Spent the weekend in the Drift Creek Wilderness off the Oregon Coast Range with Llama pals. The first night we went car-camping so that everyone traveling from different locales could meet in one place. It was like the Disneyworld of camping. Whitebread and totally crappy. Nearly 90% of all the "sites" were taken up by trucks pulling campers. Many of the trailers were set up with pinwheels and whirligigs... their occupants broke out the lawn ornaments for their camping trip. I guess, that is, if you can call it camping. Kids were motoring around in PowerWheels Escalades. Teenaged girls were blowdrying their hair and applying mascara in the bathrooms.
Despite the heat, the wilderness was a welcome respite after that. We had a great time camping and playing in the creek, even though there were about a million crawdads and some obnoxious flies. It kinda sucks to be back. It's unbearably hot outside and frigidly cold inside my office. I ran eight miles this evening in the sweltering heat. It's not *too* bad, but the temperature extremes and one very stuffy upstairs apartment make it hard to get any sort of balance. Oh well! More Amsterdam photos tomorrow... I'm off to join Justin in bed. He's got his first day of clinicals (for nursing school) tomorrow morning starting at 7AM. Wish him luck!
More pictures from Dylan and Rachel.
Posted on July 25, 2006 @ 12:17 AM | 12 comments
Comments:
I've noticed that in the campsites by the river here in town. Not only are these people camping DOWNTOWN, but they have full size gas grills, toys like that one for the kids, lawn ornaments, etc. And did I mention the air conditioning and the SATALLITE DISHES on top of the RVs? Sick.
Good luck to Justin!
By 
Lazy Lightning, at
5:55 AM, July 25, 2006
they weren't camping. They just moved for the weekend.
By 007ben, at
2:19 PM, July 25, 2006
Wow, how amazingly self-centered and naive.
These families are actually out in the woods, making an effort to drag along the kids, maybe making a few day hikes, and taking in something other than shopping malls and McDonalds. All you can do is take a cheap shot at the gear they bring along. When you're actually old enough to have a couple of 3-5 year-old kids, and you're hopefully making the same "lame" attempt to take them camping, think back on this ... with any luck you'll fondly reminisce over how clueless you really were.
Yes, I also do the family camping thing occasionally; Along with more hard-core back country miles than you'll probably ever see. And yes, I do chuckle at some of the same things you do. But, I try to keep things in perspective.
Next time you're sliding into that cool black sweater, you should also try on a bit of humility, it might look good on you.
By 
, at
7:40 PM, July 25, 2006
Anon: Here's a protip- Next time you want to flame on the internet, try something other than anonymity. Nothing screams "I've got no authority" like hiding behind a wall of blatant cowardice.
Old enough to have a couple of 3-5 year-old kids
I AM old enough to have a few kids. And I don't for a reason, thankyouverymuch. I'm not ramping up to go ANY time soon. So save your wizened advice for someone who gives a crap and maybe is actually planning to breed. FYI, this *is* my time to be selfish and self-righteous and I'm going to enjoy it. I'm sorry that you can't take someone on TEH INTARWEB expressing an off-the-cuff opinion without getting your panties in a knot. This says as much about you as my intolerance says about me. Lighten up, for God's sake.
I am talking about a real extreme here: My parents had FOUR children and NOT once did they buy us something as ri-fucking-diculous as a POWERWHEELS ESCALADE or take us out with a city-sized pickuptruck pulling a 30-foot trailer and call it "camping." What's self-centered and naive is that ANYONE could consider this a retreat into nature.The people who do are those who are likely have no appreciation for the real thing... and who are whittling away this country's natural resources by driving their gas guzzlers to the grocery store while those of us who'd rather hike through forests find them fewer every day.
Counter to what you say, I DO appreciate that this is as close as some people will get to the wilderness. (I also I do understand that many of them are elderly and retired.) I will only give them minor kudos, however, before I return to my statement that this is a sad, sad approach to camping. My parents, as I said above, took three yound girls camping and it WAS car camping, not backpacking. But there's a DIFFERENCE between car camping and what I saw at South Beach Campground.
There were times when we camped in grounds like this, when we lived in Michigan where people's concept of "the great outdoors" is usually unfortunately limited to city parks. But we always brought tents and gave some value to living IN THE ENVIRONMENT. Not trucking along playstations, satellite dishes, blow driers, boomboxes and water coolers. Yah.
Finally, re: "These families are actually out in the woods, making an effort to drag along the kids, maybe making a few day hikes, and taking in something other than shopping malls and McDonalds."
Before you make assumptions, you might consider that they're NOT out in the woods. They're in a car campground outside Newport, Oregon. The only day hike is a half mile to the beach. They're about four miles from a Fred Meyer and less than two from downtown Newport. Wilderness, it ain't.
Since you've basically called me a prick, anon, let me just say: it takes one to know one.
By Kat, at
11:08 AM, July 26, 2006
That's fuuunny, looks like I hit a nerve. More than that, looks like I'm right.
By just another loser, at
11:09 AM, July 26, 2006
Saying "it looks like I'm right" without actually proving your point is the number two irritating trait of trolls, behind anonymity.
By Kat, at
11:09 AM, July 26, 2006
Wow anon... not even bothering to back up why you're right when she makes a series of very good points about your comments. Are you out of juice? Bothering to come into a blog anonymousl y and vent about someone else's OPINION makes it seem like you are, in fact, the one suffering from a hurt nerve.
Next time you want to escape from McDonalds and shopping malls - centers of commercialism as it were - please leave all items of said commerce at home and try to enjoy seeing the forrest for the trees. At the very least, do not insist that you are escaping something that you then drag along with you. That is just silly.
By , at
11:09 AM, July 26, 2006
Some mighty fine assumptions you're making there (Anonymous) to counter some real-life observations. I have no problem with people going car camping, however what we saw at South Beach state park was a bunch of spoiled kids in RV's, and parents pretending they needed that Columbia goretex jacket.
I can understand that it would be difficult to camp with children (how to do this is something that I often wonder about myself), but I would hope that people wouldn't dillude themselves into thinking that what was going on at South Beach was bringing anyone close to nature. The "campground" amounted to a parking lot with bushes between the spaces.
These people were .5 mile from a beautiful sandy beach to play on (a greater joy can't be had by a kid) on a beautiful weekend at the coast, and they decided that the kids needed TV, playstation, and their electric Escalade to trot around the lot in.
For christ sake, they could have left the goddamn escalade powerwheels behind just for the weekend don't you think?
I guess I'm trying to figure out how numine's post took a different attitude than chuckling at the audacity of the situation, which you yourself admit to doing. WE all had a good laugh and then thanked our lucky stars that we had the mobility and ability to leave that place and find some solice in the woods away from Disneyland.
By Micah, at
11:14 AM, July 26, 2006
Shit numine, don't you know that camping just isn't camping unless you bring your satellite TV, air conditioning, microwave and $120,000 mobile home that gets 8 mpg? Get a grip on yourself (and your black sweater, which has everything to do with this post).
Once you pop out a bunch of 3-5 year olds (though ouch, I'd rather pop out infants, myself), you definitely should attempt to take them out. (I say "attempt" because lord knows kids are totally impossible to discipline and you must succomb to every demand they make) In making your lame attempt, you can teach them them that: "Yes children, camping is when you have all the amenities of home PLUS a highway nearby!"
By Lazy Lightning, at
11:15 AM, July 26, 2006
OH GOD LAZY LIGHTING I THOUGHT YOU WERE MY FRIEND!! YOU TOTALLY FLAMED ME ON MY BLOG!!! D:
Yeah, I was really just observing the irony of the situation. I don't see where he/she gets off assuming that it means I need an attitude adjustment. This person wasn't even there!
Who's to say I wasn't keeping things in perspective? Way to assume there, buddy!
And the whole "I'll log more back country miles than you ever will" thing is just... childish. If I don't have kids, hmm, I might just spend those years on the trail.
And my "cool black sweater"... is a polar fleece. Hardly as emo-tastic as you're trying to make it out to be.
By Kat, at
11:20 AM, July 26, 2006
I flamed you on your blog and now I WIN AT TEH INTARNETZ.
Why don't you just rip some holes in that sweater and then pin them up with giant safety pins?
By Lazy Lightning, at
11:36 AM, July 26, 2006
coming and flaming someone's blog is like peeking in their windows to judge them on what they're doing. Ok, so maybe I didn't pull the shades, but it's my goddamn house. If you don't like it, don't look. It's awfully small minded (or penised, perhaps) of the anon to come along and rain on your parade, Kat. It's your parade, dammit.
By Loreleilee, at
11:55 AM, July 26, 2006
