Raise your hand if you've ever left for a camping trip in the POURING rain. All of our scouts can now raise their hands.
We had the date scheduled weeks in advance, but when the time came to leave, the weather was not cooperating. Even for the PNW, the rain was exceptionally heavy. Now I've personally had several situations where I drove to some outdoor activity in the rain, but while doing the activity the rain was barely a sprinkle. Based on that experience, I wanted to actually see the campsite before throwing in the towel, and the boys agreed. As it turned out, this whole outing went by that pattern. Whenever we finished a particular stage of the trip, we had to evaluate whether we were going to continue to the next or pack it in. Fortunately, we were able to fully complete the trip as planned, despite the weather.
This month's outing was to Fort Worden State Park, one of my favorite places to camp. When we arrived at the campsite there was essentially no rain. (I now had another case to add to my experience.) The wind, on the other hand, was intense. The upper campground had been closed for the season, so we were forced to camp at the beach campground. It was like living in a wind tunnel. Half the tents we tried to set up were too tall to stand up to the wind. Everyone finally had to pack into the small backpacking tents (which we luckily had brought, too).
During the night I thought for sure I would wake to find everybody drenched and miserable. The rain had mercifully subsided long enough for us to set up the tents and make dinner, but during the night, it made up for it's evening absence. The rain pelted and the wind howled.
In the morning, the rain gave us another breather. But the wind did not. We got everything rolled up and stashed back in the trailer and it was time for breakfast. It's astounding how wind can make even the simplest tasks very difficult. We were only able to light the stove on the lee side of the trailer. Breakfast was simple: bananas, muffins, and hot chocolate. I was thankful for the simplicity because actually making a breakfast would have been very difficult. I think each scout had their own turn chasing the hot chocolate lid across the grass. Here's a fun game, next time you're making some hot chocolate, when you have that scoop of powder on your spoon, have your friend blow on it while you try to get it into your cup. It'll be fun.
The next stage was a service project we had lined up with the park rangers. They had a bunch of scotch broom and leaves for us to work on. It's always nice to get your hands dirty.
Of course, you can't go to Fort Worden without exploring the bunkers. We spent a couple of hours doing that, and once we had a nice appetite worked up, it was off to Fat Smitty's for their famous burgers.
It was a great time. Enjoy the pictures.
