplies and food and hiked to our park-assigned spot. I was spoiled, my outdoorsman took care of all our tent and site set up. This may have been his attempt to allow me to enjoy the experience without enduring all the work behind the it.
We had fun together around the campfire and enjoyed some peaceful, relaxing time together. (What I wouldn't do for some of those moments today in our very hectic life.) I would love to say that we fell asleep and woke up refreshed to a new day but, with us, that scenario is not quite our style.
Late into the evening, we heard some commotion outside our tent and up the hill. We also heard the sound of other campers (who even knew they were there?) in the distance yelling and clanking pans together. Having lived in Colorado for a while, even I knew that this was a way to deter animals, mainly bears, from your campsite and food.
We hung our food up in a tree and in his backpack, as recommended, before we turned in for the evening. Apparently this animal had seen this game before and would not be deterred. Mike opened a 2x2 inch hole at the bottom of our tent zipper to see what he could see. Even though the source of the noise couldn't be verified, there was some rustling and grumbling a little too close to home.
We awoke to find the backpack chewed through, slashed up and twenty feet from its original location. I'm convinced it was a bear and Mike swears it was a fox. Does that really make it any better? Would a little fox make such noise to get to some food? Unlikely. Speaking of foxes, just to top off our visit, while we were enjoying our bacon and eggs in the morning, a fox strolled right through our campsite. I made an executive decision...this two night camping trip had just been downgraded to a one night camping trip.
With all this said, the view was amazing, the company couldn't have been better but this may not have been the best way to initiate my love affair with camping. It was like an arranged marriage gone terribly wrong!
I have known and loved Mike for over 20 years and although I didn't love camping, the one I love loved camping so I kept getting up on that horse. Fast forward 15 years of marriage and a handful of other camping adventures (to be shared another day) and we arrive at a 35' travel trailer filled with bells and whistles I could have only dreamed of back at our walk-in campsite in Colorado.
I hope to inspire those who may have not yet embraced the camping/RV lifestyle and offer my, ever so humble, experiences and thoughts through our family adventures!
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