It Rains You Get Wet: Camping

In our family growing up, there were three rules that I think actually started with Uncle Richard. Those rules of the road were as follows: 1) You bring it, you carry it; 2) It rains you get wet; and 3) No complaints. It would be rule #2 that is up for discussion today.

You see, this past weekend I was part of a crew that elected to go to Long Lake camping. This trip was booked months in advance. You have to book that far in advance to get a decent site near the water and to have options for camping as Long Lake is a very popular provincial park. So, after nearly 7 weeks of absolutely no rain, it opted to cloud over...and speckled that wet stuff from the clouds. There was trepidation in the ranks of the campers to be.

Well, except for the optimist, me. I gathered up my own crew and added an additional child to the mixture and drove the three hours south. We almost had to turn back as I came close to hitting a bear cub that ran in front of the van from the roadside, but thankfully I missed him. The sky was looming with wet weather. Those huge anvil greyish purplish black clouds that mean trouble of the windy and slanting rain variety. So, I set to and scrambled to put up the tents, blow up the air mattresses (always useful to float on if you are flooded out btw), and set up the kitchen tent (for the record, I have one that actually has sides so that you can stay dry). On arrival, I susses out the campsite and found that in the marshlands, there was actually two bits of high ground so that is where I shoved the tents and moved the picnic tables accordingly. Meanwhile, the rain held off. Yay. So, I settled in and watched the others arrive and set up sites. All in all,  it was fine.

The sites were right on the water. We watched the ducks and the bird that no one knows what it was, and the beaver (muskrat?) swim as we were right on the water. There was peace and quiet under the shadowed skyline. We awoke to rain in the morning and basically had a quiet morning in the tent. The girls coloured and played in the tent while I fed them at sporadic intervals. The youngest went visiting so I took the older girls for a walk along the trails and talked about plants and animals that lived in the area. They did 5 kilometers without a squalk. The misty rain fell and the girls enjoyed exploring. We even found a brood of ducklings. On our return, the weather cleared and they played on the beach for the rest of the afternoon. In the evening, we had campfires and smores. Then nightfall happened and so did the rain. It poured.

It rains, you get wet. The rain was heavy in the morning so some of the crew decided that it was time to go home. My gear was wet on the outside, but dry on the inside so I opted to stay. I had to laugh at the ducks that were swimming in the "ponds" behind the tent. The girls played in the tent. The frogs sang in a loud symphony. And the die hards stayed despite the rain. I took the older girls for a walk to the beaver pond and noted that they had built four new dams over the winter. The pathway was flooded in a spectacular fashion. I came back and built a fire. Later, it cleared and I took the youngers for a bike ride to the beaver ponds so that they could see the handiwork. The evening was spent around the fire.

The next day, I finally came home. Right when I was supposed to. The kids learned to camp in the rain. It rains, you get wet and they had fun! Rain is not something that you need to be afraid of in a tenting situation. The girls managed just fine and didn't even have electronics to bail them out. (The batteries died). We did visit the trailer but for the most part, we were outside in the rainfreshed air and it was wonderful. There were no loud parties. There was peace. The rain sounding on the tent was theraputic. Dressed for the weather, it didn't matter how hard it poured. My point is this...it rains you get wet...and CAMP ANYWAY!