The Great Outdoors?

Now, everyone is familiar with some of our more uncomfortable camping experiences. Like when we camped along a lake in Michigan on Nathan's birthday, left the tent fly open to invite hundreds of mosquitoes into our space and then left food (I must say that this was me and only me - Nathan had nothing to do with leaving food out!) on the table prompting the gluttonous raccoons to feast on our leftovers and then bump into our tent all night long. Or the time, I forgot to pack the tent (thankfully we were able to rent one) and we set up in a ravine-like area where the wild hogs congregated every night. That trip was actually a lot of fun even with the pigs! Anyhow, we'd redeemed ourselves in California with the discovery of Butano State Park. Pre-children, we'd hop in the car and within 45 minutes, we'd be surrounded by redwoods, a secluded campsite completely immersed in nature. It was heaven. And our camping expectations are high.

Nathan had been clamoring to take the family camping and after much sweet talking, I finally decided - why not? It's only a night. The kids were thrilled. We even had to rent a second tent in order to hold the playpen and me. The campground was about an hour from our house. We had told the kids that we might even be able to swim in the pond, forgetting about my pond rule - only swim at the start of the season. We drive up and sure enough, the pond is very, very still and a very, very strange color. We claimed it closed but Maddie and Theo could see swimmers. We convinced them that it was closed to the Sanders.

We were hopeful for a nice campsite as we drove up a wooded road. We pull into the area and stifled a gasp - secluded camping this was not. Sure it's forested but the canopy is quite high. Luckily Nathan reserved what we considered the best spot and had we gotten any other spot, we probably would have turned around and camped in our backyard.

View of the other campsites

Our campsite - not bad, note the two tents.

Photograph by Maddie.

Nathan making the fire for dinner.

We grinned and decided to make the best of the situation - for the kids. We were quietly hoping that the rush hour traffic that roared around the campsite would abate at night. Let's just say that it didn't and as much as you try, it doesn't sound like white noise or the ocean. We tucked everyone in for bed and decided to do one last check to make sure that we packed everything up. With my headlamp on, I search the campsite only to spot two eyes staring back at me. They were positioned higher than a raccoon so I immediately thought - it's a leopard. I, of course, told Nathan this (after I threw a rock at said leopard) and he proceeded to laugh hysterically. I guess leopards don't live in the urban woods of Massachusetts or really anywhere in North America. Oh well, it was some sort of wild cat that luckily left us alone for the night.

I crawled into my sleeping bag and aside from the traffic noise, it really was a beautiful night - full moon with moon beams shining through the trees, no bugs and happy kids. There was of course the pick up truck that drove up a bit before midnight with bass thumping, the loud arguments around a nearby fire and the gunshot but with a full moon who really counts those things?

Morning dawned and I was exhausted. We made breakfast, listened to a single mother and her teenage daughter have a cussing fight across their campground, packed up, said goodbye to my leopard and drove off before 9:30am. Nathan claimed that we'd pack it in next time, meaning hike in to a campsite somewhere deep in the woods. I just looked at him like a crazy man - pack it in with three kids, sure honey. We both decided the wilds of New Hampshire or Maine may be better for our camping experience.

We did end the trip with a fantastic hike up a mountain where you can see three states and about 40 miles out. We didn't get to the view but the hike was serene and gave us our nature fix. Plus, Maddie and Theo did great on it. We'll definitely try the hike when the leaves change.