CAMPING part 2: you have a caterpillar on you

After consuming whatever calories we could find, we gathered around the picnic table and tried to plan how we would spend our day. Those who had gotten at least a few hours of sleep agreed to go on the hiking trails for a little adventure.


It was about a 5 mile drive to the hiking trails. Lo and behold! We got to the same spot where the GPS had led our van yesterday...to some random ditch that was apparently part of the path to the trails. We passed a sign that said "Fire Tower" and obviously decided to go there as it was obviously something dangerous, exciting, and fun. A fire tower is where, in the olden days, people used to fling fireballs and other such flammable things at enemy planes in order to bring them down.

It was a rather steep climb up the trail. We had to scale rocks. Climb trees. With our bare hands! Well, we could have also just walked around the rocks and trees, but some us had an insatiable thirst for danger, adventure, and scrapes.



Much later, we got to the top of the trail and saw Fire Tower. Turns out, Fire Tower is just something people climb to see if there are fires anywhere. It was a big white tower which had the sign "no entry". Of course, Nipunn climbed it and took this picture from the top.


We then climbed to the summit of the mountain to lounge for a bit, tan (or blacken), and take pictures.

We sat for a while and pondered the essence life, our existence, and our place in the universe. Is there a meaning? Is there a purpose? What time was it? It was 12:30 and we were rather hungry, so we decided to head back for lunch. The sandwiches were gobbled up on about 5 seconds and we made a trip to the Pawtuckaway beach where we had a very spirited game of frisbee tossing in the water. I was definitely pooped when we got back to the campsite...and it was only 3 in the afternoon. We lounged around the campfire some more and were too tired to brush off the caterpillars off our pants and chairs.


These fuzzy little caterpillars, gypsy moth caterpillars according to wikipedia, were basically everywhere. I think there were more of these than there were mosquitoes. Every five minutes, this would be said:

"Hey (insert name here), you have a little friend on your (insert body part here)"

And then (insert name here) would either brush the caterpillar off his/her (insert body part here) or stare at the critter for a few seconds and go back to sleep. I undertook the job of collecting the critters from peoples pant legs and dropping them into the center of the fire pit, where they wriggled around while covered in ash. It was fun to watch. Honestly, there was nothing else to do.

A bajillion hours later, it was finally getting dark and we started making s'mores! Yum. I like to eat s'mores without the graham crackers.


The rest of the day continued at the pace of a gypsy moth caterpillar and there's not much else to mention except for the fact that it started raining once it was dark. Trying to sleep was a huge issue, especially with the sound of big fat raindrops slamming into the tent roof. But like my mom says, "you want a Tempur-Pedic mattress? Go run 10 miles and then you'll be able to fall asleep even on the hardwood floor". If you're REALLY tired, you don't need a comfy bed. Even a leaky tent pitched on wet tarp will do. Of course, some people were wimps and slept in their cars, but most of us roughed it and achieved about 6 hours of sleep.

It was still raining in the morning when we brushed the caterpillars off our stuff, packed it up, and drove off. We ended our camping trip by stopping at an IHOP for breakfast where we again consumed all of our food in about 5-6 seconds. We drove then to Alex's house to hose off all our belongings, flick away the last few caterpillars that came for a ride, and say goodbye to each other.

So that was our foray into the great outdoors. It was basically an awesome trip, including the rain (what kind of camping trip is complete without the rain?) and I believe there are plans for another one! This next one is going to be even awesomer, I just know it.