Over Labor Day weekend, I took my very first camping trip.  Actually, I went “camping” with my friend when I was like 10, but it was in an RV where we cooked & slept and we used bathrooms and showers.  And I don’t remember doing any outdoorsy things – I just remember us hanging out in the main rec hall and playing with the jukebox.  So this was my first REAL experience “roughing it” as they say.  We drove to New Hampshire, 4 hours north.

Shopping for supplies was fun.  I love gadgets, especially ones that are compact and multi-purpose.  This translates into a secret love & fascination with camping & outdoor gear even though I never had a use for it – UNTIL NOW.  We got a cool, but small, tent.  These cute meal kits (I got pink, he got green).  I know that they won’t be that practical if we ever want to cook while camping, but I still needed to have it.  I bought a my first pair of shorts in like a decade, oh-so-outdoorsy convertible pants, and a dorky but necessary hat because I was not thrilled about sitting exposed in full sun during the canoeing.

My friend, an uber-planner, planned on a 19 mile canoe trip.  We’d canoe half way, camp on the river’s beach, canoe the rest of the way, then camp the next night in a state park campground.  The canoeing wasn’t as hardcore as it sounds.  I could’ve walked 95% of the route, as in most places the water was less than a foot deep, as evidenced by this picture:
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Two nights, 3 days.  Other people brought some elaborate food – coffee percolators, bunsen burner type setups, canned foods.  Since we had to fit all of our gear into the canoe, I didn’t want to mess with that stuff.  I planned a menu of calorie-dense [and therefore easy to pack] foods: nuts & dried fruit, Cliff bars, snack cakes, Spam musubi (travelled very well for the 1st day), and hot dogs cooked over the campfire. I think it worked just fine.  Next time if we go “car camping” we’ll probably buy a stove, but I still can’t see myself storing, cooking, & keeping cold enough food for more than 2 days.

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The canoeing was kinda scenic; not OMG beautiful, and there were lots of other people.  We could also hear highway traffic when we were camping on the beach.  What was really gorgeous was the Mt. Washington area, where we spent our 2nd night and regrettably, didn’t get to spend much time other than sleeping & driving home.  What really blew my mind though, were the stars.  Having spent just about all my life within the DC/NYC/Boston megalopolis east coast, the sky was sky and stars were stars.  But this night sky was unlike anything I’d ever seen before.  It was the stuff of NASA satellite photos and planetariums.  It was actually BLACK-black, not just hazy charcoal or reddish gray like it is around here.  And it wasn’t just individual stars.  You could see clusters like clouds made out of stars and galaxies!  This, coming from someone who doesn’t appreciate nature and shit.

Lady details and Possible TMI: Shower was all baby wipes.  I also constantly washed my hands with soap & drinking water to get the grime off.  My hands were sooo grimy all the time.  Some people “bathed” in the river but Brian saw a dude rinsing his latrine in the river and I was like oh hell no. I survived peeing in the woods, but I still want to cry thinking about it.  I managed to avoid having to do “that other thing that ladies don’t do”, so thank god for that.  Sorry if you didn’t wanna know but all of this personal hygiene business is what scared me most. I wore mascara & tinted moisturizer, and I used sample packets of facial cleanser & night cream.  I was pretty happy to be able to bust out some of the beauty samples I’ve been hoarding.

On a scale of 1-10, I give the whole thing a 6.5 (keeping in mind that I hated the majority of people I was with, so that ruined most of the experience).  I’ll try it again.  I have to try it again because I had to spend so much on gear.  Soooo in my mind, I need to go camping two more times before I’m satisfied that I’ve gotten my money’s worth.