Wichita Mountain Camping Experience
It took me about 30 minutes to set up camp – pitching the tent and transferring all my gear from the car to the tent. I’ve come to set a high value to any gear that will help in a fast set up and tear down. You want to have your time frames defined by your camping activities, not by your set up and tear down. Since this was my first solo camp, I knew things like setting up would take me a lot more time than with a buddy, so I made sure that I only brought and set up essential equipment. Really I think that most of my time was spent lugging equipment to and from the road – the tent went up fairly easily, but I would have had a rough time if there had been a strong wind.
The site fees are $8, and they have ice and firewood for sale at the entrance to the camp grounds. Unfortunately for me, there was a burn ban in effect for the county so firewood wasn’t a concern of mine. I prefer to use deadwood for the camp rather than buy it, but sometimes you’re only options are wood that is either too wet or too wick for use. On this trip there was a serious lack of deadwood laying around, so it wasn’t an option even if there hadn’t been a ban, although there was abundant kindling.
As of 5:30p I only have two sets of neighbors, one to the WNW and one to the NNW, but they are pretty courteous and quiet, so no problems there. Things are looking to turn into a peaceful evening.
I brought brauts, creamed corn, and baked beans for dinner. I’m trying to keep things pretty simple since I only have two burners to work with.
Since I didn’t have a grill over a cookfire to work with, I boiled the brauts to warm them and then let them sear in the pan when the water boiled off. This was a quick and easy dinner for making on a camping stove – really a great meal if you don’t have the option of a fire.
I forgot to bring any dishrags or paper towels, so I had to get creative with cleanup. Boiling water took care of most of it, and a couple of extra hot dog buns made serviceable scrubbers for the pot.
The sun set at 6:40p, and the surrounding trees made for much more privacy at night. I strung up a couple of lamps and read until about 9:30p and then turned in for the night.
My night’s sleep went very well until about midnight when a couple moved into the sight next to me. They took about an hour to get their site set up and were annoyingly loud. I’m not sure how they got in to the camp site, because the gates are supposed to be closed at 8:00p. Needless to say, I was pretty hacked at them for showing up and setting up in the middle of the night.
The sun rose at about 6:00a, and I decided to get up at 7:00a. I made myself a breakfast of eggs, bacon and coffee to get ready for the day of hiking I had in store. I highly recommend finding a good plastic french press for your coffee instead of relying on a percolator. You’re going to get a much better cup of coffee in the same amount of time with the french press. After breakfast I packed up the majority of my gear and stowed it in the tent so I could set out on my hike. I’ll tell you about the hiking experience in my next post.
Very nice information.