We squeezed a hell of a lot of things into one short weekend! We've been talking for quite a while about taking a trip to Ohio to visit some friends, Lisa and Meredith, who always end up coming to Indy when we get together (usually for concerts!), so we started to plan something mid-summer to make sure we made time to actually do it this year! Somehow in a series of group texts to determine what weekend everyone was free, and what we should actually do, we came up with the idea of going camping together.
What started out as a discussion about "glamping" (staying in a cabin or cottage) turned into down and dirty tent camping. We booked a spot at Hocking Hills State Park in Ohio for the first weekend in August, and now had something to look forward to for a few weeks. Plans were made to lay out who had what camping accouterments, and who would bring what by way of one of the most important aspects of camping - the gastronomic necessities.
As a side note - most of you probably know that we biked across the country last summer, self-supported (which means carrying every last necessity on our bicycles). The irony and juxtoposition of circumstances did not escape us as we packed bin after bin, bag after bag into my Jeep Grand Cherokee,until it was nearly stuffed to the gills with things we would have never contemplated needing for life on the road last summer. Car camping and bicycle touring sure are two very, very different worlds.
For us, the drive to Hocking Hills was a relatively long one (about 4 hours), and we were disappointed to find that the folks who had been camping in our reserved spot the night before still hadn't evacuated the site,and also must have been out hiking, so the ranger couldn't ask them to pack it up and leave. After a tour of available sites guided by an extremely helpful ranger, we chose a new site (which was actually larger and included electricity, which we hadn't planned on having), and set up our giant tent. I should mention that our tent is designed to sleep 12 people I believe, though that would be an extremely tight fit, with people packed head-to-foot in mummy bags - we felt very comfortable in it with two of us on each end of the tent on air mattresses and a large open space in the middle. We were camping in the relative lap of luxury!
We ended up just hanging around the first night everyone arrive and cooking dinner over a campfire, chatting and catching up, mesmerized by the blue-red glow of a healthy fire, as humans have done for millenia. We were awoken that night by a furry bandit opening our coolers. We heard the neighbors trying to shoo the cute-but-destructive creature away too, but apparently to no avail. That little raccoon ate a dozen of their eggs. He was confronted only with bottles of beer and some cucumbers in our cooler, and quickly abandoned all hope at our campsite, thank goodness!We awoke the next morning to the threat of rain. After an indulgent breakfast to rival your favorite Denny's Grand Slam meal, we decided to head out to hike to a cave called The Rock House. Hiking through the damp, drizzly weather actually led an air of freshness and renewal to our hike - the smell of a forest after a recent rain is invigorating. The cave itself was beautiful, as were the views from the many "windows" it contained. Sure, graffiti is never a good thing, but I can't help but get caught up in imagining the visitors to this very spot over the past two centuries seeing the exact same views, but likely having a much more difficult time reaching the cave without luxuries like modern vehicles, parking lots, maintained trails, and tennis shoes.
After a wonderful lunch back at our campsite, we headed out to Old Man's Cave - one of the most famous sites in Hocking Hills State Park. The downpour really set in during the afternoon hours - we decided to just embrace the rain and thunderstorm and head out to see the sights anyway. Old Man's Cave is really more of an overhang, but the location is beautiful. Huge protected "cave",with a creek running through, and a waterfall just yards away. I could totally see living there, just as Richard Rowe (read: "Old Man") did in the early 1800's. I had a glorious time stomping through the creek in my trail-running shoes, which didn't even matter since I was rain-soaked anyway. I was a kid in a candy shop, and loved every minute of it.That evening was spent enjoying some libations, eating yet another delicious meal (not to mention some AMAZING cheese dip), and partaking in some raucous fun provided by Cards Against Humanity. Top this off with s'mores around the fire, and there you have it folks, the perfect camping evening.
Sunday morning saw us trying to dry everything out to prepare to pack up, but not before a couple of final hikes - destinations: Ash Cave and Cedar Falls. Ash Cave was stunning in it's beauty at the hour of the morning we arrived - the sunlight was filtered through the dewey morning air, which made for some gorgeous photo ops and views from inside the cave. Cedar Falls wasn't really falling, but we did encounter a couple of entertaining turtles and a small amount of water coming over the falls.Finally we admitted it was time to head home and back to reality. This was a great weekend with fantastic friends, filled with some of the best nature has to offer, fun times, and lasting memories. Meredith even packed a pair of high heels! She wouldn't hike in them, much to our chagrin...
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