planning on camping |
28 July 2013 by amberj224
this afternoon, I departed from Birmingham, AL in my car – heading South with the final destination of a location near Pensacola, FL; I figured out a week ago that I had a week off of work; I planned to get out of town; unfortunately, most of the people I knew had work and were unable to accompany me; I decided I wanted to do some camping; I emailed people asking for suggestions and received some awesome ideas; I had a couple of campgrounds in mind; however,I wanted the campgrounds to be on the beach where I would be able to hear the waves crashing against the shore & watching the sun rise over the ocean; I’ve seen the sun set over the ocean plenty of times, but rarely (if ever) had the chance to see the sun rise over the ocean; as I was on my way down, I called the campgrounds asking if they had waterfront tent campsites available; all of them said ‘no’; one man told me about Johnson Beach on Perdido Key – saying they had 5 miles worth of beach on which to camp; he gave me directions to the place; lucky for me, I had my iPad as my navigator; the campground I was planning on camping was a couple miles north of Perdido Key;
I told myself that I’d go down to Johnson Beach – check it out – and come back to the state park if it wasn’t going to work; I arrived at Johnson Beach and it sounded great – primitive camping (pack it in, pack it out) on the beach; I paid the entrance fee, not exactly realizing what lay ahead;
I drove 2 miles on a paved road, unloaded my camping supplies, drove 1/2 mile back to park the car, rode the bike and locked it at the end of the paved road; gathered my camping supplies,
here is the end of the paved road – no cars can park here; notice the bike for me to bike back to my car while i leave my camping items unattended
hiked 1/2 mile in the beach to a sign that said ‘Camp Beyond This Point’
– at which I walked another couple of steps, laid down my tent and scrambled to get it up before the rain came; there were clouds in the sky and thunder in the distance; I just wanted to set up camp before the rain; I was sweating like crazy due to the humidity and the racing of trying to get everything done; the rains never came, camp was all set- think this was the first time I set up camp all by myself: tent, rain guard, sleeping bag, thermarest, etc;
mind you with primitive camping, I had to carry all of my own food and water as the place where I set up camp has no electricity, no water, no bathrooms, no showers, no shade – only 5 miles of beach: Gulf of Mexico on the south side, Bay on the north side; at this point, I’m in my tent, ready to lay down and go to sleep; attempt to read with my headlamp, but I’m out
← Alabama: amberj224
morning #1 camping →
planning on camping |
28 July 2013 by amberj224
this afternoon, I departed from Birmingham, AL in my car – heading South with the final destination of a location near Pensacola, FL; I figured out a week ago that I had a week off of work; I planned to get out of town; unfortunately, most of the people I knew had work and were unable to accompany me; I decided I wanted to do some camping; I emailed people asking for suggestions and received some awesome ideas; I had a couple of campgrounds in mind; however,I wanted the campgrounds to be on the beach where I would be able to hear the waves crashing against the shore & watching the sun rise over the ocean; I’ve seen the sun set over the ocean plenty of times, but rarely (if ever) had the chance to see the sun rise over the ocean; as I was on my way down, I called the campgrounds asking if they had waterfront tent campsites available; all of them said ‘no’; one man told me about Johnson Beach on Perdido Key – saying they had 5 miles worth of beach on which to camp; he gave me directions to the place; lucky for me, I had my iPad as my navigator; the campground I was planning on camping was a couple miles north of Perdido Key;
I told myself that I’d go down to Johnson Beach – check it out – and come back to the state park if it wasn’t going to work; I arrived at Johnson Beach and it sounded great – primitive camping
 (pack it in, pack it out) on the beach; I paid the entrance fee, not exactly realizing what lay ahead;
I drove 2 miles on a paved road, unloaded my camping supplies, drove 1/2 mile back to park the car, rode the bike and locked it at the end of the paved road; gathered my camping supplies,
here is the end of the paved road – no cars can park here; notice the bike for me to bike back to my car while i leave my camping items unattended
hiked 1/2 mile in the beach to a sign that said ‘Camp Beyond This Point’
– at which I walked another couple of steps, laid down my tent and scrambled to get it up before the rain came; there were clouds in the sky and thunder in the distance; I just wanted to set up camp before the rain; I was sweating like crazy due to the humidity and the racing of trying to get everything done; the rains never came, camp was all set- think this was the first time I set up camp all by myself: tent, rain guard, sleeping bag, thermarest, etc;
mind you with primitive camping, I had to carry all of my own food and water as the place where I set up camp has no electricity, no water, no bathrooms, no showers, no shade – only 5 miles of beach: Gulf of Mexico on the south side, Bay on the north side; at this point, I’m in my tent, ready to lay down and go to sleep; attempt to read with my headlamp, but I’m out
← Alabama: amberj224
morning #1 camping →