'Win Blog: First and Last Camping Trip this Season

After the success we had camping with the boys in Colorado, we were anxious to take them camping in the mountains here in New York. We contemplated going over the summer, sometime in July or August, but since Summers are so much hotter here, and the campfire is one of the major draws of camping for the boys (I mean what boy doesn't love playing with fire?), we decided to wait until Fall to take them camping.

The campsites book up pretty quickly, and we wanted a good spot with decent privacy by a lake, so this weekend was one of the only options that met that criteria. October is pretty late in the season to go camping because it tends to be colder (not that that stopped us in CO if you read about those adventures!), but the Fall foliage is also more spectacular this time of the season!

We booked our campsite a few hours Northwest of the city at a place called Mongaup Lake. The drive there was beautiful, particularly once we got off the main highway. We hit a little snag when we first arrived with bringing Tsali into the site (apparently his rabies tag wasn't sufficient, we also were supposed to have had his vet papers), so we had to track down the vet from Colorado, who thankfully answers calls on Saturday mornings! He was able to call the check in desk at the site and verify that Tsali was up to date on all of his shots. Whew.

We set up camp pretty quickly. Andy worked on the tent while the boys and I collected sticks for starting the fire - the best part! I even let Gabriel use a small hack saw on a dead tree limb, which he thought was just the best. It was pretty chilly, but Andy got a good fire going and we all warmed up quickly. We enjoyed hotdogs of course, followed by roasted marshmallows.

Canned seltzer, such a novelty!

they were playing some kind of monster in the sleeping bag tag game (?)

As I mentioned before, it tends to be colder this late in the season. The weather forecast indicated a low of 35, which is definitely borderline for too cold, but we thought we'd be ok. Once it was time for bed and we left the side of the fire ... brrrrr! Here we are snuggling up in the tent:

Now it gets interesting (as always!). Andy and I gave the boys our sleeping bags because they are cold weather rated, and we figured we could manage in their children's bags. Plus we had therma-rests so it couldn't be that bad, right? The boys fell asleep pretty quickly, but we were having a hard time keeping warm and thus getting to sleep. I feel like I tossed and turned for hours an kept trying to find little warm pockets in the sleeping bag. I also kept checking on the boys, who remained super toasty. In the middle of the night, I couldn't take the cold anymore and asked Andy to switch bags with me (I have my warm ski jacket draped over the bag and was still cold). His bag was the least cold weather ready, but it was bigger (thus why he was in it and I was not), but I quickly realized that it was warmer somehow than Gabriel's 35 deg bag. Did I mention children's sleeping bags are also shorter? So Andy is covered from about torso down and has a ski jacket draped over him for the top. Boys are still toasty though!

We make it to about 5am and just can't bear the cold anymore. Andy got up and turned the car on and turned the heat on full blast. Once the car was ready, we swooped the boys out of their bags and into their carseats. They stayed groggy for a bit as we drive around wondering what we were going to do until the sun came up.

Sadly, after failed attempts to find a local 24-hr diner or something similar in the neighboring towns, we ended up at the dreaded M word (McDonalds). We ordered coffees and biscuits and headed back to the camp site as the sun was coming up. Judah went back to sleep, and I was exhausted from not sleeping all night, so when we pulled back up to the lake, Gabriel and Andy got out and walked around while Judah and I snoozed.

Shortly after we headed back to the campsite. We wanted to get the canoe out on the lake before we left and have a little bit more time to explore. In another tragic culinary moment, we also got into some old donuts Andy had stashed from the previous day. None for me, but the boys ate them up! Second breakfast. Can you tell how cold it is?