Poop Shute

My Camping Cherry is Popped

This past weekend I had my first experience camping. FINALLY. The main reason I have never been camping before is that nearly every time my friends plan a trip it's always a last minute thing and either I have work or a show I'm in or something, or they plan in advance, but I have some commitment. Earlier this summer, for example, Kelly invited me to Havasupai (sp?) and I had to sadly decline because I had promised my brother I'd help him move that same weekend.

Anyway, we got out of town WAY too late and had no luck finding a campsite near Sedona. We continued north where we found an opening... for just that night. The site had one space open for the night, but it was reserved for the rest of the weekend, so we had to agree to be out at 7am.

The worst thing about that little tidbit of information is the reason they were booked was for a local "Beer Festival." That's the worst part because all the Beer Festival Revelers were drunk and rowdy and screaming and yelling until somewhere after 3am. Being the light sleeper that I am I laid there wanting to kill someone for hours. I don't mind drunken revelry provided I am participating, but being sober and exhausted and listening to it is frustrating.

Next day we got up and out at 7am like we agreed. We hit up a little greasey-spoon place for some breakfast, and then went hiking through the West Fork Trail. About an hour or so later we found this secluded little swimming hole with a small, natural water slide and played around for a bit, then eventually started back towards the trailhead. The plan was to end up at Grasshopper Point to go swimming. Sadly, the ranger informed us, the bacteria levels in Grasshopper Point were too high, and swimming was prohibited. Instead we had an awkward picnic lunch on the rocks near the water. I say awkward only because there were tons of ants nearby, so we ate withh all the food bags in our hands or propped on our knees.

By now the sky had mostly turned black and as we started toward the car again it started to rain. We decided that driving all over looking for a campsite again would probably be pretty pointless, so we packed up and headed home at about 4pm.

Even though it was an extremely brief, and (at times) inconvenient trip, I had a blast, and I can't wait to do the real thing at some point. Real thing meaning like several days of roughing it.