Thursday, September 24, 2015

Camping Trip

Isaac and I just returned home from a three day/two night camping trip in the Wayne National Forest.  We had a great time. And the campground we stayed at was fabulous.  It’s a small campground, only 19 campsites, and rather primitive.  There are bathrooms, but without running water or flush toilets.  Just pit toilets.  There is drinking water available at several different faucets located throughout the campground.  There is no office or ranger station or anything like that.  It’s a self-serve campground.  You take an envelope, fill out some info like your license plate number and whatever campsite you want to stay out, stick your money in it, and put the envelope in a locked box.   The fee is $10 a night - $5 if you have the America the Beautiful Access Pass, which I do.  It’s a free pass available to people with disabilities.

Look at this view.


Both nights there was only one other campsite occupied.  Isaac and I practically had the place to ourselves.  In fact, no one else was there when we arrived, so we got to choose from all 19 campsites.  So we took what I thought was the best one, although Isaac was quite fond of one a little ways down the road.  Every time we took a walk in that direction, he wanted to go sniff around that picnic table and fire ring.


We did some hiking, 
Isaac got to swim in a lake, Isaac got to roll in… stuff, and he also dug a big hole.   

I dunno why he decided he needed to dig a hole, but he did, and since it was in the woods behind our campsite and not on a trail or anything, I let him.  He dug a big hole, and a couple times there were some small roots in the way, and he grabbed those with his teeth and pulled them out.  He was quite determined about that hole!


I have to say, I am pretty impressed with myself.  I put up the tent all by myself 

and I built a great campfire 

and I cooked an awesome dinner.  By the way, the best way EVER to eat an apple is to slice it, sprinkle it with cinnamon and nutmeg, wrap it in foil and roast it over an open fire.


I also discovered that building a fire to heat water for your morning tea is the best thing ever.  I mean, I’m sure the tea tastes the same as when I heat the water in the microwave at home, but sipping it next to an open fire is delightful.  When I crawled out of my cozy sleeping bag in the chilly morning air, I wouldn’t have believed that building a fire to make tea was going to be the best thing ever… but it turned out that it was.

2 comments:

  1. So was outside accessible enough to suit you?

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    1. It was accessible enough for me to enjoy camping. And this campground did have one campsite that was designated as "handicap accessible." It had a paved walkway leading to the bathroom next to the campsite and the ground was very flat and I think there was a place to get drinking water beside that site, too, but I might not be remembering that correctly. I did not use that campsite myself.

      I'd say the campground was at least as accessible as the last campground I stayed at, which was much larger. The trails Isaac and I hiked on would not have been accessible to someone with a wheelchair, and on one of the trails that was supposed to lead to the lake about a mile away, part of the trail appeared to have washed out and to continue on to the lake, I would have had to be able to climb a very steep (nearly vertical) bank, so Isaac and I had to turn back. But there was a lot of rain earlier this year and that probably washed out part of the trail and hopefully they will repair it at some point.

      Accessibility outdoors is a tricky thing. But yeah, I was able to access everything I needed to, and everything I wanted to other than the one part of the trail.

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