It looks like pretty good weather for Memorial Day, the opening of camping season.
My gang sat in the rain, in tents, more than once on the three-day weekend. One torrential year at Flowing Lake in Snohomish, my buddy, Tom Williams from Lynnwood, offered to take our soggy sleeping bags to the town laundromat.
We bailed instead.
Many folks have similar camping stories to share. When her children were little, Vicki Smith of Marysville said they camped. She and her husband, Larry, did the whole tent and campfire thing.
“We’ve had sleeping bags in the back of a pickup in a topper, all kinds of tents, a tent camper and now a little trailer,” Smith said. “Once in the mountains in Utah, we set up boondock camp (dry camping not in a designated campground) at the end of a dirt road, and found out the next morning that we were downwind of a huge dead elk.”
Lesson learned? Check upwind before you set up camp.
They sold the tent camper to a young family and now use a 16-foot Roadrunner pull camper.
“It has an awning we can pull out so it’s a similar experience in a campsite without all the hard ground or blue tarp dripping rain on everything. It’s not what people would think of as an RV, but we do have small versions of a furnace, hot water heater, refrigerator and a tiny bathroom plus a nice bed.”
Thinking August would be great camping weather, Kevin Zobrist of Everett made reservations for a spot at Denny Creek about eight years ago. It ended up pouring, with lightening and thunder.
“I think the only people there were the campground hosts, who thought we were crazy,” Zobrist said. “They told us to pick whatever site we could find that was dry.”
Most were under several inches of water.
It became the typical blue-tarp adventure.
“We managed to get a tent up and a fire going,” Zobrist said. “The tarp began to sag with the collecting rainwater.”
He was going to stand off to the side and direct the flow, but that plan failed. His wife, Lisa, pushed up with a stick, and water poured on the top of his head.
That was it for camping in the rain.
“That was the end of that,” he said. “Everything was quickly disassembled, shoved back in the car, and that evening was spent roasting marshmallows over a Presto log in our fireplace at home while all our gear hung to dry in the garage.”
That was their last camping trip.
Folks reach camping spots in various vehicles. Amy Smith of Mill Creek said they loaded five or six bikes on top, there were five kids in the family, and headed to Kayak Point near Stanwood in a wood-paneled station wagon.
With so many people, and so much camping gear, folks stared at them on the highway.
“The whole family stayed in one old smelly green canvas tent,” she said. “We had fun around the campfire at night, and we spent our days on the beach or the dock.”
She remembers bringing lots of books and playing library on the beach while her siblings did normal beach activities.
“I guess it’s no surprise that I now work in a public library. And although I do have some good memories of our camping trips and am amazed that every summer my parents attempted to go with five kids, I definitely prefer hotels now that I’m an adult.”
Having camped in the rain, nonstop rain, Ann Hall of Everett no longer does the tent thing.
“I am not a happy camper since a bad experience as a kid,” Hall said. “The main meal of homemade chili was spoiled so we dined on cold cereal for the weekend.”
Her family never camped again, and she continues that tradition, she said.
Each summer, Theresa Metzger’s family camps for two weeks in Canada with family and friends. They spend a night in Birch Bay, not too far from their home on Camano Island, then get an early start across the border.
“We arrived at Birch Bay towards evening with our two boys (William, 14, and Jon, 9) and their friend (Curtis Maile, 13) and were looking forward to setting up camp, having a great dinner, and getting an early night,” Metzger said. “After unhooking the trailer and parking the car, my husband and I looked aghast at each other as we realized we had left the keys to our locked trailer at home.”
David Metzger didn’t drive back to Camano. They called a locksmith who was absolutely charming.
“Be there in about an hour, love,” the locksmith said. “Go into Birch Bay and have a nice dinner and a drink.”
That is what they did, she said.
The rest of the trip was wonderful.
“Even though we have camped all over Washington, British Columbia, and Alberta, our favorite camping spot is just five minutes from our home on Camano Island,” Metzger said. “We own a lot in the community of Onomac which means that we can camp in their little private campground near the beach.”
It’s heaven, she said.
For Vivian Scott of Snohomish, “roughing it” means walking barefoot down the hotel’s carpeted hallway to the ice machine instead of calling room service.
Camping on the East Coast each summer was miserable for Christina Awad Schmalz of Mukilteo.
The family traveled from Georgia to visit relatives in Massachusetts. Between mosquitoes, chiggers and deflated air mattresses, it was no fun.
“The food was always the same perforated cereal boxes filled with probably just a tablespoon of cereal in the morning and hot dogs, and pork and beans in the evening,” she said. “The swimming area for each campground was always muddy, shallow and hot. Then at night you had to go to sleep at nightfall because there was nothing else to do.”
And her folks sent her to a summer camp with barracks. Franciscan nuns and members of the Sisters of Mercy and St. Joseph typically served as instructors and supervisors. Justice Clarence Thomas was one of the camp counselors.
They went to Mass twice a day.
“The food was awful. I still remember the oatmeal being like a thick piece of paste slopped right in the middle of my cereal bowl each morning. I would pour on the salt and pepper to make it taste like grits.”
Her father calls her a “Park Avenue Camper” now.
“Five star or even four star hotels with all the amenities; now, that is what I call a great camping experience.”
Kristi O’Harran: 425-339-3451, oharran@heraldnet.com.
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