Camping

Last weekend was the perfect time for some camping! We still have the car from driving it back to NYC after the wedding. We wanted to take advantage of the car so we decided to go camping in the Catskills.

Six of us left on Friday afternoon to head up and set everything up before the other 4 got up to the mountains after work. But needless to say we didn't get up to our campsites till much much later than we anticipated. Ando and I left our apartment at 2:45 to pick everyone up and head out of the city which means we got to our campsite at........9:00pm. Yep, it takes forever to get out of this city apparently and it is even worse when it is raining. The Catskills are only 2 to 2 1/2 hours away so we thought we would be there by 6:00 or 6:30, but how wrong we were.

Once we finally made it to the campsite, after a half hour check in...ugh, we had to set up all the tents in the dark. It is a bit tricky setting up tents in the dark with one flashlight, but we managed. Since we got to the campsite so late and had to set up tents all we did that night was grill some food and then head to bed.

On Saturday we all went for a hike straight up a mountain. It was an intense climb up to the plateau on plateau mountain! Once we got up to the lookout we sat down for some lunch and a nice lay in the sun. Joel was enjoying his break so much that he forgot he took his glasses off and laid them on his chest. When he sat back up the glasses went off the side of the mountain. Luckily there was a little flat ground down below and he was able to get them back.

After lunch we kept hiking a little further before turning around and going back down the mountain. Everyone hikes down a little differently so there were three separate groups going back down. CB Radio, Joel and Ice were in the first group; Myself, Ando DKNY and BH were in the second group and the last group was Goose, Coriander and Mateo. On the way down Joel tried yet again to lose those glasses of his. He slipped on a tricky little leaf and slid off the side of the path down the mountain a little. He even did a somersault before being stopped by a log. Luckily he was just fine and the glasses even stayed on his head.

After the hike we had a little snack before dinner and then took a small nap. BH and I also played on the swing set and teeter-totter. The teeter-totter was terrible; I could stand higher than it went up in the air. But the swings were a lot of fun! Dinner was delicious that night. We made some kabobs for the grill with three different types of meat. And BH made some Mexican corn for all of us. The day of camping was a rousing success.

On Sunday morning we packed up and headed back to NYC. But first we had to have a jump start from the ranger. The minivan battery died with all of the opening and closing of the doors. We had to keep everything in the van because we were in bear territory. We really didn't want to have to encounter a bear, but really that would have been BH's job. We came up with a bear hierarchy and BH won the top spot of talking the bear down because she has the most experience. Well her job is most like talking to bears. If something would happen to BH then Goose would be next up. He did the most research on the bears so he was the next logical choice. Luckily we didn't need the bear hierarchy and we all came out alive.

I went camping for the first time in awhile; there is no "Catskill" on the way.