We decided to take an impromptu camping trip in October with P&M down at Prince William Forest Park. This was a short notice trip, so we decided to stick close to home, and this park fits the bill, being only about 10 miles away.
We had never visited the park before, but had heard from several people that it was a good location to go hiking, and bring the dog.
Early on Friday, Liesl started a pot of Chili to take with us, and set it on low on the stove before heading out to reserve us a camp site, as we were not sure just how busy the camp grounds were going to be. With this campground only about 10 miles away it shouldn't have taken that long to get down and back. However, it was FRIDAY. It took her almost 90 minutes just to get there.
By the time she got one of our little tents set up to reserve the site, I had decided that I needed to get off work early. So I told my boss she was trying to burn the house down, by leaving the stove on, and headed home. The chili was a little burned, but still edible.
Liesl returned not too long after got back, and we scrambled a bit to get the car loaded. We knew it was gonna take a while to get back down there, and set up, and it was probably going to be dark. Peter and Marissa had a much further drive, so we wanted to get things set up before they got there.
Needless to say, it was well dark by the time we got there to set up the camp. To boot, we had just bought a new tent, and for anyone who has done it before, you know it's always fun to set up a new tent in the dark. (We bought this big dome tent from Dick's, which gave us a lot more room than I am used to in a tent, but as we are not having to lug it around on our backs, I'm willing to go with it)
The tent went up with a little help from Mr. Headlight, and I was starting to rub sticks together to get some flames when P&M pulled in. While they set about erecting their tent and getting all the gear situated, I huffed and puffed on some twigs till i got some smoke. I don't really recall how I got the first licks of flame out of that wood (lack of oxygen to the brain) but we finally had some small success, which we quickly turned into our s'mores oven.
Saturday morning rolled around and we made short work of breakfast before heading out on a nice little hike. The trails were nice, the temp was cool, and the cold had put most of the bugs down. Overall, it made for a great day for a hike.
As I am writing this all from memory, I cannot recall everything that occurred Saturday, but I know it was pretty laid back and enjoyable.
That evening, we had a chat with one of our neighboring campers, who had come to introduce himself. It should have been a sign that they were going to be irritating. I still don't understand why people go to the woods to get inebriated and listen to their radios. By the following morning, we had gotten fed up and sometime in the night the Park ranger’s office was called to come take care of them.
I had gotten up early, per my usual camping routine, to get the fire stoked and some well earned coffee going. Liesl, P&M all joined me shortly thereafter, and we had some entertainment while cleaning up our site. The evening before, an older couple had come in with an RV, somehow managing to back into the campsite next to ours. Unfortunately, the entrance faced the wrong way for a graceful exit, and they ended up taking out the marker post. No real damage, just pushed it back into place, and headed out. The park rangers finally responded to the call from the night before as well. It was probably a good thing. The neighbor’s camp was trashed with beer bottles everywhere. Between that and the extra tent and extra truck on the site, I'm thinking they ended up getting fined.
We ended the camping trip with a quick drive through the other sites, to see if there were any more remote from the others for future use.
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