This was our 4th annual camping trip. We usually go with a big crew ranging from 15-30 people. This year we tried to get a more managable group. Due to busy schedules, it ended up just being us and our close friends Ben and Katie Schmidt.
We camped at an RV park outside of Danbury, WI on Friday night. After a delicious breakfast on Saturday morning we headed to the canoe outfitters. On our drive to the drop point it started to sprinkle. We weren't overly worried, just bagged up all of our gear in garbage bags and pulled on our ponchos.
However, as we started paddling, the rain got harder. We ended up canoeing 12 miles in a downpour. Katie and I had our legs in garbage bags and our canoes had a couple inches of water in the bottoms. We never even stopped for lunch - just paddled hard looking for a campsite with some coverage. We stopped and checked out at least 6 before deciding on ours.
After unloading all of our gear we teamed up and got each of our tents set up in about 4 minutes (yay for new, easy-to-set-up tents!) We then rigged up the extra tarps in some trees in an attempt to get a place to stay dry. Ryan dug us a new fire pit since the existing one was surrounded by water. The rain made it hard to get much of a fire, just smoke. Eventually, we all changed into dry clothes, had some hot chocolate from the camp stove and were starting to feel much better. Our original plan of hobo dinners on the fire was abandoned when we couldn't get the fire going. Luckily, we had the camp stove and were able to brown some ground beef and saute some peppers and onions. A make-shift hobo dinner!
By the time dinner was done the rain had stopped and we were able to move out from under the tarp. We held our chairs around the fire to dry them off and then were able to enjoy a really peaceful evening around a (now) roaring fire!
Sunday morning dawned dry and overcast. We had another great camp breakfast, did a devotion and packed up. About 10 minutes after getting back on the river the rain started up. It wasn't quite as heavy as Saturday but it never let up. We canoed a couple hours and about 7 more miles to our pick-up point. Needless to say, we were all really glad to see the van and to get home to warm showers!
We've all decided that we will never camp again with a chance of rain in the forecast. But we're better friends because of our soggy adventure!
Katie roasting marshmallows (she LOVES s'mores!) And everyone's soggy shoes drying out (or melting!) by the fire.
Our attempt at a lean-to. It was pretty good if you ignored the hole in the middle! And you can see our tents in the background. Yep, they match. Hooray for wedding gifts!
Dinner. Yeah, Ben loves dijonaise sauce :)
Hanging out - if you click on the picture you can zoom in and see Ryan's sad face.
Looking pretty happy - dry clothes, full stomachs, rain stopped.
The Schmidts
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