Small Adventure: William O'Brien, Part Two!
This time with camping!
Yes, I had a nice time tromping around William O’Brien State Park a couple of weeks ago. The Husband didn’t go (he’s not usually one for Small Adventures), but he’s getting ready for a Large Adventure and needed a night of camping. He’s going to do some bikepacking on the Ice Age Trail over the summer, and always wants to do some gear testing before he starts his Large Adventures. (Smart!)
O’Brien is next to the Wisconsin border, and not terribly far from his starting point. And the weekend was forecasted to be pretty lovely weather-wise. And, I’m always interested in doing some camping! So, off we went.
We trudged around trails. (Well: I trudged. The Husband zooms speedily along the trail, making miles on his long-distance adventure training.) He did the club trail, but I did it in my last visit. So I trudged along the Wedge Hill trail, and ventured off it onto a clearly mown trail that wasn’t on the map. Yay: new trails and explorations!
You can see here that spring is really starting to happen! The trees are happily budding, and the grass is green. The photo on the left side looked like a nice place to sit and enjoy the view, with all the aspen trees surrounding it.
They have done some burning here, clearing out some of the old growth. It obviously wasn’t in the last couple of days, but I could still smell the burning when I was trudging around the fields.
When I’ve talked about camping, I’ve definitely gushed about the hammock - and it is SO COMFORTABLE! I do love the hammock. I was slightly concerned, because the temperature during the day was lovely - but it was going to be down to nearly 40 overnight. I didn’t want to be cold, because being cold outside overnight is very unpleasant - and makes the night feel like it’s about a thousand years long. So I had my usual sleeping bag (see here, in orange!) and I also had an old Arctic brand bag from my dad. He camped across Alaska with it, volunteering with the National Park Service. It doesn’t zip up anymore, but it’s very heavy and warm. I always keep it in the trunk of my car, for emergencies. Or, for being chilly when camping - obviously.
In a hammock you don’t need to be in a sleeping bag; you can just unzip it, put your feet in the toebox (the end for feet), and lay it over you like a blanket. That night, I was concerned about being cold, so I did get zipped into my bag because I thought it would help to keep heat in and keep me warmer. Unfortunately, I seem to have lost all my suave and smooth hammocking skills over the winter! It was very dark when we turned in, and I hate shining lights all over. (Night is supposed to be DARK!) So I was trying to work my way into the bag, completely unable to see anything. Eventually I had to get out of the whole thing, hold the bag up while I stepped into the end of it, and pull it up under my chin. Then I flopped back into the hammock, and zipped myself in. I had the Arctic bag, with the broken zipper, to pull up over myself like the comfy blanket.
It wasn’t graceful, but I stayed nice and warm and comfortable all night! (It probably helped that when I popped out for a quick 2am bathroom break, I didn’t even bother trying to zip myself back in. I took the easier and smarter strategy of just pulling the bags up around myself.)
Let’s look at a few things to bring on a camping trip, to make it comfortable. (Of course, you can choose to do more of a hardship experience - but I’m not into that myself.) I love camp chairs! Get a big sturdy chair, and it’s so much more comfortable than the picnic table a lot of campgrounds provide. I’ve sat in this chair, and many like it, for countless hours as I read books, sipped tea, and stared at fires and at trees and other nice things.
One corollary to this good thing: CHECK your chairs before you throw them into the trunk of your car! I, clearly, failed to do this. So I brought one comfy chair, and one chair that was broken at every single joint and totally unusable. How did this happen? I have no clue. (I did side-eye to The Husband, assuming he may have dropped something on the chair as it was being stored in the garage over the winter. But there’s no way of really knowing.)
(Did I claim the working chair when we sat by the firepit that night? Absolutely!)
Here are a couple of other very useful things to bring a a camping trip. I always put water into my five gallon container when I’m out adventuring. It’s hard to be sure you are going to have easy access to water when you are traveling, and when you are camping, you don’t want to spend a bunch of pointless time running around to find the water source. Plus: I worry about the cleanliness of water coming from unknown locations. Sure, maybe their well water is amazing - but is it filled with runoff of pesticides from farms? Does the septic tank sewage leak into the water table? I’d rather not find out. You probably don’t think about how much water you use in an average day, but bring more than you think you will use! Washing hands, brushing teeth, drinking tea/coffee, cooking dehydrated meals - it’s all pretty water-intensive.
And of course, in the picture on the left, next to the hard-sided container is my beloved JetBoil! I love this thing, and as I’ve said before I now take it on every trip I take - whether I’m staying inside or out. I’m always going to be happier with a hot tea available; and with a JetBoil, hot water is only a minute away from you.
I also keep a food box going all year. This is a hard plastic container that was once filled with Mountain House dehydrated meals. I hate to throw away perfectly good things, and this is absolutely perfect as a food box! (I’m assuming that was the idea; otherwise it would be kind of overkill to send food packages in such a sturdy container.) I keep dishes and silverware in here all the time, along with an assortment of food items that are fine to just sit quietly for months at a stretch. Then, when it’s time to go camping - I just grab the food box and head out, no fussing and packing required!
Mountain House meals are excellent in many ways: they are tasty, there is a lot of food in each. (Important when you have been trudging all day, or are feeling especially sad at the end of a hard and lonely day.) I don’t like to cook under any circumstances, and I’m not wasting precious vacation time on this. So, firing the JetBoil and dumping boiling water into the Mountain House packet, and then eating a nice hot meal. I’ve eaten them at picnic tables, while sitting in comfortable camp chairs, while sitting on beds in cabins, and while sitting in my car. They are required to have food expiration dates - which are 30 years into the future. Love it! And, while I’m not a prepper, it is good to have some emergency food in your house, because things happen (blizzards and such). Throwing a few Mountain House packets into your food box means you are ready for adventures, or ready to stay happily at home when it would be unpleasant to be outside.
And here are a collection of miscellaneous photos and camping tips!
The first is a view under the tarp of my hammock. You can see the yoga mat on the ground, with whatever stuff I’ve brought with me. It’s a good idea to have a yoga mat, or some other type of mat, under the hammock so you don’t bring all the detritus of the forest into your sleeping location. And it gives you a clean space to leave things overnight. If you were thruhiking, this would be vital. Even for those of us who are car camping, it’s nice to have tomorrow’s clothes sitting there to be changed into under the tarp. (Obviously, you would NEVER leave food here! Or anywhere near your bed! Nobody wants to have “small bears” visiting you in the night. Racoons, possums, rats, squirrels, and all other small critters with sharp teeth are not going to be good guests - so don’t invite them over for food.)
It’s clear that I’m in no way a hard-core camper or hiker or anything else. I’m just outside having a good time. My idea of a good time includes trudging around on trails, then sleeping outside. And even for that level of lowkey adventure, you want the right shoes. In the middle photo you can see the shoes that I was wearing - very comfy Hoka trail shoes. They are grippy and foam padded, helping me to cling to the trail when my body wants to slide and tip over, and helping me to have comfortable feet. Bliss!
You don’t need to spend many hours walking in bad shoes to vow to spend the rest of your life shelling out money on good walking shoes! I’ve been in the “plush” version of Hoka shoes ever since I started running, walking to work, and hiking around Boston in what turned out to be the wrong shoes. After landing in the doctor’s office with what I was sure were fractured shins, with a post-run routine of covering myself from the knees down with bags of frozen peas to deal with the pain I was in - I threw all my shoes in the trash and vowed to do better. My bones weren’t actually broken, but I was interesting enough to the doctor that a couple of other (presumably bored) doctors stopped by to look at my x-rays and poke at my shins too. (Ow.) Shoes are very individual, so be prepared to try a few before you find “The One” for you. But it is absolutely worth the effort! Life is too short to be in unnecessary pain!!
The other shoes, obviously unimpressive, are my camp shoes. It’s good to get out of shoes you have been hiking in all day, and a flimsy pair of slip-on camp shoes are just the thing. Notice that they are full shoes. I’m not a fan of sandals in camp, as they tend to attract sticks and leaves and other things onto your feet. (Ick.) Camping is already a kind of grubby experience; don’t make it worse with ground litter. These shoes have no laces to tie; you just slide the thingie back to slip them on, then toward the shoe to make them snug enough to stay on in comfort.
One aspect of camping will be a nightly need to get up out of your sleeping bag to pee. Speaking as a person in a female body, I’m very comfortable scrunching down just about anywhere and having a “natural break” (as they call it in cycling). Spread your feet a little wider than you think you should - that’s the key. It also makes it easier to stand back up pretty fluidly. But camping inevitably happens in very dark places, and nobody wants to deal with tying shoes when you can’t see the laces - and you really don’t want to go out on a pee-based adventure with loose laces. Soaking your shoelaces in urine is not an adventure I’ve ever had, and it’s one I very very much want to avoid! So: shoes that I can slip on, and that will stay on my feet when I’m blundering around in the dark, and aren’t going to be pee-soaked, are perfect.
And the third picture is a lovely thing to have when camping: an actual flush toilet! That means running water is present! You have no idea how absolutely wonderful it is to wash your hands and brush your teeth with running water, until you spend a couple of days NOT having this luxury. So, all of that is wonderful, and I’m always grateful to be in a campground with such wonders.
But. Not to complain. Well, not too much I guess. But: WTF is with the plumbing profession? SURELY there has to be a way to make toilets a little less…icky. Yes: an absolute marvel of engineering and all. But. But. Look at the relatively snug space I have to work with here. (This is absolutely a standard design - in no way complaining specifically about this park!) And then notice the button you have to push to flush a toilet. It’s on the wall behind the toilet, and way down there. Of course, we can all agree that flushing a toilet after use is a basic responsibility of a civilized society. I’m very in favor of such things. But that button. Ugh. It’s VERY HARD TO PUSH, not something you can just tap and exit. Nope. Instead I needed to lean way down, putting my face nearly directly over the toilet, filled with…things I’ve disposed of, and then put at least one - occasionally two - hands onto it to push. Ick. I do always open the door first, so I can fly backwards out as quickly as possible. But, still. Ick.
I know some people just push with their feet. But that doesn’t really seem to be the right way. If feet were required, it would be lower. Why can’t there be a nice button to push, on the way out the door? I’ve seen a few (VERY FEW) camp toilets with actual foot pedals - brilliant!!! Ugh. It’s not a disaster, and would never stop me from camping. But public toilets in general need to really improve.
Ah, camping. It’s such a wonderful and peaceful activity! Calming and serene! And once you remove all the clutter from your day and your mental processes, you spend a surprising amount of time on bathroom habits and skills. Weird, but true.
Okay, let’s bring this back to the happiness of camping and being outdoors! Small adventures are great! I’ve talked with several people who, when they hear I go camping and adventuring, tell me all about how nervous they would be to do something wrong. I’m here to tell you that unless you actually set yourself on fire - there isn’t a “wrong” way to go outside and have fun. Are you having fun? Feeling more relaxed? Interested in what’s goin on around you? Excellent! That’s all that matters.
Of course, there are always a few twits who want to tell you how very wrong everything you do is - in camping and in life. But: who cares about them? I am an actual Doctor of Information, and I give you absolute dispensation to just dive into things without a clear plan, to try things you don’t really know how to do, and to just go outside to have fun!
Don’t put a lot of pressure on your adventure. You need to eat, sleep, and have something to do. Think about how to easily make those things happen - and that’s all you need! Nobody cares how you get it done. Browsing any campground will show you a plethora of options for sleeping and eating and having fun outside. Try something! Make a change or two the next time, and try that!
The only thing that matters here is that you go outside, go try something, go have an adventure outside of your everyday life. I have no idea if this is our only life, our only chance at doing things - but we are here now: make the most of it! The whole point to life is to enjoy it, and having y our own Small Adventures is the best way to do that.