2006 07 Camping

Camping

As long as I can remember, my family camped. As young children, weekend car camping was the norm. What that involved is loading six of us into a station wagon packed with gear and a dog and driving to some California State Park. The gear consisted of a canvas tent or two, lots of foodstuff, kapok sleeping bags and air mattresses. The car always seemed loaded to the “gills”. The campsites were usually fairly primitive…a picnic table, sometimes a charcoal grill and a cabinet in which to put food so the animals wouldn’t get in. Down the road was either a chemical toilet, or sometimes a rustic building with toilets, wash basins and perhaps a shower. If there was a shower it was likely cold water only. I can remember questioning the need for a shower in cold water, but mother insisted. Perhaps the hikes which we took to some pretty stream or hill made us smell more than I was aware. We’d stay a day or two and then return home.
Occasionally, my parents planned a longer trip. One year, we took two long journeys of a week each. During Christmas vacation we went to Death Valley and during Easter vacation we went to the Grand Tetons. (In those days we really did call them Christmas and Easter vacations). As a youngster of about six, the most memorable part of the Death Valley trip was the toilet at a remote desert Shell gas station. I really had to go #2. Most desert gas stations had a limited supply of water. What water there was very laden with minerals which made it turn white when it dried. Since there is not a lot of ground cover, everything seemed dusty and dirty. Not a lot of effort in cleanliness was made on the part of the station staff. Remember too, that this was a time that service was a big part of the phrase service station. They pumped your gas, they checked your oil and tried in every way to make your experience pleasant. Except at this Shell station, they devoted zero attention to the cleanliness of the bathrooms. I was at the age when I was a bit self-conscious. So when I really had to go, I took one look at that dirty dirty dirty toilet and thought no way. So I called out to dad. He picked me up and held me over the seat. Ah, the things parents will do for their children! Now over fifty years later that’s about all I remember about that trip to Death Valley.
Camping is a big part of boy scouting. Berkeley’s Troop 5 was an active troop with over sixty boys and their devoted fathers. My older brother joined and I couldn’t wait to be twelve, the benchmark age to join. The camp for Troop 5 was a true wilderness camp. Perched on the side of a beautiful Pacific Gas and Electric Company reservoir in the Sierra Nevada, access was by dirt tractor road. The nearest paved road was seven miles away. There were no buildings. Latrines had to be dug by the scouts. In those days, conservation meant burying your tin cans and food waste in a garbage pit up the hill from the camp. There was an active program of hiking, swimming, boating, merit badge advancement, reading and campfires. Twice a week we’d take a special hike. Toward the end of the three week camp, when everyone was in great shape, we’d take a long hike to a remote mountain lake. Patrols cooked their own meals on fires built with wood collected in the forest and carried by hand back to the campsite. It was a great experience with lots of life challenges to overcome. Since the scouting model involves letting the older boys lead, their mistakes and other antics led to some great adventures.
I loved the outdoors so much that in high school several of my buddies and I planned a trip to the high country wilderness southeast of Yosemite. Idyllic was the word for that part of the world. So for my honeymoon, I wanted to share that with my bride. We hiked seven miles into Lake Ediza with our backpacks and camped for five days. Wilderness camping for her was a new experience and she was a good sport to go along with it. We saw only three people during our outing and most of them were at a distance. Not a bad honeymoon! Would I do it again? You bet!
Several years later, along came the next generation. Our first big camping adventure was car camping in Hawaii, then New Zealand. We rented camping vans and travelled around those islands stopping at wonderfully appointed spots. The vans gave us both transportation and lodging all rolled into one. The campsites in New Zealand were spotless and well appointed.
As our family grew, we enjoyed our camping experiences, but were ready to give up sleeping on the ground for most of our trips. Roberta’s parents had purchased a camping trailer with fold out beds. They had graduated to hotels and motels for their adventures and gave the trailer to us to enjoy. We pulled it clear across the country behind our Volkswagen bus with the children, staying in public and private campgrounds. After a while, our routine was pretty efficient. We’d pull into a campground (often late at night), set up the tent in about five minutes, cook a quick meal on our white gas stove and then bed down on the comfortable foam mattress for the night. The campgrounds varied from very crowded to somewhat more remote.
One time we got on a mailing list for a camping organization. At the time when personal computers were in their infancy, one particularly enticing offer was made to visit a campground in return for a personal digital assistant. The value of the computer was probably sixty dollars. The camper membership was several hundred dollars annually. We liked the concept of the program and took the bait. While we have kept our membership current all these twenty years, our use of the program has been nominal since we have the perfect family vacation spot at South Lake Tahoe provided by my parents. The obsolete digital assistant is long gone, but the camping memories continue.
Several years ago, our daughter wanted to go wilderness camping alone. We advised her against it, but she was determined to go anyway. Not wanting to risk injury to her, I volunteered to go with her. She had planned a wonderful loop in the high country east of Fresno. She was in her early twenties and I in my fifties at the time. I rediscovered how exciting camping can be. We drove to a beautiful spot near Mineral King parked the car and backpacked for a week. Every day it rained, sometimes profusely. At one point, thunder and lightening were almost simultaneous. We hiked many thousands of feet of elevation. Our time together was just terrific. We joked about the hardships of the rain, the sore feet, the heavy backpacks. We sang silly songs and just had a great time together. It is not a good idea to go camping alone. It’s too much fun to do it with someone else!
Both our sons participated in the Boy Scout experience at the same wilderness camp I had enjoyed as a youth. However, the experience was not nearly as positive. The leadership had deteriorated. Three weeks had dwindled to two. The older boys were less encouraging to the younger boys, in fact putting them down instead of building them up. In spite of those experiences, both sons grew in their appreciation of camping and have continued to seek opportunities for outdoor experiences.
One of the adventures which is inevitable in the wilderness is getting lost. My parents reminded me of the time we were all hiking and I wandered off to explore some interesting path. They were frantic, but I was content. I’ve been lost numerous times in the mountains and have come to enjoy those times as much as the times when I know the exact compass points. There is no panic in not knowing your precise bearings when you have a certain comfort level in the mountains. Part of that comes from successfully finding your way back to a known landmark. Part of it comes from planning ahead for contingencies of weather and distance. Part of it comes from experiencing being lost before without any major consequences. Part of it comes from scouting skills learned many years ago.
Camping in all it’s various manifestations…from true wilderness bivouacs to car camping with a tent trailer…is certainly a way to break from the monotony of life.

©Frank Bliss 2006 All rights reserved
July, 2006