Camping Trials and Tribulations

Bears (and other critters)
This is an area of the Adirondacks chock full of bears. The year that the garbage dump closed in Indian Lake (town about 20 miles away), the camp was full of bears at night. A rather large bear broke into our new locked car, ate a bunch of stuff, and spit out everything it didn't like. It came back for the next three nights and padded around our tent all night.

Wild ponies wander freely all over Assateague Island. One Evening while taking a walk around the dunes, Diane heard a thundering noise. All of a sudden a whole heard of wild ponies came stampeding over the dunes right at me. I had to jump out of the way quickly to avoid being trampled. A couple of the ponies left Tom and I a present right at the end of our camp. Luckily we always carry a fold-up shovel.

There are always lots and lots of ducks in the campsite and around the lake.  Last year, every morning we woke up to loads of very loud quacking at 6:00-6:30AM, only to look out of the tent door and find a whole single file row of ducks from the tent door all the way down to the lake---One morning I counted 48 ducks!.  How would you like camping with "Your ducks all in a row"??? 

The ducks must have been extra hungry last year,  because they kept trying to eat our fishing bobbers and our worms.  One afternoon, while fishing, the same duck grabbed our bobbers over and over, and just kept running off with them.  We would pull on the fishing line each time and find that the duck ate all our worms too.  The ducks and chipmunks also ate all the bird seed we put out for the birds....... every time all the birdseed was eaten and there was none left when the birds did come.   Sometimes the ducks fight over the seed---feathers flying everywhere!   Sometimes they just waddle into the screen tent and look at you until you give them some more!  In addition, one morning a chipmunk kept jumping and scratching all over Diane...on my head...on my lap...on my shoulder.   Can you imagine, snoozing on a chair by the lake only to be startled awake with a wild chipmunk on your head trying to pull out your hair!!!

We now take our cats with us camping.  The two oldest will just be 2 this month.  They are indoor kittens and had never seen any wild animals up close. They had their own tent with a fully enclosed screen room where  they could see everything that was going on.  They were mesmerized with the ducks and the chipmunks and birds.  The animals quickly learned that the kitties could not get out and get them so they came up very close to the tent  The cats spent hours in "crouch" position watching everything.  We could also let them walk around the campsite on leashes.  Of course, that worked fine if you went where the kittens want to go!  Imagine trying to hold on to 8 kitties on leashes when they all wanted to go in different directions--sometimes you just had to sort of drag them along.  But when the animals were around, you definitely got your exercise because the kitties would all want to chase the birds and ducks all over the campsite--with the animals quacking and chirping--the kitties on the leashes--and Diane and Tom trying to hold on while running to keep up.   In addition, with a tent of their own, they were alone at night (another new experience for them).  Every morning starting at daybreak (about 6AM) they started to bounce against the sides of their tent, scratching and yowling to get out into the screen room.  The longer I waited to get up, the louder the yowling!! 

We did nearly have one disaster, Marmalade learned how to open the zipper if it was not closed up toward the top of the tent.  One morning while I was giving them their breakfast, I had only closed the tent door half way and Marmalade unzipped it far enough to jump out and escape into the woods!!!.  Suddenly I realized she was gone and was in a panic.  I looked all over and finally saw a "splash" of orange color in the woods--There she was wandering almost to the next site, sniffing the forest floor and following some ducks in "hunt and crouch mode".  Luckily I ran and grabbed her and then learned I could never leave the zipper anywhere close to where she could get at it!!! 

In 2006, Diane discovered a HUGE, fuzzy spider (as big as your thumb!) in the car that must have been on a piece of firewood.  It looked like a Tarantula!!!  When trying to grab it with the long barbeque tongs, it scampered off and couldn't be found.  Every time, we went into the car, I kept thinking it was crawling on my head.  Unfortunately, it was hiding in one of the boxes, and we did not find it until we got home.  It jumped out of the box, and the kitties found it.  They tracked all over the living room until we could grab it with the tongs and throw it over the balcony!

In 2007, a squirrel chewed a hole in a garbage bag and ran around the table and then off into the woods with a piece of pizza.  In addition, a mouse took up residence  the car to get out of the cold and was jumping around.  It hid most of the time and I could not find it.  I knew it was still there because every morning there were little chew holes in pieces of fruit and bread.  Luckily, it got out of the car before we went home.     

Equipment Challenges
We purchased a "pop-up" canopy called Instant Shade to put over our cooking area, grills and stove and so that we could still cook if it rained.  This is a cloth top that goes over a folding metal frame.  The box and directions said that this could be erected in "minutes"---HA!!  Unfortunately, the directions were incorrect and told us to put the top over the frame and then pull each leg up to the correct height.  We pulled and pulled on the legs for at least an hour and could not get them to move.  We then found out that if we followed the directions, the cloth canopy made the frame so tight it could not be erected!!!  Just lifting the corner off the frame let us erect each leg in an instant!!  In addition, one of the locking bolts on one leg fell into the hollow leg and could not be removed--so we had to secure that leg in place with a thin tent stake.  People who write these directions should be forced to work them!!! 

In 2006, we kept having to spray the legs of the "pop-up" with WD40 to get them to open up because they got rusted inside from the from the rain the previous year.  When that didn't work, we had to turn it upside down and bang the legs out with a hammer!

 In 2006, we also had to break camp in the middle of a "monsoon" and take multiple tents home soaking wet.  We had to unpack everything when we got home to dry out multiple tents over the boat in the apartment garage.

Since had intermittent trouble with our Coleman stove the year before, I purchased a replacement fuel pump and valve just in case we, again, had problems.  Of course, the first time we tried it, the stove was dead.  Since we had the replacement parts, we were confident that this was not a set back.  Unfortunately, the parts were poorly manufactured and would not screw into the stove--so we had to spend a day driving almost 200 miles round trip to buy the only Coleman stove left in Hamilton County!!!

Our Coleman stove sprung a leak and a stream of fire burned down part of our screen tent. Tom pushed it into the middle of the campsite where it promptly exploded.

We have had at least seven air mattresses in 17 years. They are always springing leaks, and you find yourself on solid hard ground. The first one we borrowed from my boss and broke it--imagine trying to explain that.  Well, after 18 years, last year we decided that it was much easier to get into an air mattress on the ground than to get out of it and stand up again without really wrenching every muscle in your back and walking around like the Hunchback of Notre Dame for two weeks. 
So last  year we took a bed frame and an Aerobed to get that thing off the ground!!  Unfortunately the bed frame had posts that gouged into your back even more.  Also the rechargeable air pump that blows up the Aerobed lost its charge somehow on the way to camping.  I had to recharge in the bathroom down the camp road--luckily it was still there when I went back for it 6 hours later!  In addition, we found out that the tent is now too small with the new bed frame--Have to get a much bigger tent for 2003.   Well, remember the bed frame that gouged your back in 2002---well in 2003 we thought that we could put mats over it to cushion the gouging.  We bought at least four different types of sleeping bag mats in different sizes and even a rubber floor mat.   We put them on the mattress frame in different directions to get the best coverage--but alas that didn't work.  So we threw the bed frame in the campground dumpster, and ended up with the mattress back on the ground!!!  In addition, we did get a bigger tent--a three room tent.  But unfortunately, Diane read the directions incorrectly and it kept falling down--took three hours to raise the tent correctly so it would stay up!!! 

As a result of the disastrous experiences with camp bed frames, we decided to get a battery- operated air mattress that was 24 inches high.  It seemed to be the answer to our prayers for being able to sleep in the wilderness.  Lo and behold, the first night on this huge very high mattress---it leaked so much air that Tom and Diane just rolled into the middle and were crushed and suffocated by the big bulging sides and eventually were on the ground again in the middle of this big mattress.  Being more than frustrated considering this was the first night on the mattress, Diane almost threw it out, but decided to do one last inspection.  Here there was a special mattress chamber valve that had to be reopened after inflating.  Once we found out the trick, the mattress was wonderfully firm for the rest of the two weeks.

One year, in a pouring deluge, our car motor wouldn't stop racing requiring Diane to walk over a mile to the one pay phone at the ranger station to call a mechanic. It took two trips and more walks in the deluge (covered up only with a garbage bag with holes for sleeves), and disconnection of the gas pedal, to find out that a piece of insulation had fall down and was locking the gas pedal at about 50 miles an hour. The mechanic cut it off with one of our steak knives.

In that same deluge, Diane's discovered her umbrella was a trick one. When you opened it up, the umbrella shot off and she was left holding the stick. We went to the local store for a replacement, and found two more trick ones that did exactly the same thing. We guessed we found out where we bought the first one.

One night the zipper broke on the tent door making it impossible to close it. Of course, it poured that night getting everything wet. We had to try to use safety pins the next night.

Tom always puts the little box that the fishing bait (worms) comes in into the cooler so the worms won't die in the heat.  One night, he forgot to completely close the top and the worms escaped their box in the night.  Luckily, they only escaped into the shelf which only had closed jars and could be washed out the next day. 

If you have ever had a screen house in the rain, you know that it does not keep out the wet because the rain just flows down the screen walls and get most everything inside wet.   Well last year, we got a new screen tent with storm flaps to avoid this problem.   The only chink in the armor was that we tried to assemble it for the first time, we had terrible problems, only to find out that the manufacturer had included  assembly instructions for a  different model !!!

Boating And Boat-Related Incidents

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina also hit the Adirondacks three days after New Orleans.  Although we were lucky that there was no wind--there was 36 hours of torrential downpours.  The water just flowed down the mountains and into the valleys and overnight the lake rose by about 4 feet!!!  We lost our little sandy beach.  The boat almost floated off during one part of this, and luckily I caught it, tied it with the anchor rope and anchored it to a tree.  Unfortunately, when it was all over, the water had gotten higher than the back of the boat, poured into it and sunk the back of the boat.  Here we are with the back of the boat under water and the front sticking up into the air.  It took a number of hours to bail the boat out and get the whole thing on top of the lake.

The day before Katrina hit the mountains, it was rather windy in the afternoon.  We were out on the boat fishing.  Even with 2 anchors, the boat kept whipping around in circles.  Unbeknownst to us, the rope from one of the anchors got twisted around the motor.  The only way we could finally get it off, was Diane had to stand up and pry it of with a heavy wooden oar.  This took about 30 minutes--sore arms!!!!

One year when we still had the canoe with and electric motor, the charge indicator on the battery got stuck making it look like there was lots of life left in the battery. Of course, it died about five miles from camp and we practically broke our arms trying to paddle back against the wind.

A part on our boat trailer fell off making it impossible for us to figure out how to get the support up off the road. We had to leave the boat at home and rent a boat at camp.

Our boat has to be in neutral to start the motor.  One time Tom was having a lot of difficulty getting the motor to catch.  It's like pulling on a lawn mower.   All at once it just started at top speed and we almost ran into the weeds and the rocks---here it was not in neutral, but at the highest speed.  It was only Diane's keen reactions and quick turns of the wheel that saved us from disaster!!

Last year we had so much stuff loaded in the car that it was just barely off the ground.  As a result we could not get the support wheel on the boat trailer cranked down enough to swing it up for driving.  So as not to leave the boat home again, at 3:00AM, Diane remembered we had a fold-up shovel.  We had to find it in the over-loaded car and dig a hole underneath the support wheel to be able to get it off the ground.  Luckily we were in the unpaved visitor's parking lot. 

On the way home, both boat trailer tires blew out in the middle of no-where about 1 mile outside of camp.  We had to unhook the trailer and go into Indian Lake Hamlet 16 miles away for help.   It was Saturday afternoon and no one was open.  Diane begged as person at the only car dealership in the hamlet to help us.  They were just locking up. 

A couple of years ago, our 50 year old outboard boat motor died in the middle of the lake after making some very nasty death rattles and groans.  In addition, the skies looked like a thunderstorm was threatening  to start at any moment.  Luckily we rowed back to the campsite just before the deluge started! 

Twice last year, we had pretty heavy rain in the night.  In both cases, the lake water got pretty high overnight and somehow the rope holding the boat to the tree got loose and the boat floated into the lake.  Luckily there are some pretty big rocks close to the campsite so that we could walk out and drag the boat back in.  Can you imagine, if it had floated out in the middle, with the lake 50 feet deep at some points!!!  

In 2002, on the afternoon before we left, we discovered that somehow we had lost the plug for the boat.  This boat is over 50 years old and nothing on it is standard--so we found out.  Tom took it to our marine service dealer only to find out that no one there had ever seen a boat drain like this, nothing fit.  We finally rigged an expansion plug with enough duct tape so that it finally plugged the drain hole upon expansion--took quite a bit of monkeying before it actually worked.  We have always said: "Duct Tape Rules"!     We thought after we came home we would have the drain replaced with something "standard", to avoid this problem again.  It took a significant deal of hunting to find someone who would work on an aluminum boat this old---the place we found was about 45 miles away, and the man said it would be about $200.00.  So we had to empty the boat, hitch it up to the van and drag it to the boat serviceman. .  The only problem was that after about a month and a half, we called the boat service to find out when it would be done--only to hear that they had gone out of business, had never even started the work, and we had to go back the 45 miles, hook the boat back to the van (it had been sitting in a huge mud puddle all this time) and drag it back to the apartment.  Diane thought that since the old boat plug was threaded, maybe a plumbing supply house could make a new plug--so we found a place about 10 miles away.  We again hitched up the boat and towed it (in heavy traffic) to the plumbing place--only to have the man come out, stick his finger into the drain hole and then come up with the correct size plug to fit it perfectly--got 3 plugs--all for about $3.50!!!!"

In 2007, when trying to start the boat for the first time, the motor flooded.  By his time we had drifted quite a ways out into the lake.  So we had to row back to shore so Diane could find the instructions on how to deal with a flooded motor!

In 2007, we came back to camp after antiquing and realized the the boat was tied up in a different spot than it had been when we left.  We then found out that while we were gone a big gust of wind came up and grabbed to boat and it drifted out into the lake.  The campers in the next site came over and said when they saw the boat out into the lake, their boys swam out and pulled it back into shore. We were very lucky they saw it.

Personal

In 2006, Diane got a tiny splinter in her thumb from a piece of firewood.  Even after getting the splinter out, her thumb got infected and swelled up.  She had to get antibiotics and a tetanus shot at the Indian Lake health center 20 miles away.

Last year, a big bug decided to take a dip into Tom's morning juice.  Unfortunately, Tom did not realize this until he felt it wiggling around in his mouth!!

One year I brought lemon scented soap. The black flies tried to devour me. They thought I smelled like a fruit salad.

There is a shower building at camp that always has mosquitoes in abundance. Can you guess where you get bitten that you can't scratch in public?

Tom is allergic to most bug bites. He gets goose egg sized sores about 1/2 hour after the bite that last for 4 or 5 days. After two weeks he often looks like he has some kind of social disease. We use a lot of Benydryl camping.

Tom had shorts with Velcro enclosures on the back pockets.  A number of times, he got himself "velcro'ed" to the screen tent and had to be pulled off. 

Weather

While camping on the beach on Assateague Island, an unannounced storm hit with 75 mile an hour winds. Needless to say, we had to abandon the site, and the wind just broke the sleeping and screen tents. Unfortunately, the screen tent was the new one purchased to replace the one burned down by the stove explosion. The next day, everything was covered in a foot of sand. We had to dig out our stuff before we could pack up and go home.                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                 
The year we had rain 11 out of 13 days, we got caught in a torrential downpour and thunderstorm while on a hike about 2 miles from our car, and going up hill. The trail became a raging river, we got soaked so bad our clothes were falling down from the weight of the water, we took a wrong turn on the trail and had to walk an extra mile.

There is always a lot of wind coming into our campsite that blows over the poles holding up the tarps to keep rain off the tent. One time, in a thunderstorm, Diane was alone and had to hold down the poles to keep everything from blowing over. I got water in my watch and tried to dry it off on the lantern, but it melted instead.

We suffered through the "Storm of the Century" in our sleeping tent. It was a flash thunderstorm, with winds of 85 miles an hour, tornadoes, and tremendous rain. There was tremendous damage all over the Adirondacks. Our sleeping tent (replacement for the one demolished by the hurricane on the beach) survived. Our screen tent had to be replaced for now a third time in two years. Trees were blown down all around our camp. Indian Lake town was like a war zone. Eight campers were killed by trees falling on tents. We had to drive 40 miles to find electricity and breakfast. A morning we will not forget.

Last year we had a spot that was quite windy off the lake.  To keep everything from blowing over, (or so we thought), we tied all the tarps to the trees.  Unfortunately, however, one tree was a bit dinky and the rope pulled it right over in one big gust of wind.

In 2003, we had unusually great weather--it only rained one night in 14 days!  That night, however, it did thunder and the rain on the tent roof can get  loud.  The poor kittens were in the sleeping tent and absolutely terrified of the noise and kept running around in circles.   Finally after a number of hours of running, they got so tired that they climbed up onto the mattress, and crawled under all the pillows and into the sleeping bag and feel asleep!!

Cooking and Other Miscellaneous Adventures

Diane's purse was stolen out of the car in the middle of no where. The same night, Tom locked the keys in the car, and another bear (small one) visited our camp.

Last year we brought a battery operated rotisserie for our charcoal grill.   (OK....OK not exactly roughing it...but we are gourmets after all!)  Anyway, we were going to grill a couple of marinated Cornish game hens.  So we put them on the rotisserie stick, but ran out of cooking string to ensure they were tight and would not just keep slipping.  Tom suggested we could try duct tape, but duct taping a Cornish hen just didn't seem too appealing.  So we ended up having to use some of the yellow nylon boat rope!!  Well, in the wilderness you just have to be creative. 

Last year the town of Indian Lake kept having power outages.  Their electric system extends to the camp grounds.  Unfortunately when the power is out, so are the flush facilities and the showers.  That is just a minor inconvenience.  The big problem last year was being in the Laundromat in town, having just started washing the laundry, including the sleeping bags and pillows that had gotten really damp in the night.  Just as everything got all soapy, guess what........power outage in the whole town.  I waited for about 45 minutes and then had to load sopping wet,  super heavy clothes and camping gear into garbage bags and drive 30 miles to the next town with a Laundromat that worked!!  Do you have any idea how heavy sleeping bags and pillows are when they are completely soaked with soapy water?

We have been trying to have seafood appetizers every night for dinner.  When Tom went into the town, he looked to see if the local store has anything fresh.  Last year, they had whole lobsters.  They were on ice in the store, with a single lobster in a mesh bag, and were not moving.  Tom naturally assumed they were fresh, but dead, and put it into one of the coolers on ice.  Imagine my surprise, when I opened the bag later and the lobster started jumping around on the table!  I had to use the long grill "tweezers" and grab it and put it on the grill quickly before it jumped on the ground!!

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Updated February 18, 2008