Your most memorable camping story

[Tex1961]

I know we have threads for "Bonehead" moment, but I don't know if there is one for your BEST moment or trip so I would like to start.. I think it would be enjoyable to hear some nice stories and memories. Either RV or tent, doesn't matter...

We've had several, but the two that comes to mind is.

1. First time it rained while inside our RV. Woke up around 10am (after staying up until about 2am). Light rain on a tin roof.. ahhh... so relaxing.. Got up and made coffee and crawled back into bed. We drank our coffee and snoozed until almost noon... Most relaxing morning ever.

2. Campfire chats with our twin boys.. Never have we had such deep and wonderful conversations with our kids than around a campfire and marshmallows.

[Lifespalette]

Several years ago I made a trip out to Colorado on my motorcycle. Packed my camping gear (tent, foam bed roll, sleeping bag), fly rod and my small carry on case.....fit like a glove behind me. Actually worked out well as a nice back rest for the three day trip........camped along streams. My last night before arriving at my destination, was spent just outside of Fairplay, CO along a stream in a BLM site. Caught and released a half dozen trout while I wound down from riding all day. Had a really great country fried steak for dinner in Fairplay and called it a night around 8:30......laid in my tent with the flap open and watched the stars come out........very little light up there so the visibility seemed to quadruple the stars in the heavens. Listened to a Burrow Owl and a hawk hunting and a few elk making their way in the rushes around the stream. Temps dropped down in the low 50's or high 40's and slept like a baby. Woke the next morning, dressed and step out of the tent..............I was surrounded by a herd of elk. Smack dab in the middle.....must have been 200 or more...........needless to say my departure was delayed a couple of hours while I sat there and soaked in the beauty of nature.

[John K.]

Lifespalatte's story tops mine -- what a fantastic scene to wake to. My story takes place in 1996 when my sons were ages 6 and 10. We tent-camped in a camp ground next to the Green River after visiting nearby Dinosaur National Monument in Utah. Chipmunks greeted us as we set up camp. The boys discovered a badger alongside a small hill nearby (we're from Wisconsin but had never seen one live). We had a camp fire supper. When darkness came, the moon was nowhere to be seen, the stars were popping out of the sky's black background and the Perseid meteor shower was peaking that night. We spread blankets on the paved CG road, lie on the blankets and watched the show. We even spotted man-made satellites as they steadily, unblinkingly plowed through one end of the sky to the other. What a wonderful experience to share with the family.

[oobedoob]

Camping with my dad back in the early 90's, the old 1971 Dodge van's alternator packed it in after several days of "fixing" by whacking it with a hammer to get the brushes to make contact while many, many miles from home. Stopping at a parts store, pulling the alternator out in front of the store to get the core charge credit, driving on battery power alone to the campsite and replacing it while dad made dinner. I'll never forget it.

[North of 49°]

Many years ago, I was camping at Childs Lake Campground in Duck Mountain Provincial Park in Manitoba. I brought the canoe with me because the lake has crystal clear water -- so clear that scuba diving clubs go there. I got up early one morning, drove down to the dock where I left the canoe and launched it. Not a breath of wind, and the water was like glass. I paddled out to the middle of the lake and listened to the loons. I enjoyed that for a while and continued on to the other side of the lake where the lodge was, enjoyed a great breakfast, then paddled back to listen to the loons some more. Great memory.

[TWP723]

My most memorable moment has got to be camping at Cherrystone in Cape Charles, VA. There was about 25 of us total with kids in 6 sites bayside. All of us were sitting around, cooking dinner at one of the sites. Had a tripod setup over the fire and roasting peppers and onions. I was looking over to my right, over the bay, and saw a huge huge black cloud. We didn't think anything of it and kept cooking and chatting. I realized the cloud was getting closer and closer to our area and now lightning was flashing like crazy. I remember thinking, "Does anyone else see what I see?". Everyone was just talking and gabbin', like no big deal. I would look back and forth between the smoke on our fire and the ominous cloud bearing down on us. Within seconds, the smoke from the fire went from blowing left..to straight up...to hard right! Just then, I stood up and said, "I think we all should start battening down the hatches and put the awnings away." I was about 10 seconds too late. At that very second, a nasty and powerful microburst hit the campground with unrelentless fury. I remember looking around and seeing people running and screaming. I ran back to my pop-up and starting taking out the poles but was hit by winds reaching 60 mph. The winds yanked the awning clean out of my hand and it disappeared above me into and over the trees. That's when I heard my brother-in-law screaming for help. I looked over towards his site and noticed him and his wife literally holding onto the pop-up! I ran over, along with about 5 others, to help. He said the kids were inside and the camper was moving. Just then, I looked down and saw the camper stabilizers come off the ground about 4 inches then lightly go back down. I screamed at the others to get the kids out of there, that the camper was getting ready to go. It never did but, was very close to doing so. Then, I heard my sister-in-law yelling across the road. They were in a big Coleman 3 room tent. The tent was being pinned to the ground by the wind and you could see the outline of the kids inside. The wind had pinned them down with the tent and poles. My brother-in-law and I ended up cutting the tent to get the kids out, who were absolutely freaking out. Then I went back to my pop-up while my wife was in the truck with the kids. I jump in and she says, "Do you have the keys?". Realizing I didn't, I went back into the camper to get them. I unzipped all the windows to allow the wind to pass through instead of 'pushing' on the sides. Grabbed my keys and felt the camper rise then come back down. Jumped in the truck and retreated to the campgrounds interior. To my surprise, people staying further in were just sitting around..chit-chatting. There was 0 wind! What the H*** was going on? They got nothing...nothing at all. Went back to our camper and the people staying across the road asked if we needed help. That's when the guy at that site said, "We didn't get anything strong here!" He told me the wind picked up a little but no big deal. The kickball his kids were playing with hadn't moved..not an inch. There was woman walking up the road crying and asking for help. Her TT had tipped over and her dog was inside. A bunch of us went down and helped "right" the trailer. What a fiasco. At the time, I had a Golden Retriever that had somehow got off her leash. Most likely very scared. A campground host came by and gave me grief for my dog being off the leash..just minutes after this whole ordeal. Kids crying and campers torn apart and now this! I ripped him a new one. I said, "We just went through a very F'n crazy storm and all you can do is come down and run your mouth about my dog being off her leash?!!". He shut up and kept going. Trust me, my wife gave the office an ear full. I understand they need to be on a leash, and she was before the storm. She just got scared and broke it. They even told us they knew the storm was coming but, never warned the campers! Idiots!

Not a good experience, but a memorable one. To say the least.

[bedrck46]

It can be an interesting sight watching those storms come across the bay and it happens very often and very quickly at Cherrystone And as you experienced, it all depends where your site is as to how much or little wind and damage is done. Otherwise a very nice campground.

[Tex1961]

Excellent stories and great reading... Thanks for sharing those...

[need-a-vacation]

I really can't say what would be the most memorable trip....

I look at each trip at being as memorable in one way or another as previous trips. May be in a different way than the previous trip(s), but still a great way to escape reality!!!

Waking up in the middle of an Elk heard would be crazy (in a good way!)!!! That would definitely be awesome!

Tex,

Twin boys??? How old? We have identicle 12yo boys ourselves. It is an interesting at times! Lol

[Iraqvet05]

We have had only had our TT a few years now and most of our trips have been local. This year, we took a week off and hit some state parks in SE Missouri. We went to Elephant Rocks SP (natural rock formation park and old 1800-1900s rock quarry) after which my 7 year old son told me "this is the best day of my life"...that put a smile on my face a tugged a little at my heart.

[Camper_bob]

DW and I borrowed my dad's boat WAY back when we were just dating in college. I had an old Coleman A-frame tent, and a cooler. So we decided to make a weekend getaway at Lake Livingston, TX. It was one of our first trips out together as a couple; could've been our first, I don't remember.

We got to the park Friday morning and made camp. We decided to go ahead and launch the boat for a picnic lunch out on "Pine Island" (I don't know if the island actually has a name, but that's what we call this particular tiny island). I have camped on that lake and picnicked on that island since before I can remember. Most of my earliest camping memories are on that lake in our old boat and our Citation travel trailer.

So we motor out to the island and I beach the boat on the leeward side. We get out, swim around a bit, enjoy our picnic dinner. So it's starting to get a little darker, so we decide to go ahead back to the ramp and put the boat up and get back to camp for the day. We putt around the island, and I look around the other side of the lake as we make our way out from behind the pines and see the biggest, baddest thunderstorm I've seen in YEARS just off the other shore of the lake.

DW is driving the boat, and I tell her "look, if you don't want to get wet, you might want to go a little faster". She pushes the throttle down some more and we speed up trying to beat the storm. I turn around and see a solid wall of rain coming at us fast! I yell to her, "Bury it! We gotta go!" So she pushes the throttle down as far as it will go. The boat is running flat out across the lake toward the ramp. Then the rain hits. I knew we were going to get wet as soon as I saw that cloud at the island, so no big surprise, but it was coming down in buckets. She literally throws me off at the dock, I sprint up to the truck and get the trailer in the water. Little did I know I had the trailer a little too far in the water, but not like it mattered anyway, there were 4 ft waves coming into the boat ramp area. She pulls the boat up onto the trailer just as one of those waves comes up. The wave picked the boat up and dropped it back down right on the trailer. It actually broke the bow guide off the front of the trailer and put a huge gash in the fiberglass up front. The wave just about knocked me off the trailer where I was trying to attach the winch strap. So there in the rain, I had to open the back of the Surburban up and try to Macgyver the guide back on so we could tow the boat out.

We finally get the boat on the trailer and out of the water, and we're DRENCHED. The boat was FULL of water, a couple of inches over our feet in the bottom of the boat. No way the bilge pump was keeping up with that rain!

We got back to camp only to discover our tent and most of our stuff in a huge puddle (again, no big surprise). So freezing and wet, we folded all the seats down in the truck (1988 GMC Suburban, lots of space to stretch out) to take shelter. We cuddled in the truck and played card games for hours until the storm passed.

We decided to take all our stuff to town to try to find a laundromat where we could dry it. We found one, but it was about to close. We convinced the lady to let us in; we looked pretty sad, so it didn't take much.

Finally got back to camp and got everything situated. We did end up staying the night, but I can tell you if that were to happen today, we'd be heading home long before bed time; you got to know when to fold 'em.

That's pretty much how our camping relationship began. Since then, and that was what ... 15, 16 years ago now? We have had rain on AT LEAST 95% of our camping trips. We learned a lot that day; about ourselves, about our relationship, about respecting nature and the weather, and about how to deal with bad situations. And as such, we have not repeated such a horrific experience. Every now and again, we tell each other that story as a reminder of what can and will happen.

[Tex1961]

Originally Posted by need-a-vacation

I really can't say what would be the most memorable trip....

I look at each trip at being as memorable in one way or another as previous trips. May be in a different way than the previous trip(s), but still a great way to escape reality!!!

Waking up in the middle of an Elk heard would be crazy (in a good way!)!!! That would definitely be awesome!

Tex,

Twin boys??? How old? We have identicle 12yo boys ourselves. It is an interesting at times! Lol

Identical 17 year olds... And yes, quite interesting to be sure.. It is a very unique dynamic than having kids one at a time...