I’ve been wanting to get back into camping all summer. Now that I’m living in New York, I can finally invest in some camping gear. Honestly, I need to thank my parents for kicking off the chain of events that finally got me there. They asked me what I wanted for my birthday, and I mentioned camping gear. Lo and behold, on my birthday I got a set of camping kitchenware. Now that I had this, I couldn’t just let it sit in a box till next year! I booked a car and campsite for Labour Day weekend, and just like that, after a full summer spent mostly indoors, I was finally going to touch some grass.
I’d avoid mentioning this, but I feel like it colors the whole trip. When I booked it, I had a girlfriend. She had never camped before, but seemed excited to try it. I was a bit worried she would not have enjoyed the experience. She was a lot further on the bougie scale than myself, and I got the impression that she wasn’t fully grasping what the experience would entail. Long story short, this didn’t come to pass because we broke up a few days before the trip. The night before I was supposed to head out, I was really dreading it. It was 10 pm, I was picking up the car at 8 am, and I had not packed or planned anything. My excitement for the trip didn’t start to grow until I started thinking of what opportunities opened up now that I was going alone.
A big one was food. I don’t care that much about food. Previously, I was trying to find camping meals that would be up to her palate, but now that I was going by myself? Oatmeal for breakfast, sandwich for lunch, hot dogs for dinner. Simple as. Now, there is actually a type of restaurant I do enjoy going to: the American slop chain. These are the American restaurants that people outside of the US have heard of. There’s something about it that I find so cool. Like, I knew about the Hard Rock Cafe as a ten-year-old. I had no idea what it was, but I had seen the logo on people’s T-shirts. I feel like that level of marketing and cultural impact is (maybe was) exclusive to America. So a first-time visit to any of these types of places always excites me. For this trip, it was going to be Texas Roadhouse and Waffle House. Two institutions that I had known of for years, but never had a chance to visit. When I found out that they were both on the way, I locked tf in and finished packing real quick.
The next morning I was picking up the car from Avis just a few blocks away from me. It took me three trips up to my fifth-floor walk-up to get everything, but honestly it wasn’t as bad as I feared. Packed and ready to go, I headed down to the Lincoln Tunnel.
My first stop was a Walmart in New Jersey to stock up on food and miscellaneous supplies I hadn’t ordered online. I was kind of hoping to see a gun rack or something crazy, but it was the standard Walmart I was used to back in Canada. After that quick stop, I was off to lunch at Texas Roadhouse! The bread and butter were delicious; the steak was fine. I ate quickly and got back on the road to the first hike of this trip.
A bit on where I’m going. As I mentioned this trip was a bit impromptu. I was looking for a campsite a few weeks before Labour Day, so the options were quite limited. I ended up at Hickory Run State Park. It was the third place on a list I found and the first one that had availability.
The flagship feature of this park is a field of boulders in the middle of the woods. When I arrived at the trailhead for this marvel, it was full. I decided I’d come back earlier tomorrow and went to the closest other trail I found on AllTrails. I decided to raw dog it and leave my AirPods in the car. An attempt to be more connected with nature, I suppose. The trail was nothing special; you’re just walking through the woods. There’s a little stream you’re near sometimes and a viewpoint, but if I hadn’t seen it labeled on the map, I would have honestly not recognized it as such.
My big mistake on this hike was wearing my Stan Smiths. Obviously, in retrospect, this was a stupid move, but I had gone hiking in them before. I brought my running shoes with me, but was just too lazy to switch into them. It wasn’t too bad, just a bit uncomfortable. I didn’t cross paths with many on the hike, and since I wasn’t listening to anything, I was just thinking the whole time. I was really appreciating the connection to nature, quite the contrast to midtown where I spend 95% of my time. At the start of the trail, I noticed some nice sticks leaning against a marker and a sign about rattlesnakes. About 30 minutes in, it clicked that the sticks were probably left for people to use for scaring off rattlesnakes. Once I realized this, I picked up a stick, but didn’t carry it for long. It seemed too LARPy to carry an anti-snake stick, and how bad could a bite really be? By the end of the hike I was very much just looking forward to getting back to my car.
Checking into the campsite was so seamless; hotels should take notes. No line; the guy just asked for my site number and gave me a map. Setting up camp was easy. It was my first time building my new tent, but there was nothing complicated about it. I went for a shower before starting dinner, and again this was exactly what I expected from a campsite shower. A bit dirty, but the water had good pressure and temperature.
A core part of what I expect from a camping trip is sitting around a nice fire for a while. My dad kept a large pile of firewood in the backyard. It included logs as well as smaller sticks. It sat covered for years, so it was nice and dry. I wouldn’t realize this until the second night, but this is why I’ve historically had no issues starting fires. Being halfway across the continent from this premium supply of firewood, I had to get some locally. The logs were quite big, but I thought it wouldn’t be an issue because I picked up a hatchet at Walmart earlier. Boy was I wrong! I didn’t realize until it was too late, but I guess this hatchet just wasn’t meant to chop wood? My only experience with a hatchet was, again, the one I would borrow from my dad for camping trips. This new one was the only one they had in stock, and I think its main purpose was to LARP. I purchased some fire starters at Walmart which were great for getting a fire going. Unfortunately, with the large logs, I just couldn’t get the flame to that level where you can just throw in a log every so often and enjoy the endless flame. At the peak, it got good enough to make some hot dogs, but I was feeling tired and disappointed, so I called it early and went to bed by about 9 pm. Another mistake.
I ended up waking up at 1 am with a moderate headache. I assume the headache was from my lack of caffeine throughout the day. I had a cup of coffee when I woke up and nothing else. I ended up walking around the campsite and sitting in the car for a while. I felt so miserable. I am blessed with rarely having headaches, so when I do get one, I feel like it’s so over. Luckily, after a few hours of this, I was able to fall back asleep.
I slept surprisingly well. I got a self-inflating pad which looks quite thin, but I can honestly say it clears any air mattress I’ve slept on. The temperature fell to about 12°C. I had to wear more than I would have liked, but it was far from uncomfortable. For breakfast, I had another camping staple. Quaker Dino Oatmeal. This thing is literally sugar-flavoured oatmeal, but it’s just so nostalgic for me. A must when I’m camping.
With a quick breakfast out of the way, I headed back to the trailhead of the park’s main trail. Luckily, this time I was able to snag a parking spot. This hike, while more interesting than the last, wasn’t anything too exciting. It’s slightly uphill on the way there, but it’s out-and-back, so you get an easy return. The main appeal here is the boulder field at the end, which is exactly what it sounds like. I guess I haven’t seen anything like it, but for this to be the main draw of a park is just funny to me. Like it’s just rocks. Sure, they’re kind of in the middle of nowhere, but any rocky beach is kind of the same thing. In Jasper there’s a waterfall, and if you walk down the trail there’s a massive field of boulders along a river. This hike is a must if you’re at this park, but definitely not worth driving out just for it.
After the hike, I tried finding a nice spot to eat my lunch, but the lack of service and my hunger made me give up on this pretty quickly, so I just headed back to my campsite. I had a ham sandwich and chilled in the tent for a bit. This is the point where I started listening to music and decided to write my prior post. I wrote most of it in the tent, but went into town to upload it. Much to my chagrin, there wasn’t a single open cafe in town. I ended up grabbing an ice cream and sitting at a picnic table. Once that was done, I headed back for round two with the fire.
I was convinced that the issue was the logs. If I could just chop them down, then I could get the fire going nicely. After learning that my hatchet was garbage the prior night, I figured I could borrow a better one to solve my problem. Now, I know this is the second one, so maybe I’m the problem, but I swear this one was so dull. The older couple who I borrowed it from even said so when I asked. I chopped up some smaller pieces, but I knew it wouldn’t be enough before I even started. I did the same routine as the night before, using an embarrassing amount of fire starters. This time again, it didn’t work. I had basically given up after dumping out the rest of the fire starters and making a single hot dog. The fire started winding down, and I felt defeated. I guess I was no great outdoorsman. I guess I hadn’t started that many fires. I guess I’ve only been camping a handful of times in my life. At that point, the fire had four half-burned logs in it. I thought of how I would dispose of them in the morning. I couldn’t leave it; that would be rude to the next person. I envisioned myself looking for the designated trash can, getting my hands dirty. Leaving most of the firewood I had bought behind. As I was going to start packing up, I saw the lid of an Ikea box I had used to pack my cooking supplies, and a memory jolted into my mind. A memory that I didn’t know I still had, yet there it was, vibrant and vivid. I remembered the image of my mom using a container lid to fan a flame during one of our camping trips when I was a kid.
I grabbed the lid and started fanning the flame like my life depended on it. And my god did it work. I had been periodically blowing on the flame to liven it up, but this was a different ball game. A few waves and the fire shot back up. In no time at all, the fire was burning as bright as I wanted it. I ended up burning the remainder of the wood. By the time I was done, all that remained was ash. It was honestly such an incredible experience. I know it’s silly and a very basic strat to fan the flame, but it just completely slipped my mind until I was about to give up. Having a fire is a core part of camping for me, and leaving without experiencing it would have destroyed the trip for me. Shout out mom for teaching me the move and not raising a quitter. That night I slept so well. I zonked out almost immediately and slept straight through to the morning.
I was over the lackluster hikes in the park, so in the morning I just packed up and headed back. I had opened the can of worms with my break up songs post the day before, so I was looking forward to crushing my soul with some sad songs on the drive back. First on the docket was Lana’s Cinnamon Girl. A few piano notes in and I’m collapsing. It hurts so good. The road has got to be a top 3 spot for listening to music. It was quite a nice drive; the road was fairly empty, and I was just putting on banger after banger. It was a little bit out of the way, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to check out Waffle House for breakfast. I’m usually a pancake person, but when in Rome. I think this was one of my favourite waffles I’ve ever had. It’s very much not a Belgian waffle, which I liked. Nice and thin, really not that far off from a pancake. Didn’t get to experience any Waffle House at 2 am craziness, but very glad I stopped. Would definitely go again on future road trips.
The drive back into the city is really something. This was my first time coming in from the New Jersey side. Seeing Manhattan appear, there’s really no place like it. I loved getting out to nature, but Manhattan is where I want to be. Given the short-notice pivot to a solo trip, this experience was way better than I would have thought. I’m so glad I finally went camping and can’t wait to plan more trips for next year.