Weekend woo
It was a recipe for disaster. We planned the camping trip thinking it would be only scuba divers, and since last time we camped (last year, in the San Juans) we had a grand total of four people, I volunteered to cook for the trip again. Saves time, saves money, and I get a kick out of it since I never really do fancy stuff at home (the dogs don't really "get" gourmet). Then we announced the trip, and other people wanted to come along that weren't divers. I thought, "Hey, we can do some hiking while we're there!". Before I knew it, we had 34 people signed up and were considering adding a fourth campsite to the group.I went to Costco.
I also bought a giant screen tent (since camping generally = rain, and cooking in the rain is miserable) and borrowed gear from everyone I knew. I began telling people that the trip was full and quickly tried to arrange carpools since only two cars were allowed per site (and only 4 tents, but I was prepared to break that rule since it was early in the season). I planned a menu that allowed for pre-preparation as much as possible, and spent the two nights before the trip cooking until well past midnight, freezing what I could and stuffing my refrigerator to the brim with food.
So what we had was a bunch of mostly unknown people, an overstuffed campsite, sketchy weather (Washington weather is always sketchy), and a commitment to provide food for far more people than originally anticipated.
But it was wonderful, and people helped out in the kitchen and talked to other people they hadn't met before, and laughed and played with the kids that came along, and nobody got hurt and nobody went hungry. And the sun came out every day and the temperature dipped into freezing every night (hey, this isn't a fairy tale after all) and the scenery was beautiful. So yay for the weekend, and now I want to sleep for a week. Just because.
And now, photos:
Some of the tents (tents were on one side of the road, kitchen/campfire on the other)
Some of the punks (there were 30 total)
I will add in pics of the kitchen monstrosity when I get them. It was enormous and contained 4 campstoves and 2 grills, and 2 picnic tables covered in food.
Had forgotten what it felt like to sleep in 3 layers of clothes, plus gloves and hat. Last time I slept like that it was snowing and I was on the Continental Divide. We joked that if we peed on one side of the ridge it would flow to the Atlantic, and the other side of the ridge would flow to the Pacific. We tried to be bicoastal. That has nothing to do with anything. I may be a little bit tired still. Carry on.
posted by LadyJay @ 5:21 PM
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