A few of you have already seen this, but I shall post it anyway for the sake of completeness. (And I tend to be rather detailed, so this is kind of long.) This is from the InterVarsity annual camping trip, March 5-6, 2006.
Groups were to leave for Stony Brook State Park at 12:30, 5 and 6. I went at 12:30, with the likes of Christina, Emily, Steffens, Sench, Anti-Dan, Eric Rodems, Michael B., and Matt Marsh. We first stopped at Tim Horton’s for lunch (I had just a donut and pop). We set out just before 2. I rode in Sench’s convertible with Anti-Dan. Normally on car rides I’d just sit and think and observe, but the annoyance of the wind in my hair and the cold air kept me distracted so I couldn’t. After getting there we had to wait for a while to round up a ranger to show us where to go, so Anti-Dan was throwing his knives at a tree (he likes weapons of all sorts).
In the afternoon after arriving, when few people were there yet, I decided to find firewood. I climbed way up the hill behind the big campsite, and found 10 or so big old dead tree trunks, some 4-6 inches in diameter. I laboriously tossed them down and down and down the rather steep hill, eventually getting them all back. After cooling off, I continued by breaking them up into chunks suitable for burning. Steffens was using a saw, but I decided to take the physics approach. The longest ones I braced between two closely-spaced trees and pushed sideways, sometimes having to give it quite a run, until it broke. Once the wood was in liftable chunks, I swung them against a tree to break them, usually sending the piece flying within one swing. (Drew got some video of me doing these things.) Emily called over that it was amazing that I could break a tree with one swing. I paused for a moment, said something boringly explanatory, and wound up for another swing. Just as I started to swing, the next section of it broke off without even hitting the tree (having been fractured in the last blow). This caused Emily to burst into laughter (not to mention myself).
Later Emily was listening to an extremely long story of how one guy’s cruise with his family had gone completely wrong, in nearly every way imaginable. I and some others were listening too. He made some reference to something else I’d never heard of (no surprise there), and someone else responded. I, having no idea what they were talking about, apparently put on an amusingly quizzical expression, because the next thing I knew Emily looked at me and burst out laughing (again). She then said, “You are just making my day!”
Several people had brought baseballs and mitts, but no bats. So some people tried playing baseball amid the campsite with a bat-sized stick scavenged from my firewood pile. A girl was at bat, and when she swung the bat it connected with the ball quite nicely. So nicely, in fact, that it broke off the end of the stick. The ball didn’t go too far, but the end of the stick flew nicely, causing the fielder to duck. The best part was that Evan got a perfect picture of the whole thing. You could see her swinging, the ball in the air, the stick flying, and the guy ducking, all in the same picture.
At his end of the camp site Snyper had his own fire. He found a big log about 3 feet long and one foot in diameter and laid it across the fire. He then took a cupful of gas from a gas can he had for some reason and tossed it on the fire, producing a large burst of flame. Some others then reprimanded him for that, noting the tencendy of flames to follow gas fumes. He put it away, but in the spirit of adventurousness I suggested that he make a trail of gas on the ground to ignite. He replied, “Stop putting ideas in my head, Tim!” He’s the type that just might do something like that, were his sense of safety not still clinging to life. Later in the evening he was trying to cap off some rope ends (used for hammocks) by melting it. However, this rope happened to not be nylon, so rather than melting it just smoldered. I was sitting nearby, and called to him. “Steve!” “What?” “It’s a fuse…” He turned to look at me and said, “Stop it! You keep giving me ideas!” He then proclaimed to all nearby, “Just so you know, Tim Peterson is going to kill us all through my body.”
I woke up around 7. It had rained during the night, but had since stopped. Also, during the night some pranksters had stolen a bunch of people’s stuff that was left outside. There was much grumbling about this, as some people were missing shoes. The stuff later turned up in the girls bathroom across the bridge. Breakfast was pancakes cooked over the grill in miscellaneous pans. Some guys cook pancakes a lot in their apartments, so they took charge of making them. It slowly started raining, which eventually put an end to the pancake-making. Some people slept in and missed breakfast. We mainly packed up and stood around the fire in the rain. There was a large chunk of rotten log by the fire that was used for a seat, and it was decided to put this on the fire. To get it going, someone tossed a cupful of gas in, which worked rather well. The rain eventually stopped around 10.
The rest of my family decided to take a trip to my grandparents in Ithaca while I was gone. They dropped me off at RIT at 12:30 Friday to meet up with the first group heading out. However, I didn’t know when I’d be back, and they weren’t returning until before supper on Saturday. So, I said I’d try to find someone willing to take me the 20 minutes home from RIT. On the way there it occurred to me that Ruth might be able to do it, since she lives with her aunt, not at RIT, and in fact goes to Roberts Wesleyan College, which isn’t far from my house. (A number of people from there go to IV at RIT.) While standing around the fire in the rain on Saturday morning I asked her if that would be possible, and she said it was. She and a neighbor she invited along were riding with her boyfriend Ted, and there was room to squeeze me in too.
After packing the car the four of us decided to take a hike through the gorge. The trail down was closed, but, risking threatened prosecution, we headed down. The trail obviously hadn’t been completely cleaned off yet, as there were chunks of rock from the wall all over the place. There are several waterfalls along the stream, and at the second one we ran into another carload of our group. We stopped there for a while, and Ruth tried wading in it. Just below that waterfall the trail was blocked with a fence, because there was a big hole in the trail. We climbed on over, stepped around the hole, and continued on. When we got to the end where the swimming area and other things are there, Ruth wanted to take the rim trail back. Ted had gotten up late and didn’t get breakfast, so he just wanted to get back fast to head out and eat. Plus there would be a lot more stairs to take. Jackie has asthma, so she didn’t want to do that either. So, we went back the way we came.
It was after noon when we left the campsite, and we were the last ones out. Our first stop was the nearby Dansville, where we hunted around for food. We eventually found the food road, and ate at Burger King. The trip home was fairly uneventful. Ruth let me sit in front because of my long legs. At one point I looked back and saw that both girls appeared to be sleeping on each other. I quietly took out my camera and took a picture. I showed it to Ted, who gave it the thumbs up.
When we got back to RIT, Ted left us at Ruth’s car, into which we squeezed. We then went to Jackie’s house to drop her off, and from there across the street to Ruth’s aunt’s house, where she lives. She left me to talk to her aunt while she changed into nicer clothes, since she was going to a dinner at Roberts later that afternoon. Then I guided her to my house. She turned out to be the perfect person to get a ride from, since I live near Roberts and she had to go there anyway, making it but a short detour to take me home.
When Ruth dropped me off, I opened the garage door using the passcode device on the wall. I proceeded to head inside… but found that, to my dismay, the door into the house was locked. Note: This door is always unlocked. Always, that is, except for when we go on trips for a few days or more. I had assumed that it wouldn’t be locked, this being just an overnight trip the rest of my family had gone on in my absence, so I thought I wouldn’t have any trouble getting in. But it was locked. And I didn’t bring my keys, thinking I wouldn’t need them. (I hadn’t thought this far ahead while packing, and I’m not used to keeping keys and such with me at all times.)
I stood around for a minute to laugh and congratulate myself on my stupidity in getting myself locked out of my house. I then set to work looking for a way in. The doors were locked, and the windows on the porch were latched. After pondering ways to open either a door or a window, and lamenting the fact that I didn’t bring my makeshift lock-picking tools, I spied the unlatched inner windows of the second floor computer room. (It’s a split-level house, so it was at more like the 1 1/2th floor level.) Outside the inner windows, however, was a latched screen and storm window. I proceeded to grab the ladder and a piece of stiff wire from the garage. I bent the wire and stuck it through the screen so I could pull the latch toward me. It worked. Behind that was the storm window, which fortunately wasn’t latched. Finally, I slid open the inner window. I took off my flip-flops, climbed inside (avoiding the printer and radios on the table), unlocked the door, and continued my arrival home, having been delayed no more than ten minutes.
And that was my camping trip.