Soooo, we went camping last month!!! This is a (severely) overdue post, but working about 80 hours a week takes its toll on my free time! Here is our adventure:
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It was my first time going, so i was somewhat unsure what to expect. I thought it was going to be kind of boring, cold, involve cold and wet socks, and we would for some reason only be eating berries. Needless to say, none of my expectations were met (luckily!!) We had a great time, and it was great to have some time for a mini-vacation in the midst of the choas of our life.
Travis and Ari went up a day earlier to get set up while i worked the late night shift. Travis got the campsite set up and Ari got used to his surroundings.
The next day, Sneha, Ulyana, and I met up to make the drive to Hocking Hills! After missing the exit (oops!) we finally made it up there around noon. Our campsite was a little smaller than what I was expecting it but it definitely served it’s purpose! We had space to lay out our tent, we had a campfire ring, a picnic table and a faucet for water. The tents went up surprisingly easy!
After we got Sneha and Uliana’s tent set up and then decided to venture out into the wild – aka the heavily-populated trails. We hiked for a few miles, seeing all kinds of neat stuff like plants, a cliff-like rock that was great for pictures, mushrooms (ahem!), and some great scenic sites by the lake. We happened to pick a day where the weather was gorgeous which of course meant lots of people — but it was ok because we met a few dogs on the way and Ari was able to make some friends! We eventually worked our way back to the campsite — and got their faster than anticipated thanks to Travis’ sense of direction and my demand of “let’s take whatever shortcut possible even if there is no trail!”
We came back and made a quick stop to get some more firewood….and to go to walmart (we were roughing it!) We had forgottent the staple of every camping trip — marshmellows for smores — and we just had to get them! Sneha picked them out and they were the largest marshmellows i’ve ever seen in my whole life! But they tasted delicious. We then stopped for some soft-serve ice cream at the local store and it was one of the best cones of ice cream i’ve had. We even made a quick pit-stop at Old Man’s Cave for some more scenic time 
Starting the fire was quite the process, but we were eventually able to get it going. The wind was very hard to block out and our flames eventually kept going out. However, thanks to the burners Travis made, the extra wood we got, and my new found joy of setting things on fire, we were able to start a fire big enough to cook our meal. We cooked as the sun went down and we had to be very resourceful about the light and lanterns we had — it was actually quite funny! A meal that would normally have taken 20 minutes at home took us well over 1.5 hours. But it was so good – we had quite the spread! We had pasta, veggie burgers, carmelized onions, corn bread, chips, and brats. Ari stuck to his usual food, but i’m sure he was scrounging for all the bits of food we dropped! We stayed up late talking and eating and talking some more….and eventually had a fight using our sticks we had made for smore-making. Don’t worry, no one lost an eye!
The next morning we woke up and made eggs and, of course, hot chocolate with the world’s largest marshmellows! We were hoping to stick around for longer since we didn’t have to check out till 1, but by the time we had packed up the site, we felt the tugs of the real world and headed home for an afternoon of studying and paper-writing. It was a great experience though, and I’m excited to go back!
