Camping with my Mom

A true story…

Whenever I am going to go camping or get outdoors even for the day, I would often ask my mom if she would like to come along. I already knew her answer before I asked, but I always asked anyway.

A year not to long ago, I was heading to my brother’s house in Colorado from Phoenix. I knew it would be a long two day trip because I liked going the back way on rural roads through Colorado instead of traveling on the freeways. Often I would stop and stay at a little place called Lightner Creek Cabins. It was just shy of Durango and I loved staying there in the old rustic log cabins. They rented them for thirty bucks a night. The cabins were located next to the creek and I would fall asleep to the sounds of the water. The cabins were roughly eight foot by twelve foot. I remember them having a bunk bed and a small shelf. Maybe one solar powered light and a chair. Tiny seemed big compared to these cabins, but for an overnight stay it suited me just fine. As I remember, it was a small log cabin with a door and a window that I kept opened to hear the water rushing by as I tossed and turned on a not so comfortable plastic mattress they provided. I would stretch out my sleeping bag over the worn mattress and wad up a hoodie to use as my pillow. Bare bones out of the rain type of shelter for sure.

This time, I decided to ask my Mom if she wanted to go along on this trip. To invite her to get out of town for a few days. I don’t think I was able to finish explaining my plans before she had her sleeping bag and backpack leaning against her front door. She really only needed to know what time I was arriving to pick her up.

I let her know that I thought it would be a bit more fun to camp out at a lake instead of us fighting over bunk bed sleeping arrangements. She agreed and I now had to figure out what I needed to bring along.

I have camped with everything including the kitchen sink and barely a few items of gear. I prefer minimalist camping, not bringing too much gear if push comes to shove. I was driving a dodge ram pickup truck then with an open truck bed. It was a crew cab truck which allowed me to throw gear in the back seat and go. I decided we could sleep out of a two person tent. As I rounded the corner in my mom’s neighborhood to pick her up, I saw her already standing outside with her gear by her feet.

We left the low desert of Phoenix in the morning and drove for hours. After lunch, we were crossing the Indian reservations and closing in on the 4 corners area. The pull off for the imaginary line where Arizona, Utah, New Mexico and Colorado touch passed us by at sixty miles an hour. I did not understand paying an entry fee to stand in four states at the same time. Just seemed ridiculous if you asked me.

Summer storms seem to pop up frequently in the mid afternoon in northern Arizona just as they do in southern Colorado. As we topped off on fuel and ate chocolate donuts, a dark ominous cloud continued to build up ahead in the direction we were heading. We drove faster, but it grew bigger. As we were under the storm the lightning started and torrents of rain poured down on us. The highway quickly became a river of water. I slowed down so I wouldn’t hydroplane. Finally, as quick as it started, it left and the sun broke through. I now had time to make up for the past fifty miles. The canyons were casting longer shadows as I drove into Durango. I glanced at the Lightner Creek Cabin exit as we drove by it wondering if it was a better option. Everything outside was wet after the storm, but our gear was dry inside the cab, so we pressed on. I only had my small playmate lunch box igloo in the bed of the truck and there wasn’t anything really left in it that I could recall.

We passed through Durango as quickly as we could and on towards Bayfield, Colorado. As the sun was setting, we were losing light to arrive before dark. I was heading to a campground I had picked out on the internet. It was called Pine Point Campground and was on the east side of Vallecito Reservoir. A large lake in Colorado.

Pulling in right before all light was lost, we were able to get one of the two last campsites that were available. A family of three drove in as we were talking with the camp host. They apparently secured the last camp spot.

The last two camp spots were located the farthest away, had less trees and no view of the lake. We did have a fantastic fading view of a bare desolate mountain across the road from us. The ranger mentioned that bears come off that mountain and can be a problem and we should take precautions, whatever that meant.

We just needed a place to sleep overnight and we would be on our way early the next day.

I set up the two person tent and now noticed that the tent didn’t seem as bear proof as I had remembered it before. I glanced over at my mom and she had already turned on a headlamp strapped to her head and sat in a single chair thumbing her way through a book she brought with her. I guess she didn’t worry about sleeping in the tent with bears in the area, so I would keep that anxiousness to myself.

Now, when you have a vivid imagination like mine and it’s fueled by liquid sugar drinks and hostess donuts, you are going to say something, you just don’t always know what. I questioned why I was doing all the work. My mom just turned the page of her book as I bit my tongue and continued loading up our sleeping bags into the tent.

The darkness soon overcame our campsite. I was going to build a campfire, but thought better of it. I decided I would rather sleep and not have my clothes smell of smoke all night. We both admired the campfire next door from afar. 40 yards away to be exact. It didn’t seem to give off much heat.

Another cloud overtook the moon and in the darkness we started getting some light rain and wind. We made a dash for the tent and then I remembered the chairs that would get soaked, but sometimes you have to sacrifice some gear.

We scooted and cajoled back and forth in the tent and I started to wonder if this wasn’t a single person tent that identified as a two person tent. I finally was able to lay still and rest on an L shaped rock formation that jutted up and fit perfectly into my scapula. I repositioned but it didn’t help. I gave up and listened to the rain as it pecked at the tent in large water drops. Flashes of lightning began and thunder groaned as it echoed off the mountain across the road. A crack of thunder shook us.

“Wow!” I said, “that was a big one that time.”

“It sure was. Oh, I need to take my medications and I only have two of them here. I do have my toothpaste for the morning though…” my mom spoke up in the dark tent.

The toothpaste in the tent triggered me. “You have toothpaste in here?”

“Yea, why?”

“We are in bear country, Mom!”

“They don’t eat toothpaste!”

Frustrated I said, “Mom! We can’t have anything that has a smell in this tent. No toothpaste, no medications, nothing…”

This was the point that I noticed my own crazy coming out. I mean, I had a good reason, but this may be an overreaction.

“I don’t think it will matter…” she stated in a voice that was to remind me that everything I know came from her and she knew better. I remained in my crazed state. I knew I could take her if it turned into a wrestling match.

“No! I want all the scented stuff and food items out of the tent and locked up in the truck!”

She either didn’t care to fight about it any longer or figured she would wait until morning to get me the help I needed, but either way she agreed reluctantly.

I gathered everything and placed it in the truck. I noticed the campfire was out next door and guessed they were probably hiding from us.

Settling in again back in the tent, we fell asleep to the pitter patter of rain on the now hopefully de-scented tent.

Crack! The sound of a branch falling from a tree woke me up. The wind was shifting the tent back and forth. I lay there listening. Strong winds picked up and more light could be seen from another storm moving up the valley towards us. I looked at my watch, it was only 11 p.m.

I don’t know how, but the storm hit us hard and my Mom slept through it all. I then got out of the tiny tent after it was all over thinking it was nearing morning from the light I saw outside the tent. It was just the light from the moon. I was able to see my watch better and was disappointed it was only 2:30 in the morning.

I sat down in one of the chairs in the dark. I was quickly reminded that the seats can hold about a gallon of rainwater each. In seconds my pants became soaked. I felt defeated and wanted to just stay sitting there since the damage was already done, but the temperature of the water was cold and that nudged me to act accordingly and stand up, which now allowed the water to run gracefully down the back of my legs. Perfect!

I looked up to the sky in desperation looking for someone to blame but only saw stars. If I wasn’t so upset in that moment, it would have been a great memory. The silent struggle was broken from a voice coming from the tent.

“Is it morning yet?” I heard my Mom ask.

“No, it is only 2:30, you can go back to sleep.”

“This is nice, isn’t it!”

“Yup!” I said sarcastically as I did not want to explain anything or wake the neighbors.

I managed to find some dry shorts and change outside the tent before climbing back in and finishing about four hours of sleep.

It was about five in the morning, when an old truck barreled down the road nearby, waking up most of the campground. I had survived the night. I glanced over and my mom was all bundled up still sleeping.

I unzipped my sleeping bag and stepped out of the tent. I could now see my jeans hanging over the hood of the truck with a prominent u shaped water stain on the backside. The forest floor was fresh and slightly muddy from all the rain the night before. The sky was empty of clouds and the neighbors were just starting to emerge from their twenty by twenty mansion of a tent. I decided to go back into the tent and get my keys to unlock my truck and get out of the shorts that I had on.

“Did you sleep in shorts last night?” my mom asked.

“It’s a long story, I will tell you later.” I grumbled.

As I made my way to the driver’s door, I saw mud prints on the side of the truck. As I got a better look, the mud was actually bear prints. I froze in my tracks and surveyed the area. Was the bear still nearby? I could see bear tracks that came from the neighbor’s campsite directly to my truck and onto the truck tire and into the bed of the truck. I looked into the bed of the truck and saw more mud and prints and my playmate lunch igloo laying open. Inside the igloo was a leftover cooked chicken breast untouched in a ziplock bag I had forgot about. I then went around to the back of the truck and saw where the bear climbed out of the back of the bed and headed towards more campsites nearer to the lake. I also found along that path a ziplock bag of grapes tore open and every grape gone. The bear must have wanted just the grapes. I woke my mom and showed her all the evidence the bear left behind.

The neighbors were already loading up, probably to put some distance between us, when I hollered, “Did you have any visitors last night?”

Of which he hollered back, “Yes, a couple of racoons got into our ice chest and ate some food.”

The ice chest he was pointing to was leaning up against his tent. His young son was walking around near him holding a stuffed animal. I didn’t have the heart to tell him it was a bear. It was at this moment my mom turned to me and said, “Good thing we didn’t have any food in our tent!”