hitting the trails

 

i remember not liking camping that much when i was younger. or at least being neutral about it. not really pumped to go, but not totally distraught at the idea. but many things, like dogs and dishwashers, have started to appeal to me as i age and finally make sense. i get why my mom was so jazzed about sleeping outside.

i went camping to rickett's glenn a few weeks ago with some friends. fear of rain and thunder (and more specifically, rain and thunder causing trees to fall onto our tent) caused us to skip out on our first night but we woke up before the crack of dawn saturday morning and drove up in the mini-van. judging by the way we packed into that van, you would think we were moving out west with all our worldly possessions ala oregon trail. in which case my mini van would be a Conestoga wagon. the van was PACKED and we squashed our friend matt in the very back - when i looked in the rear view mirror all i could see was his cowboy hat.

we spent the weekend hiking the trails, splashing in falls, being surprised by how cold it was (pro: no sweating! con: no swimming.), eating food, napping like sardines packed into one tent, making pancakes over the fire, trying to start fires, finding good fire poking sticks, talking about fire, throwing cheese-its in the water (which i'm sure no park ranger would advise) to see if they float, racing our cheese-its down the river, and just generally reveling in the freshness of the air/greenness of the trees/mightiness of the falls. summer in the city is wonderful, but there's something amazing and perfect about being in nature. i think it's the trees.