My First Camping Experience

Me and Hubby dear went camping last weekend. And boy what an adventure it was. This was our first time and I still cant believe we did it coz the planning, reservation and gathering the camping equipments all happened in just 4 days. The actual plan was to go on the weekend of 25th July with a bigger group but 2 friends (another husband and wife) were not able to make it so just the 4 of us decided to do it last weekend itself.
The adventure began with searching for a camp site to reserve and we were in for a big disappointment when we found none that we wanted to go to were available. After contemplating between reserving a KOA campground that was available in the middle of nowhere and state managed campground in a park unheard of and gazillion phone calls (between us and the friends) later we finally reserved a site in a State Park around 1.5 hrs from home. Then started the frantic shopping spree for collecting all camping equipments. We were shopping till the day of camping and in fact some items we picked up on our way.
We decided to make a quick stop for lunch since we would be reaching the campsite way past our lunch time. But little did we know that the quick was about to become long. I forgot my cell phone in the restaurant and we realized this when we were already on a bridge where the next exit was after 8 miles I was even okay to leave it there and pick it up on our way back the next day but the guy who found my phone wasn’t too pleased about it so we had to head back to get it. We had to travel that bridge for the third time in one hour and I was so sick of it that I swore never to take that route ever.
Later the GPS we were using screwed us even more. Somewhere between his “Keep Rights” and “Keep lefts” we missed an exit and the “Route Recalculation” landed us in a traffic jam.
Obviously we were late. Much late than the 2 PM check in time. And the worst part was the site was at a 5-8 min walking distance from the parking lot. Now that doesn’t sound far right? But add to that the 30 lb tent, 20 lb cooler box, 4 camping chairs, our luggage and other camping equipment we were carrying, along with the scorching heat of the sun who was busy tanning every exposed bit of my skin that he could lay his evil eyes on.
We laid all our stuff on the table and started setting up the tent. Almost everyone else on the nearby sites were already camping there since Friday. The campers next to us had about 5-6 kids of age between 3-4 with them and i thought they were quiet intrigued looking at us shouting “u hold this” and ” u hold that” and “come this side will u now” and “hey something is not right here”. We were all elated once we managed to get the tent up, kind of like a mini achievement.
Once the tent was up we made some coffee on the propane stove that we were carrying and sat back relaxing as the day cooled off into evening. The camp site had coin operated showers and I was so glad we carried a pouch of 25 cents coins in our car. By the time we showered and were feeling fresh again, it was time for dinner since it had started to get dark.
After dinner it was campfire time. The park had provided fire rings for each campsite and wood was available for purchase. We lit the fire and sat around it talking and taking pictures. Everything was going very well till we heard someone walking behind our tent. The people who were camped next to us used the pathway in the front of our tent to go to the restrooms etc and we felt suspicious about who could be walking there in the dark. Moreover there was a small hill/slope behind our tent. So we flashed lights in the direction of the sound and found a raccoon who had walked up close enough that it scared the shit out of us. Though we were aware of the raccoons found in this park and well educated by the park ranger on how to protect your food from them at night, we didn’t actually think we would come face to face with one. Moreover none of us had seen this animal before in the wild and were least aware of its capabilities other than stealing our food at night. After all its an animal who knows what it might do. But flashing the lights in its face was enough to scare him away. We quickly wrapped up everything and took our stuff inside our tent. Kept all our food in the lockers provided and placed the cooler under the table and kept 6-7 heavy stones on it as instructed by the ranger. Then we quickly made turns to the restroom, in pairs off course, still shuddering by the thought that we could have been attacked by that raccoon had we not seen him in time. Inside the tent we played a board game brought by our friends, don’t remember its name, but it is similar to monopoly. In between I was still getting up to check if the raccoon had come back for our food. Wanted to get a picture of him in action. Later we thought that we should have deliberately left some food on the table so that we could get a better shot of the raccoon “that almost attacked us” safely from within our tent.

Morning in the the state park was so pleasant. It was chilly and we went for a small walk into the park. We saw a deer on the way and this time i did not miss the photo opportunity.

By the time we came back and had breakfast it was 10:30 AM and time to start dismantling. It hurts so bad to see something you worked so hard to build come down the very next day. So we have decided to camp for 2 days next time. Hopefully things workout well next month and I am able to go out on another adventure and live to tell the tale of another survival in the wild.

Oh and BTW, raccoons are not known to attack humans but it sounds cool to tell people that we ventured in the wild once and were attacked by some wild animal, so I am going to keep it that way