Let’s Go Camping
The year was 1968. I had just graduated high school, and since it was summertime, my friend Ronald decided that he and I should take a break before we started college and go camping somewhere.
He said to me, “Come on, Harv. It’ll be great fun. What could possibly go wrong?”
Ronald said his parents had no problem with us going away for a weekend. I believe Ronald’s parents actually looked forward to him going away for a while. My parents, who knew Ronald, were more wary. They didn’t trust Ronald. However, with assurances from Ronald’s mom and dad, they said I could go.
The plan was for Ronald’s father to drive us up to Bear Mountain on a Friday and leave us to camp out in a well-known and supervised camping area. His father would pick us up on Sunday and bring us home.
We packed what we thought we’d need, backpacks, rain gear, a portable tent, sleeping bags, and plenty of food and water.
The idea was that once we were dropped off, we would find a suitable location to pitch our tent, store our supplies, and do all our hiking and activities from there.
Ronald’s father helped us unload and set up our campgrounds. He wished us good luck and hoped we’d have a great time.
The idea was to hang out at our campsite the first day, then do a lot of hiking and swimming (there were lakes nearby) and just have fun the whole time.
There were a few other campers where we were camped; however, we planned on staying mostly to ourselves. After Ronald’s dad left, we made sure that we had some privacy by moving our tent away from the others. It was Ronald’s idea.
The first thing we learned about camping was that having a compass and a map is a good idea, even if you have to draw the map yourself showing how to get to and from your campsite. We discovered this on Saturday morning when we took our first hike. It was supposed to be a 20-minute easy walk, with Ronald as navigator, but it took 3 hours until we finally found someone to guide us back to our campsite.
The next thing we learned was the use of matches. One should always make sure that they are waterproof. It is rather difficult to start a fire when it is raining and your matches get wet. Needless to say, we were lucky it was a warm night. However, the canned food we planned to cook could not be warmed. For that matter, when you don’t bring a can opener, it’s kind of hard to eat it anyway.
We did have other foods that weren’t in cans. Suffice it to say we ate a lot of peanut butter while up there.
Also, do you know what you shouldn’t do when you are inside a tent and it’s raining outside? Whatever you do, don’t touch the top of the tent from the inside. The rainwater then gladly leaks through.
For our final lesson, we discovered why Bear Mountain gets its name. Even though I told Ronald to make sure the tent was secure and closed up with all our supplies when we went hiking on Sunday morning before we were picked up, our campsite was visited by…you guessed it, bears.
We got back to the campsite just as Ronald’s dad came by to pick us up. It took us a while to pack the car, as we made several mini hikes to find most of our stuff.
When I got home and told my parents about the trip, I only remember getting a big hug from my mom, who appeared to be crying. I think she said something like, “Thank God you’re alive.” She also commented on being glad Ronald and I would not attend the same college.
Somehow, my adventures with Ronald never seem to be dull.
