Upper San Juan Aug 15 through 17--Prep

Several months ago, we camped at Blue Jay—a wonderful “oaky” campsite off the Ortega Highway with potable water, vault toilets, and TONS of wild sage.  The sites themselves were super sweet—large and spacious, level, packed dirt and leaves.  We thought we’d found the perfect site for a quick getaway (with it being about only 60 to 90 mins from our house), but we quickly learned it’s quite the party scene on Friday and Saturday nights (thanks to the jackasses who were running around drunk at 2am chopping limbs from live trees for firewood).

 

Upper San Juan is not too far from Blue Jay, but the camping bug has gotten the better of us, and we’re willing to risk another visit to the area.  We’re hoping that the remoteness of Blue Jay is what’s attracting the partiers.  Upper San Juan is just off the highway, so perhaps it’ll be patrolled more (or at least a bit less appealing to those who want to drink ‘til they puke in the wilderness).

 

Here’s what we’re trying this time to improve our camping process:

 

1)    Pack sleeping bags behind driver/passenger seats to maximize use of space on those well areas

2)    Thin out our misc. bin (perhaps bring a smaller one)

3)    Use roll-vacuum storage bags for pillows (we like our luxury!)

 

Here’s our incomplete-and-subject-to-change menu:

 

Fri       Dinner: Shoyu chicken, ginger rice, canned corn

Sat      Breakfast: hm…not sure, but oatmeal and toast sounds lurvelee

            Lunch: prolly sandwiches

            Dinner: open to suggestions

 

Sun    Breakfast: DENNYs!

 

On the agenda of things to do is NOTHING!  We’ve not looked at trails yet, but I’d be perfectly content to spend the days just relaxing and poking around the campground, checking out the other 17 sites, trailheads, facilities, etc.  It doesn’t hurt that Edie’s co-workers gave her a bunch of little games for her birthday.  We’ve been dying to crack them open and have a go at them.

 

Whatever the case, our last camping trip seems like forever ago, so we’re really excited!

 

           

 

 

 

 

Shifting Gears

I am an island girl. In growing up, my family and I spent endless days at the beach—the adults would fish, and the kids would swim. Often, we’d camp several weekends in a row over the summer, and eventually, my parents got together with other families and developed a sort of camping group. Parents would take a week vacation at the same time, and no less than 10 families would gather at Kahe Point Beach Park (aka Electric Beach) on Oahu’s west side and camp for the whole week!

The men would drink and the women would play cribbage all night long. The kids would ride skate boards and roller skates in the evenings—after spending ALL day in the ocean. Bedtime meant crawling in a sleeping bag (tent? What tent?) and waiting for the sun to rise so we could put on our cold and still-wet bathing suits and jump into the ocean and do it all over again.

I’ve seen marine life galore, swum through underwater tunnels, fished for my dinner. From the ocean, I’ve recovered bullets from WWII, a class ring from Farrington High School, and floating $5 bill.

I remember those times amongst the best in my life and consider it a treat when I’m able to return to Hawaii and spend some time camping with my family.

Nowadays, though, camping has taken a twist for me. Living in California, camping mostly means I’m in the mountains—hiking and exploring take up most of my days, and if swimming is somehow involved (I life in SoCal so am surrounded by desert), I’m usually in a freshwater hole.

It’s not the same—the salt water in my veins seems to only weakly respond to freshwater swimming—but it’s better than nothing!

I’ve camped from the Sequoias to the Palomar Mountain and several places between. I’ve not only learned a lot, but had to re-learn a lot. My hope is that writing about camping will open doors to sharing experiences as well as crack open a dusty door to get inside my own head.