This past weekend, I experienced camping for the first time ever in my life. I know what most people might be thinking, "Did you never sleep in a tent in your backyard," or "How could you ever not go camping?" First off, my mom is not the biggest camper. She likes to hike and bike, but when it comes to sleeping outside without plumbing she would take a hard pass. Since my mom wasn't a huge camper, my dad just assumed that I would be like her and wouldn't even try it. Well Dad, I'm sorry to say that for almost 22 years, I would of gone camping with you because I enjoyed it. That's right, I enjoyed camping in the great outdoors in Colorado. Knowing my cousin, of course we didn't go to a typical camp ground. We were basically in the wilderness with the city maybe a good 20-30 minute drive. Our campsite was set up by a small creek, which was extremely nice to hear when we slept. The biggest challenge I knew that I would have to face is setting up the tent. As a child, I had the simple pop up tent. No work was required to actually make it stand, unlike the tent we used for camping. You had to stick it into the ground and made sure the rods were correctly placed. My brain could not understand how to make this tent stand up, which thank goodness my cousin came and helped or I would have been sleeping outside.
We started our adventure in the wilderness by hiking (not trails but all over the woods). No trail was in sight, so we made our own trail. We climbed a small waterfall and then ended up making our way further into the forest. We somehow ended up in a deer graveyard filled with bones and skulls, which the puppies loved. Of course my cousin had to mess with me and say he saw bear tracks, which made me freakout. While going up and down in the mountains, we decided to go back in the creek and hike in the rapids. As many people know, I got knee surgery in May and my knee was definitely getting tested. The water was ice cold since the snow is still melting at the top of mountains. When I say rapids, the rapids were not extreme, but I had my moments of losing balance. Especially towards the end when my toes where numb from the cold water.
Towards the end of the trip, we sat outside and relaxed by the fire. My cousin tried to go fishing and fell into the water multiple times. As the sky got darker, that's when the true fun began. I'm not sure if you know this, but Colorado has vampire bats. I didn't think anything of it when my cousin pointed a bat to me coming at our heads. When I heard it was vampire bat, I sprinted to the tent and said "Ok, I'm done for the night. I don't do vampire bats!"
As I drifted off to sleep, I was awoken not too long after by my cousin who told me I needed to come out right now. He said that he would feel bad if I didn't see the true experience of camping out in Colorado. After two minutes of contemplating about getting out of my nice, warm sleeping bag, I finally made it out. My cousin told me not to look up when I got out of the tent. His goal was for me to be on the road, so I could be in complete utter darkness to see the stars. I didn't put my shoes on, so there was no way that was going to happen. I looked up from the side of tent at the sky above me. I have never seen stars so bright in my life. You could see everything and it was gorgeous. I wish I could of taken a picture, but it wouldn't have given it justice. I was inthralled with the beauty of the natural light that I've never seen before. It truly is a sight to see.
As I continue my life in Colorado, I definitely will be out in the wilderness again to camp. Maybe next time more than one day. My time camping will also be in my video at the end of this month, so look out!