Adventure #5: Part 1 Camping in Chippewa

When we were kids my brothers and I used to attempt to camp out in the backyard during the summer.  I say “attempt” because more often than not we either got scared by the lumber yard noises, the dark spooky-at-night trees that lined the boundary line between the neighborhood and the lumber yard, or something as stupid as ghosts coming to get us. 
Or we got cold.  And dreamed about our warm beds just inside the house…

We did manage to stay a few nights all the way through morning, though.  Either way, we would set up the tent with our sleeping bags at sundown.  It became tradition to buy cans of sour cream and onion Pringles and bags of Doritos with our allowances and enjoye the rare, special occasion that we were allowed to have soda and chips at bedtime.  We packed board games and cards and set them in their proper corner of the tent for later.  We brought out the flashlights and we were ready to have our camping adventure.  I’ll never forget the smell of the tent canvas, the feel of the hard ground and the shadows from the flashlights.  Nothing says childhood more than camping.  Any child who didn’t grow up camping has my complete and utter sympathy.  I don’t care if camping is your thing or not, if you never experienced sleeping outside at least once as a kid you were deprived.

Now, we didn’t just camp in my backyard.  If you’ve read some of my other posts you’ll know that I grew up camping with my family.  We had an annual tradition of camping with a few other families we were close with from church. 

I'm the curly haired one sitting next to my best friend, Tiff (barrettes in her hair)

When I was really little we camped with all the families every year at Watkins Glen State Park.  This magical place filled with gorges and waterfalls is only a few miles away from one of my childhood friends in whom I am still friends with, and a few years ago when I was there for a visit we went and trekked the trails.   For those of you who have never been to New York and first think of New York City when the state is mentioned to you, you may not know how beautiful and wild New York is. 

I hadn’t seen this place since I was a child and the ghosts of the memories haunted me when I saw the swimming hole we used to catch minnows in.  It’s funny how that is.

As I got older we camped with our church friends at a few different places.  My favorite place, that I can’t remember the name of, was where I caught my first rainbow trout.  I think I was nine or ten years old.  It was a whopping 11 inches.  Or at least I think… There was some debate between me and my brother.  I was certain Dad measured it at 11, but my brother insisted it was 10.  Either way, it was a baby trout and I loved it to death.  Well, literally.  We put it in a bucket to eat later, but when a raging storm came that night we had to pack up and head home… leaving my dead trout behind. 

There was a contra dancing team that came to the campground that night too, and we square danced with everyone in one of the pavilions.  I remember it being one of the most enjoyable nights of my childhood.  I don’t care what you think of square dancing, it is bleeping awesome.  And if I ever get married, or pretend to get married and throw a party, we’re doin’ square dancin’. 

This is a stock photo. I do not know these people. But they look like they're having as much fun as I did.

We not only camped with church families, but we also went on a lot of trips as a family.  We camped near Niagra Falls when I was super little, but I only remember bits and pieces of it.  I remember we had to borrow a My Little Pony sleeping bag for me from a friend and we slept in a rented camper.  I remember we found bits of Bible scripture in the campfire: someone before us burned a Bible.  I remember only a little of Darien Lake, the big amusement park in upstate that we went to on this camping trip.  This is me and my two older brothers at Darien. 

And I barely remember the falls…  I never saw Niagra Falls again.  The only thing I remember is seeing the spot they filmed Superman saving that stupid kid falling off the rail. 

The real Superman: Christopher Reeves. 

The most memorable camping trip I ever had was up on the Canadian border.  We camped in Wellesley Island State Park in The Thousand Islands.  If you’re not familiar with The Thousand Islands, it’s an area on the border of Ontario and New York where over eighteen hundred islands fill the St. Lawrence River and part of the northeast of Lake Ontario.   It’s a spectacular place filled with ancient history where the evidence of human life goes back seven thousand years. 

Part of its magic is the historical sites.  We visited one of the castles in the islands, Boldt Castle on Heart Island.  This mansion was made from the passion of a man (George C. Boldt) who loved his wife so much he decided to build a castle for her. Quite tragically she died before it was done being built. http://www.boldtcastle.com/visitorinfo/ 

I remember walking through it and not understanding why it was so special.  Like I said it wasn’t completed so it was very white and empty inside.  The only thing I found amusing about it was pointing out all the hidden hearts in the stone and stairwells.  He filled the mansion with hearts.  He either loved his wife into obsession, or was trying to make up for a very large mistake… Either way, it’s a really cool story.  And I wish I had appreciated walking through it a little more. 

So you’re probably wondering, “Thousand Islands?  Like the dressing?”  Yeah. Like the dressing.  The dressing is named after the place indeed. You can thank Sophie LaLonde for Thousand Island salad dressing.  http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/09/05/491992134/thousand-islands-two-tales-who-really-invented-that-dressing

This trip was memorable for a lot of reasons.  Not only because of the nature walks and Boldt Castle and the history and the fishing, but to start off my adventure I cracked my tailbone for the first time (I say first because I later got into horses...). I cracked it within ten minutes of getting to the campsite.  It had been raining and the rocks by the water were extremely slippery.  My mother warned us. 

And I tried to be careful, but I stepped on one giant, soft slab of a boulder and… down I came.  The pain I felt scared the crap out of me.  It knocked the wind clean out of me.  I’ll never forget how much it hurt and I’ll never forget how much pain I was in the entire camping trip.  I remember playing ping pong with my little brother in the campground game barn and bending over to pick up the ping pong ball on the floor and wanting to scream in agony. 

So. Besides that.

Fishing was great.  I never caught anything big.  But I caught at least a hundred pan fish, no exaggeration.  Every time I dropped a line I was pulling something in.  And they were decent sized.  Ten inch perch, not bad.  Um...Eight inch... Seven? Still. 

My dad caught a decent sized largemouth that we thought was the coolest thing on the whole planet.  It was a good time.

My pants are rockin'

Something we thought was very exotic about the place was the black squirrel.  We had never seen black squirrels and they were everywhere.  And they got real close to you, naturally, begging for food…  There is a picture in existence somewhere of me sitting in my way rad child lawn chair with a black squirrel almost right at my feet.  I don’t know where that picture is so here’s one of me in that  same chair sitting like a thug next to my little brother.  You’re welcome.

That's my Thousand Island souvenir T-shirt that I practically wore every single day of my childhood career. 

The last time we camped as a family I think I was twelve.  A few years later we moved and never camped again. 

I camped a few times in my adult life.  My brother and I camped for a night in Pennsylvania to see a Dave Matthews concert.  I went camping with my friend Barb and her family a few years ago.  That was the first time I had gone fishing since I lived in Pennsylvania.  And it was the first time I had caught a fish since I lived in New York.  And they happened to be a couple of ten to twelve inch trout. 

Can you tell I'm excited?

We were in Lanesboro, Minnesota. It’s a gorgeous part of the state if you ever get to go, and they have a fabulous little town with cute shops and things to do.  They even have a telephone booth.  Just like the one Superman changes in.

I also went camping with my dear friend Emily a few years ago.  It was just her and I, tenting it pretty rustic.  We had water from a pump at our site, but that was about the only luxury.  We cooked all of our meals over our campfire and even though it was a ton of work, the food was amazing. 

We used leftover bacon to make BLT’s for breakfast and it was literally the best breakfast I’ve ever had. 

You may notice this is NOT BLTs, but our dinner the night before...but it captures how we feasted

We also walked some beautiful trails.  Got lost.  But found our way back before it got dark. 

                                                                     I love camping.

Age 33

Age 8

Now in my old blog "Hating Minnesota", Chippewa National Forest was actually on my list of Twelve Places but I never got the chance to camp there.  And thanks to a couple of real fine people I not only got the chance to camp there, but I also got the chance to be filled up with a childhood nostalgia that was pure goodness for my soul.  I got to fish in ways I’ve never fished before, caught fish I’ve never caught before, laugh with friends and sleep in the woods. 

Stay tuned for part two!  My first time fishing at night in a boat….