Day 1.5: Camping with Chloe – Tent Edition

I’ve never camped in a tent. Unless you count the living room. I got a tent for Christmas when I was about 10, and had it set up in our play room for months. I don’t remember actually sleeping in it, but it made for a fun fort.

In May, I bought a tent, sleeping bag and sleeping pad. I’ve always loved the idea of backpacking and especially thru hiking, but that’s one thing I’m too scared to do alone.

This trip, I decided to save some money on accommodations and spend a night camping. Luckily, it was unseasonably warm for November. So we got a HipCamp site (think AirBnB for camping), to test out the new gear.

I got to the site with plenty of daylight left, and got right to trying to make a fire. Here’s a good time to admit I am terrible at making fires, and it didn’t help that everything was damp. I must have tried at least five times to light the thing, but the longest it went for was about ten minutes. Not long enough to cook dinner over. So I had a piece of cheese on a tortilla. Cold.

My tent set up went a little better. I decided to bring an old duvet just in case it was too cold for just my sleeping bag, which is only rated at 35 degrees. It was a good idea because even with temperatures in the 40s it was freezing. I typically get warm when I sleep, but I was so cold, I barely slept more than an hour or two at a time. Chloe was just fine. I felt her shiver a couple times, but she refused to get under the blanket with me.

We made it though. My nights working the morning show have trained me to stay awake for 24 hours at a time and barely feel tired, so I woke up around 4:30 and decided to just wait for sunrise. The only problem was, I had to pee. The whole reason I had booked this specific spot was because it had a bathroom and by that I mean a bucket with a toilet seat. I’m not picky when it comes to bathrooms, but I soon realized that between the trailhead porta potties and outhouses, I was going 24 hours without really washing my hands, let alone showering. That was all a part of the experience though.

I finally ventured out into the cold, headlamp on, utility knife tucked into my pocket in case of bears, and found an incredible amount of stars. It was terrifying honestly. I hadn’t really thought about how alone I was out there until I could see thousands of dots in the sky.

Chloe and I spent the next couple hours peeking out of the tent, watching the stars and then curling back up under the blanket, waiting for the sun. I had planned to stay at the campsite until check out around noon, but quickly realized it was too cold for that. We packed everything up and warmed up in the car while I ate my second peanut butter and banana sandwich of the trip, before heading off on our second day of adventures.