Camping

I used to drag all of my Portland city friends camping once a year.  We’re talking camping at a state campground with flush toilets and showers, not exactly roughing it.  The first year we went, I went to go cut some kindling and one friend was appalled that I had brought an axe camping.  It was a hatchet and was perfect for both kindling and pounding my tent steaks into the ground.  The next year someone brought a stack of Dura-flame logs for the campfire.  And then couldn’t figure out how to light them after removing the wrappers off of all of the logs.  Amateurs. 

So my camping trip over Memorial Day weekend was a pleasant reprieve.  This is what happens when you go camping with the guys you grew up with and your brother – all Montanans and experienced outdoorsmen.  Or at least experienced campers.  Experienced to the point that when I realized I had forgotten a lighter, 2 lighters and a torch were tossed my direction.  And I never once got to, I mean had to, man the fire (or start it or cut kindling).

Once camp was set up, we rented a small boat and went crabbing in a bay.  And while I don’t eat things from the sea, or have any desire to toss or pull crab traps, I had a delightful time attempting to balance the boat so the guys didn’t fall overboard.  And even though I wasn’t eating them, it was really fun to catch crabs.  We even caught three big enough to keep.

It wasn’t until the next morning that we realized we weren’t quite the perfect campers.  We sat around the fire staring at the coffee pot.  Who knew how to make cowboy coffee on the fire?  My dad always did that part and had coffee ready when I climbed out of the tent.  And since our dads are the epitome of outdoorsmen, and would have laughed at us, we opted to experiment rather than call home.  Seriously, if you looked up outdoorsman in the dictionary, you would see a picture of Roland and Matt.

Sometimes it’s fun to be the experienced camper.  To have all the gear and know what you’re doing.  And sometimes it’s really nice to go camping with other experienced people, sit back and let the guys do all the hard work.