So, the story is we unexpectedly found ourselves among the pines. We dreamed of camping on the desert floor, but the National Forest campground was full. The ranger pointed us up a mountain to a primitive State Forest site. Twelve miles further and 2000 feet higher we pitched our tent at 7000 feet. We saw patches of snow across the dirt road. We brought a light tent and light sleeping bags and no wood. The fuel we picked up for our pocket rocket stove was the wrong size. So we gathered wood and built a fire and froze. We suspect it probably got down in the 20s. Gene left the tent to use the bathroom in the middle of the night and came back shivering uncontrollably. He couldn't stop shaking for about 20 minutes. We slept (sort of) with our bodies cemented together. No, that isn't very poetic, but that's the way it was. Maybe I'll think of a better way to describe it later. The next morning we were happy to find out we were still alive. We climbed down from that mountain and headed for Bisbee. Our taste for more camping this trip had run fairly dry.
3 comments:
Thank you for reminding me why I don't camp. I'm glad you survived.
This reminds me of a time when I took Brad camping during freezing weather. He questioned me about the cold weather and I said, "don't be a wimp, it'll be fine." When it got down the the thirties, which we didn't expect, we invited the dogs into our sleeping bags but still couldn't warm up. We woke at 4 or 5am and left for home. When we got home we showered and got everything cleaned up and put back in the garage. We were still cold so we bundled ourselves on the couch in front of the tv. When it was about 10am we were positive we had been home for hours and that it was around 4pm. When we called to order pizza we were told they didn't open until 11am. Big shock for us. I don't think we warmed up and felt normal again until we got under our down comforter that night. It definitely has become an experience we laugh about now. I don't think I've ever felt that cold since then.
We definitely shouldn't have been camping in the mountains. We knew nothing about it. It was amazing, though, when the sun came out the temperature really started to climb and we figured we wouldn't die.
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