Drive day, Camping Day
Tue Nov 15, 2005 10:34 am
Hard Core Campers Freeze
From the High Desert to the High Mountains
(photoblog below engaging words)
I can skip the desert part. We left Indio, California (Coachella zone) this morning and now... right now... you wanna know what where we are right now? We're heading North past Silver City on a tiny 2 lane road up a mountain with hairpin curves... 20 minuets ago, it was 52 degrees, and the wind was blowing us all over the road. Now it's 32 degrees and
we haven't even begun to ascend. It's pitch black night... there are deep woods yetti's whisking past us in full gallop. Looks like from this primitive map that we have about 35 miles of climbing. crap. We're going to freeze our fanny's off (Dad, you were right. Remember Holy Ghost campsite in our little pop up... where you and mom gave me and Wade the sleeping bags and ya'll froze).
The road just narrowed and there's no center stripe from here. Now the sign says narrow roads and steep grades... now the signs say no trailers over 20 feet. hmmm... I just told John our trailer was under. i have no clue. It's dark and scary. Kim wants out of the front seat. Cattle guard. We're in the right forest! The Gila National forest. Woah!!! Now i know why they don't want long trailers! It's now 29 degrees and the hairpins are so sharp, we have to swing wide to make the corners. No way 2 cars can get past each other. One of us will have to back up. This is knarly. This is stupid knarly. The Judds are blaring so loud in the van we can't hear each other scream.
Let's go back to Walmart -
We went in there to buy a few sleeping bags. We came out with 4 baskets full of supplies. Lanterns and water jugs and stoves and food, etc. All in all, it came out cheaper than if we'd stayed in hotels on the way home... Glad those 9 dollar sleeping bags we bought are rated at 44 degrees. We've climbed 1000 feet since I started this journal. But yeah, Walmart Supercenter... they'll have to restock.
Let's go back to the Mountain -
It's now 24 degrees and signs and there's smoke everywhere. WOAH!! Bright orange signs say: "Smoke ahead" and now...."Fire in Progress"!! sheesh. They just turned off the Judds. it's getting more serious. A giant pack of deers just walked across the road. Like... a huge flock. About 12. The sign in front of us is that of a U turn. This is a blast. But these "fire in progress" signs are wigging us out.
Stacy just yelled out: "There's a Starbucks!!" the end. (read more below pics about the campout)
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The Next Morning...
Gila National State Park
It was beautiful. We arrived, explored, put stakes in the ground... it was desolate. No trace of humans. I spend an hour trying to remove rocks from the large area tent #1 would be. Tent #2 had no such treatment - which is why the man tent (each hold 10) sleepers didn't far so well that night... however, they did better than we did in the girl tent (I'm an honorary girl because I have a wife and daughters to back me) because we all buckled at the below freezing temperatures and found solace in the warm van.
But it was all AMAZING. The moon was full... the sign on the outdoor toilet said, "Beware: Wolf Country"... where are you going to find this kind of wilderness on a National tour? It was so bright outside from the moonllight, we scarcely needed flashlights. You could see the dark night sheen on the stream below... man o man. This was unimaginably, unspeakably cool.
But the temperature dropped from 30, when we arrived to 22. It took us several hrs to set up tents, procure enough firewood for a decent burn so it must have been about 4am when we finally all turned in. That's when the suffering began... feet and toes hurting so bad you could scarcely notice the shivering. And my brand new sleeping bag wouldn't zip so I had big gaping holes of air hitting my skinny legs. I climbed in w/ Kim - thinking our combined body head would do the trick and later found the girls had done the same thing, but it was no use... we couldn't beat it.
One by one, we paniced, faced being uprooted from our bags, unzipped the tent and headed for the van. I shivered for 15 minutes in the van with it running before I really warmed up... Then, I saw Sherri head for the portopotty - Ahhhh!!! no way. I turned on the van lights for her to drive away the rabid wolves. (jk) On her way back she headed straight for the van, followed by Stacy and finally Chauntelle...within an hr. By 6:00am, we were all snug in van benches, except Kim, who said she stayed pretty warm.
Strangely, so did Weston. The other guys complained mildly of rocks and cold but survived till sun-up.
Sun Up
I woke up with a soar throat so bad I could barely talk, much less swallow. Mark and I started the egg burritos while Weston drew river water for coffee. It was amazing. Amazing, I tell you... camp coffee is the best - even though it's perk'd, not dripped. I love it. I became "chef boyd- r-dee" and served up egg burritos for probably an hr as stragglers drifted out of slumber - over to the fire that Weston, John, Mark and Garron made.
After, we mostly all went down to the river and threw rocks for 2 hrs. Well... skipped rocks is more accurate. Weston was the best... the girls learned and got better and better. I threw rocks at big trees also. I like the loud thunky noise that happens at impact. It makes me feel like Keerog of the Woods. I'm really good. I like to impress Kim and the girls. I do impress them. But only when I throw rocks at large trees. After all of this activity, the girls climbed a tree, Weston and Garron climbed a mountain, we ate snacks and packed up camp... (why?)
Because! We didn't think we could survive another frozen nght! We loved the spot, but just couldn't bare up under that kind of cold. So... after about 1.5 hrs of fast packing, we left... (but not before our battery was drained and i flagged down some mountain men up on the road who helped us jump the van) whhewwsh... a close one.
John drove for hours trying to get us out of that mountainous area. It was dark by the time we reached our first next pick for a campsite - just North of Las Cruces. But the gate was locked and there were no park rangers. ($#%#@) We were tired and bummed. So we found another and it was locked and went back to the city and drove out to another before deciding to give it up and camp at a KOA. But when we arrived, we were not into the scene... RV's, buildings, pavement. NO WAY...
All in all, we drove 200 miles from when we first got gas in Las Cruces (before heading to the campsite) and when we finally pulled into this Comfort Suites hotel around 10:30pm, worn out, shot, having had our patience tested beyond hope. We had our weenie roast in the girls room (microwave), got yelled at by a next door neighbor for slamming the door (he called us idiots) and finally turned in about midnight... tired and bummed. I'm still running fever and have a soar throat.
But it was fun while it lasted! Today we're driving back to Dallas JUST in time to go see Harry Potter at at midnight (loop 635 and 80 might still have tickets, not sure). I'd better wake everyone up... time to hit the road. I think it's a 950 mile drive.
The end of the Switchfoot tour. I suppose I'll keep you guys informed as to what's going on. There's a local show (BUZZ OVEN!!) the band will do on December 18th. That should be fun. There are tons of other rockin' Dallas bands. But there's much to talk about. I suppose I'll use this Trolleywood area to download info and keep us all on the same page. i'll post tomorrow or the next day for sure.
Cheers everyone. Thanks for reading and being so amazing. boyd
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Journal from earlier
But I stayed up till 3:00am searching the web for the right place to go. Info is sporatic and it's hard to really wrap your brain around a campsite with one pic and a map that tells you to turn left at old sutters mill and drive 2 miles down 261 before veering at the post office by the red barn. Phone numbers?!! no way. This is the biggest challenge to my role as TM yet!
We're heading to New Mexico... goin' up in the mountains.
I might go under the Dark Forest side of the earth for a while. Pray we don't get mauled by bears or mountain yetti's as both are a menace. We're looking forward to campfires, smores, kumba-ya moments, hiking, sleeping, fresh air, stars at night and NO stress. Thanks for tuning in ya'll. Much love and I'll report in asap. boyd
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