Camping trip

Last week’s rainy weather had all of us itching to get out of the house. In spite of the dreary rainy week I knew the forecast promised a nice weekend: with clear skies and mid-70s temperatures it promised to be perhaps the best weather of any weekend until spring. I decided it would be a good time for us to finally take the kids on the camping trip we’d been talking about the whole year.

It had been four years since we’d camped anywhere. Travis was then just a baby and woke up wailing. It was high time we tried again. I was considering both Jordan Lake and Umstead State Park but chose Umstead this time around. After a few minutes of booking online, we were all set to go.

Umstead’s campsites are on the Glenwood Avenue side: a side we don’t normally visit as we usually go in at the Harrison Avenue entrance. There are 26 sites arranged in a loop. All are without electricity and/or water, though there is a washhouse in the center. Spacing between sites is also good. In the summer this must offer much privacy but this late in the year there was little screening available.

On our last camping trip we’d opted to stay near the restrooms for convenience’s sake. That decision turned out to be a bad one, as that area is the noisiest of any campground. Thanks to the state’s online reservation system, I could see which sites were already reserved and steer our tent away from those and the washhouse. This time around we were as far from the washhouse as we could get, with two campsites between us and the next campers. That a pack of screamy 8-year-old girls were camped right next to the washhouse seemed to validate our approach. We prefer quiet over convenience and it paid off.

The kids were very enthusiastic about our trip. Both participated in getting us ready. Travis helped me pitch the tent and Hallie assisted in getting our fire started. Both rolled with the punches and also settled into their sleeping bags when it came time to sleep.

Unfortunately for Travis he was at the height of a head cold. He awoke around 1 AM, sniffling like crazy and obviously having a hard time breathing. He was probably awake for 45 minutes to an hour – not being disruptive but not sleeping. It was a beautiful sound to hear him finally breathing normally and sleeping well.

We took our dog Rocket with us, too. He was exceptionally good, himself. While we were outside the tent we tied his leash to a nearby post and let him hang out with us. When it came time to sleep, he settled right down on his bed inside the tent. There were a few times through the night that he awoke, shook his head, and acted as if it was morning. We’d order him back to his bed and he would always happily comply. He is a good canine camper, though, and proved himself welcome on our future trips.

We would change a few things about our trip if we could. First off, Umstead is directly under the flight path of RDU Airport, so close we could smell the jet fuel in the air. While this isn’t a big deal when hiking in the park, I underestimated how it would affect our camping. Between 11 PM and 6 AM there were rarely any flights but outside of those hours it got so loud you’d have to shout to carry on a conversation. So much for being one with nature.

We also forgot our walkie-talkies. These would’ve been great for keeping up with each other around the campground. Instead we relied on our mobile phones – which was a mistake because neither one of our phones got a signal at our campsite. Had there been an emergency we would have had to hike around the campground circle until we found a decent signal.

After nightfall we also heard a number of gunshots in the park. They sounded like handgun fire to me, which is odd thing to be hunting with. One shot sounded disturbingly close to the campground. Fortunately these ceased around 10 PM.

Also, even though it had been sheltered the firewood from the park ranger was a bit too moist for easy burning. It took a lot of work to coax a fire out of it. We also had no dry kindling. Both of these would’ve been good to have brought with us ahead of time: as well as a second batch to be used at breakfast.

Aside from the occasional plane, the campground was quiet, safe, and the perfect temperature for sleeping. An owl entertained me with an occasional hoot in the distance. No other critters disturbed us, though, and we did get some sleep until we woke at sunrise just after 7 AM.

After breakfast of pumpkin bread and fruit, we packed up our tent and took a few-mile hike down Sal’s Trail and back. Our trip was quite successful and quite enjoyable, proving that the kids are ready for more adventures of this type. Next time we may return to Jordan Lake, or we may consider camping again on our next trip to the mountains. It’s nice to know our kids are up for such fun adventures.