The Spousal Unit had to go to a conference for 4 days so I took the dogs camping at one of my favorite parks: Forest Glen County Preserve near Danville, IL. I love camping this time of year, when it's only 45 or 50 during the day and low to mid 30's at night. I'm a hot sleeper and I sweat like a Vietnamese seamstress during the summer so late fall temps are perfect for me. Sylvia, however, thinks I can shove cold weather camping up my ass which is why I do this sort of thing when she's out of town. Nobody likes anything cold shoved up their ass.
We got there around 3pm on Wednesday and after setting up the tent (ok, I did the setting up while the dogs sniffed around for the feces of various woodland creatures) and getting camp all ready we headed off to hike for about an hour and a half. That left us just enough time to get the fire started, cook and eat dinner & walk up to the ranger station to sign in before dark. Surprisingly we were the only tent campers and had the place to ourselves. Go figure.
After a quick breakfast this morning (and it was quick mostly because it was too cold to just stand around camp) I donned the pack filled with water and lunches and the 3 of us were off. For a place in central Illinois Forest Glen is pretty rugged and awfully hilly. But 4 hours later and I think we had put in about 10 miles give or take a bit. We saw a ton of deer, hawks and squirrels but not another person. It was perfect.
The dogs haven't moved since we got home.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
No, no Zoe, finish your thought.
I used to love winter camping. The kids and the dog have put a crimp in that. As did my brother breaking my winter tent poles in Alaska.
A couple years after we moved to Indiana I spent the night from x-mas eve to x-mas day at a state park near here. We got 5 or 6 inches of snow overnight. It was excellent. It was like waking up in another world. We only had one dog then and he went bounding through all the fresh snow like a little bunny.
Sylvia had already gone to Buffalo by this time of course. She thinks I'm nuts. But the dogs love it.
Post a Comment