Last night's experiences will rank in my list of things that I am really proud of myself for doing, like swimming in a shark cage, and biking down Pike's peak.
Even though I had never been camping before, even though it was in the forecast to snow, even though the temperatures were below freezing for most of the time we were going to be there, we went camping Friday night.
We have a friend in our running club who loves to camp, in way more extreme conditions than what we faced last night, and we had made plans to camp with him this weekend. Nothing in the forecast held him back, and he assured us he had plenty of supplies to keep us warm, so we gritted our teeth and decided it was worth it to do something epic, so we still went.
The excitement started on our drive to our campsite in Barton Flats (little lower elevation than Big Bear). As we navigated our way to our campsite it started snowing/ hailing on us. If it was snow, it was little pellets of snow that made a commotion as they hit the car. When there is a lot of it coming down as you drive, it really seems like the stars are falling from the sky to hit you, or like fireworks right in front of your car, crazy experience just driving through it (Blake at the wheel, I never drive in the mountains :P).
Our friend's car even slipped at one point, and we saw it slide a bit before he was able to gain control and continue to our camp. The temperature as listed by my car was around 30 degrees, and it was only 7 or 8 at night!
We all breathed a sigh of relief when we made it to the campsite in one piece. We also were happy that the snow/hail had a bit of a break as we set up the tents. Still, I had the job of trying to hold our one little lantern near enough to the tents where it was needed to set them up in the dark.
Between our borrowing our friend's sleeping bags that were rated for that degree of cold, bringing our own down blanket, and the fact that I was not willing to take off any of the layers or jacket that I was wearing during the day to sleep, I actually wasn't really cold at night.
However, it truly was a miserable night's sleep overall. The main problem is that I forgot a pillow, so I was using a blanket as a pillow, and it just wasn't as effective. The second problem was that our dogs were totally restless, and kept moving around. Tasha was enough as a pain as it was just from her moving, and trying to lick our faces (very persistently, I might add), but she upped her frustrating factor by 50 when she broke out of the tent in the middle of the night!
Seriously, we should rename her Houdini! She apparently pushed her nose at just the right spot to move the zipper enough for her to jump out! Blake noticed first, and started getting on his shoes, and I noticed him moving, asked what he was doing and he said "Tasha got out."
We have read before that huskies are not very good at returning, and should never be trusted off leash, because they might not come back. So it was with this very real, intense fear in mind that Blake set off to try to find her and I stayed back and started praying. He first started just looking around and calling her name, then he got the idea to follow her tracks in the fresh snow (that had been falling all night). After following her tracks a short way, he saw her, slowly approached her, called her to him (he was pleasantly surprised that she listened), and was able to successfully grab her and bring her back to the tent.
Once he got back in the tent, we turned around so that our heads were both blocking her chance at trying to escape again, and we tied the strings together as well. Blake said that he wasn't able to get back to sleep again after that harrowing experience, nor was he able to warm up again completely (it must have been around the twenties outside when he had to go get her).
I would compare sleeping on a camping trip to sleeping on a plane. It isn't solid, consistent sleep, and at moments you have your doubts about if you get any sleep at all since it seems you can always hear the ambient noises. At the same time, you know you aren't awake the whole night, and so you conclude you had moments you were able to sleep. Not bad enough to turn me off to the experience though.
This morning started cold, as mornings that it is still snowing are apt to be. I was okay temperature-wise, but Blake's cold hand issues were really giving him a hard time. His hands hurting combined with not sleeping, and not having enough warm clothes, he was noticeably uncomfortable, cold, and zombie like this morning.
As we worked on getting breakfast going, we put the dogs in the car so they were safe, warm, and more importantly, out of the way. I chatted with our friend, while Blake walked around (afterwards I learned he was checking the roads to make sure they were safe to drive down on), and his discomfort was bad enough for our friend to notice, and ask if we wanted to head down today instead of staying out there for a second night like we planned. I, being a novice, and a girl, really did not want to be at all involved about making the call to have us call the trip early. We were still talking as Blake walked back toward us, and our friend asked Blake the same question.
At this point, Blake surprised me, because he very quickly said yes, he couldn't handle another night there. Not with the cold, not with the dogs. So we made plans for what we wanted to do before we left, but decided to leave this afternoon (Saturday).
His mood noticeably improved as the plans shifted from spending today and tonight there, to just spending the day there and then driving home. We enjoyed tea around the fire, made biscuits on hangers, went for a hike with the dogs. There were moments where we were comfortably warm, as the sun was out and we were moving, but then then would be followed by some bitter cold gusts of wind.
After lunch we packed up, and took off back home.
My thoughts:
- It was a crazy way to experience camping! Cold, with lots of dog excitement, but I actually was really glad I went.
- Though I did not object, at all, to Blake's wanting to come home early (as even as I type this I look forward to sleeping in my bed tonight) I have to say that I wouldn't have minded if we stayed either. It really wasn't that bad for me.
- The new coat I bought (mostly with a giftcard) for this trip worked great! (As seen in the pictures above). I also practically lived in it as I put it on as we drove through the snow on the way to the site, and literally did not take it off until we drove back down the mountain today.
- As extreme as this was, I look forward to the next time we go camping! It was really scenic there both to wake up to, and on our hike later in the day. Also, you can't appreciate a cup of tea until you are drinking it next to a fire in 30-40 degree weather. Blake says when we go camping next, it will either be in summer or in the desert/beach, I think he is done with winter camping fun. :-D
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