In reply to some comments, of course I have a story I wish to share! I just didn't have time when I posted the question. The most awesome outdoor camping experience I had was on a several day wilderness canoe trip on the Green River in Utah. There were only two other canoes within a mile or two of us for the whole 5 days. Except for the first night, we slept without tents looking up at the stars from our dew covered sleeping bags. At times we relaxed in the canoes and just cruised. Towards the end of the journey, Daniel discovered a naturally warmed waterfall where the water ran over the rocks long enough to take the chill out of it. We emerged from our wilderness days surprisingly fresh and clean after our showers! Before that last campout, we fought again strong winds searching for a good place for the night. Once out of the rough waters near this cliff dwelling, the scene above is what met our eyes. The peace of that scene, of the calm after a struggle in a storm, is engrained so firmly on my mind. If I need to retreat into a peaceful place, I pull up that memory and the photo.
Adding to that moment, I think about our walk into a box canyon near our campsite. Bats swooping by at dusk, evening light resting on red canyon walls, and the awe welling up in my heart is completly indescribable.
But I was going to tell about sleeping outdoors. I wasn't able to stay awake long listening to the night chirps and gazing at the stars. Burrowed deep in a sleeping bag tied close around my head, I slept soundly, waking to a new morning, the last morning in the wilderness. After breaking up camp, we paddled down past where the Green River joins the Colorado, but we stopped at the large signs warning of dangerous rapids ahead to catch a boat ride with the other two canoes that I mentioned earlier.
Someone asked, "Who camped out by the cliff dwelling?" "Uh, we did." "We stopped by there later this morning, and there were couger tracks all over you camp site."
9 comments:
Hi Amy! I hope spring is coming your way sometime soon. I wish we had some of your snow here (it was terribly unsnowy this year).
I must admit that I've never slept outdoors. When I was a kid, we tried camping in the backyard, but I didn't make it the whole night, and I've never camped for real.
Good question though!
YEA! Story time. If we tell ours, you have to tell yours. ( : Heres my "book".
My earliest recollection of sleeping in the back yard was with my cousins, a LONG time ago. I don't think we got much sleep.
My friend Tatum and I often remember when we slept in her tent in her back yard one summer night. I think we were telling stories, maybe some of them "spooky" when all of a sudden we heard this sctraching/scraping sound on the side of the tent. Thanks to the bright moon we were able to make out the shadow of ...a CLAW!!! We were so creeped out, especially when what ever it was had started clawing at the top of our tent. We huddled to the middle of the tent, and agreed that we should be quiet and let it go away. (we ended up falling asleep) Anyways, the next morning, when our brains were working again, we relized that it was her cat, Tootie. But the claw was so HUGE in the moonlight! Have you ever heard of a cat climbing a tent?!!!
My favorite times that I slept outside, was with no tent. One time I slept on a cot in a sandy creek bed, and slept solid, but only after witnessing the beauty of God's night creations.
I also LOVE sleeping on trampolines. I've learned not to sleep in the middle, because before morning, the people on the outside, have rolled on top of you.
Another time in a tent, was out an a ranch. my sleeping bag was right next to my friend Anna's, and we stayed up talking... a long time. Our older sisters, Amy and Jolynn...well...they really missed out. They slept in the house.
You should try sleeping outside sometime, Heidi! I have more fun questions coming up:)
Good stories, Kaylene! It's funny how things become "bigger" at night, isn't it? I've never slept on a trampoline... That last comment was uncalled for, friend. If I remember right, we slept much better than you guys but missed out on a fun experience, so the next year we joined you all but ruined the party because we wanted to sleep instead of talk all night!!! Do I get a third try?
I'll elaborate on the sleeping in the back yard with cousins. Sleeping isn't the right word...spending the night in a tent is more like it.
Many times we were just certain the parents had sent us to bed early(10:30 vs.midnight)so they could have fun by themselves, but we resigned ourselves and told all the jokes and ghost stories our semi-innocent minds could think of.
If some of us managed or tried to fall asleep before the rest we were labeled Fakin'-bakin' "'cause there was no way anybody was really sleeping in all that racket!".
If we heard the door to the house squeak ever so slightly we would fall silent as best we could. If it was only the breeze we would quickly resume with sighs of relief...if it was a Dad...we all but faked snores. We did answer questions truthfully if we were asked, so we hoped we weren't asked.:D
Dad: "are you all sleeping?"
Bravest cousin:"......nnnot exactly..."
Dad: "We can hear you all the way in the house! Be quiet and go to sleep!"
cousins(unison): "OK!"
So we commenced to whispering...well we were being quiet! The whispering would eventually lull us to sleep and hopefully we didn't have to wake up too early the next morning.
That sounds like it was tons of fun! Thanks for stopping by again. To answer your questions, I studied Chemistry in college. I worked a Chemistry job for several years before my son was born. At that job, all my coworkers were old enough to be my parents:)
How lucky are you to have visited 19 national parks! We've been to maybe 10? But not big ones, mostly the Eastern ones that are pretty small really.
It's fun to know that we have some things in common. When I was younger, I wanted to be a nurse, but I was scared off by the anatomy classes and stuff because I am just so horrible at memorizing.
I hope you had a great weekend!
That´s a fun question. I´d have to agree with you that the green river canoe trip was one of the best camping experiences ever!
One of my most interesting camping experiences was on a beautiful summer evening when I desided to lay my pad out in the pasture and fall asleep under the star filled sky. Falling asleep was nothing less than blissful. However, when I woke up at midnight I could tell that something wasn´t right. My entire scalp was itching intensely. Turning the flashlight on, I discovered that my hair was swarming with ants. Maybe I should have just gone back to sleep and received a thoughor scalp cleaning, but instead I gave myself a rather vigorous dry shampoo and walked to the house...I figured my chances of avoiding another ant bed were better there.
(Camping out is still a favorite of mine)
You learn things about your own brother that you never knew with questions like this!
Dude. Your friends will think I am a city girl because I don't remember sleeping under the stars. Seems like I tried braving a tent in the front yard a time or two (*braving* being the key word). And I have slept in a camper - once at the Steeds house. :-) And I have dozed off in a hotel lobby chair in the middle of the night. The only scary part was probably on the side of the people who saw me or tried to communicate with me at that hour. JMM
Hey, that sounds like that was an amazing night sleeping outside. I don't know if I have one memorable sleeping outside but the most memorable time I had was when we went and climbed Mount Sinai. In order to get the full experience we had to get up about 2am in the morning and went to climb the mountain. It was about a 4 hour hike to the top and the thing I remeber the most was the stars that night shining brighter than I have ever seen! I was the first one to make it to the top ahead of my family and it was kind of a relief because I just sat up there and spent a few minutes with God and it was amazing. I can't tell you how awesome it was to see the sun rise over the horizon! If you ever get the chance to go there and do that, it is well worth going!
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