Sunday, May 27, 2012

Camping with Samuel



I'm so sore I could barely walk to my computer to type this.

I took Samuel and his three 8th-grade classmates camping last night in Harriman State Park, about 45 minutes north of NYC.

What looked like a 1.5-mile hike ("maybe an hour") to the camping shelter took 3 hours. The trails were relatively well marked as far as trails go, but it was easy to miss turn-offs, which we did on multiple occasions. We didn't fully account for the steep terrain and subsequent necessary rest stops every 15-20 minutes. We only hiked to the nearest shelter; I can't imagine going farther.

We hoped to make camp with plenty of sunlight left to pitch our tent and make a campfire, but it was 9:15 and completely dark by the time we got there. It had rained all day Thursday, so the ground was damp and so was the firewood. We made a half-assed campfire by burning toilet paper.

We survived on Milky Ways, Hershey bars, graham crackers, marshmallows, cheddar bunnies, and Frosted Flakes.

We pulled about 10 ticks off each other.

Another group of hikers walked past with flashlights at about 10pm, so at least we weren't the biggest idiots.

We all had a good time, and we all smelled by the end of the trip.

I will have to do this again very soon...in my next lifetime.


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