Amber's First Camping Trip

Thursday night DJ and I took his sister camping for her first time. For the entire winter she had been looking forward to going camping. Now that school was out we took her our first opportunity. We went to the George Washington State Forest in Glocester, RI. The drive was only about 40 minutes from North Attleboro. Our first choice was Myles Standish State Park in Plymouth,MA but it seems Mass parks were pretty full this week. I considered going to Nickerson, but did not want to drive 90 minutes each way. If it would have been a month earlier in the height of trout season I probably would have.

We got to the campground about 3:30. We were careful not to get there to early. We didn't want there to be to much down time for Amber/us to get bored. After setting up camp about 3:45 ( DJ and I have that down to a science) the kids went for a swim. It was a nice warm day, not to humid. Basically, in the sun you were warm and in the shade it was perfect. They swam about a half hour while I read. After the swim we went for a 2 mile hike. The hike went part way around around the pond. It was a loop hike. On the back side of the hike were hike in only sites. We walked by them. They were really nice, but we had already picked out our site on the main campground road. To my surprise, Amber enjoyed the hike and didn't complain she was tired.

It was breezy all day. We took both kayaks and planned/hoped to take them out on Bowdish Reservoir. As of 6 pm, it was still to breezy and the waves were a little much for an 8 year old. We went back to our site after our hike. It was only a quarter mile drive. DJ went for a run while Amber and I got wood ready for our fire later and took food out of the car for supper. When DJ got done running 5 miles we ate hot dogs and potato chips cooked on the grill. They were delicious. Amber was in charge of cooking. She did a great job turning the dogs and making sure they didn't burn.

After supper we went back to the pond so DJ could swim to clean off the sweat. The water was much calmer. Amber and I went out in the 'yaks. I brought a fishing pole. Amber does not like fishing but she really wanted to see me catch one. No pressure there. The smaller kayak is a lot slower than mine, so it took Amber much more effort to get from point A to B. She led and we just paddled up the shoreline into a big lily pad cove. I caught one pickrel while Amber picked a couple water lilies. She laid back in the kayak and kept saying how peaceful and relaxing it was. We stayed out on the water until 10 minutes after sunset. Still plenty of light left to put the kayaks on the car and get ready for a fire.

Back at camp we started a fire and roasted marshmellows. Although I am in the minority, I am not a huge fan of campfires. I hate the smell on smoke on my clothes. however, Amber needed to have one for her first camping experience, so I cheerfully roasted mellows with them. He kept the fire going about an hour. After it was out it was completely dark. He went back to the beach and look at the stars. We all saw one shooting star and looked at them about 20 minutes. Amber was more than happy to get back to the tent.

I guess I took the sleeping in the tent part for granted. She was really looking forward to sleeping in it. As soon as we got back to camp and brushed our teeth, she got in the tent and enjoyed being in it. With little chance of rain, we slept with the rain flies off the tents. That was nice.

I got up at 5:15 am. I wanted to do some bass fishing. The lake we stayed at is one of the better bass lakes in Rhode Island. The water was glass calm. I fished about 90 minutes. I caught a couple more decent sized pickerel. The absolute highlight of my morning was seeing a bald eagle. I couldn't believe I was seeing it. I reported it to the ranger later on while we were checking out. The ranger said sightings were very common. The day before we saw an osprey so to see a bald eagle was an unexpected pleasant surprise. I went back to bed about about 6:45 and slept until 9. The kids woke up about 8:20 and played a card game in the tent. We ate breakfast and packed everything up. We stopped at my brother's house on the way home. All in all Amber had a great time. DJ was really good about swimming with her and playing with her. I'm sure he would have rather text messaged his girlfriend. He played Go Fish and helped pack up her tent and supplies. He made my trip extremely easy


At the end of our trip Amber disposed of our trash in the proper place. No litter bugs here.