Kip and I went camping last weekend. It was just car camping, in Cosby campground at the northeast corner of Great Smokey Mountains National Park, but it was still fun. I was startled to discover that Cosby Campground is only slightly over an hour's drive from our house--I think I may be going more often in the future.
I'm not the only person who thinks this is the ideal time of year to camp in the Smokies. The temperatures are reasonable, most of the bugs are dead, and rain is unlikely, so the campground was, not chock-full, but pretty full Saturday night. I got a chance to put up the tent (to remember how it works) and lay out the mats and sleeping bags, and cook dinner and breakfast over my Trangia alcohol stove. It was great to lie in the dark and listen to the owls talking to each other. "This is my territory." "Well, okay, but this is my territory." "Okay, just remember this is my territory," to the right and left of the tent. I could hear the wind fluttering the leaves overhead, and hear the occasional gust travel across the sky. Camping late in the season meant there was plenty of dark to sleep in even though I had trouble falling asleep.
And I'm going canoe-camping at Fontana Lake, on the south side of the park, next week. I'm so psyched.
Now if I could just figure out how to cook biscuits on the camp stove without burning them.
I'm not the only person who thinks this is the ideal time of year to camp in the Smokies. The temperatures are reasonable, most of the bugs are dead, and rain is unlikely, so the campground was, not chock-full, but pretty full Saturday night. I got a chance to put up the tent (to remember how it works) and lay out the mats and sleeping bags, and cook dinner and breakfast over my Trangia alcohol stove. It was great to lie in the dark and listen to the owls talking to each other. "This is my territory." "Well, okay, but this is my territory." "Okay, just remember this is my territory," to the right and left of the tent. I could hear the wind fluttering the leaves overhead, and hear the occasional gust travel across the sky. Camping late in the season meant there was plenty of dark to sleep in even though I had trouble falling asleep.
And I'm going canoe-camping at Fontana Lake, on the south side of the park, next week. I'm so psyched.
Now if I could just figure out how to cook biscuits on the camp stove without burning them.