{"id":150,"date":"2005-06-30T15:46:00","date_gmt":"2005-06-30T15:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bitpost.com\/blog\/?p=13"},"modified":"2006-01-16T18:02:19","modified_gmt":"2006-01-16T23:02:19","slug":"sand-sun-sweat-salt-sky-sun-and-more-sand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitpost.com\/blog\/2005\/sand-sun-sweat-salt-sky-sun-and-more-sand\/","title":{"rendered":"Primitive Beach Camping"},"content":{"rendered":"

I can’t believe we did it! Our friends John and Terra invited us to join them and their family on a weekend camping trip at Hammocks Beach State Park<\/A>. We knew we were taking things to the next level of family camping: backpack camping, only accessible by boat, walk-in of a mile or so to the campsite, walk of a half-mile from campsite to the only source of water, no fires (so meals consisted of trailmix and energy bars), and rough weather predicted (60% chance of rain, dangerous riptide currents). So we were mentally psyched for a good challenge!<\/p>\n

Which was a good thing – it rained on us before we even reached the campsite. The girls were awesome troopers – their packs were proportionally as big as ours, and not one complaint on the whole mile-long hike! By the time we got there, the rain had let up a bit. John and Terra had arrived early that morning, having been denied a campsite the night before – the demand is high and there are only ten available. Terra took care of us all by camping out in her car at the park entrance that night and grabbing two reservations in the wee early hours of the morning, yea Terra! So John was there when we arrived at the campsite, to help me jury-rig the “tarp” I happened to have brought (thinking I would put it under the tent) as a “rainfly”.<\/p>\n

That one small compound word precisely delineates amateurs from professional campers. A rainfly is simply a sheet of tent material with tie ropes at the corners and edges. You throw the whole thing over the tent and stake it down, to provide an additional layer of rainproofing. Ideally, the contact between the tent material and the rainfly material is minimal.<\/p>\n

It turned out I was dealing with a pair of good-news-bad-news. Let’s go goodnews-badnews, badnews-goodnews, ready!? Goodnews-badnews: the “tarp” I threw in at the last minute actually *was* a rainfly – so I qualify as a pro camper, if only by accident. Unfortunately, the KMart blue-light-special 2000SF tent I broke my back carrying in was way too big for it, as well as too big to get stable in the high winds coming off the beach. OK, now badnews-goodnews: tent stakes don’t hold in sand and high wind. At all. However, Terra had coached me on this one: “bring lots of plastic grocery bags”. John showed me how to create “sand stakes”: dig a 1′ deep hole, fill a bag, flatten it, tie the tent flap to it, and bury it. Viola, instant tent anchor! With John’s help, we were able to have a functioning tent just in time for the harder rains to kick in. Thanks John and Terra!<\/p>\n

The undersized rainfly kept everyone but me totally dry. I didn’t mind sleeping in water – without the rain it would have been too hot to sleep comfortably. It rained all night, but by morning, the sun broke through – we were set for a full day of sun and surf.<\/p>\n

The waves were great fun, Reiley, Wrenny, Ruthie and I formed the Wave Crashers Club and showed ’em who’s boss, although we all got our turns to get knocked down. John and Andy and Andrea and I bodysurfed on some pretty big ones, all of us donating to the skin gods. Terra and Talia and the three dogs (Lily and their two dogs Autumn and Tuck) explored the massive beach, which we pretty much had all to ourselves all day. And we soaked it up! :><\/p>\n

The hardcore campers are now ready for the next big outing!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I can’t believe we did it! Our friends John and Terra invited us to join them and their family on a weekend camping trip at Hammocks Beach State Park. We knew we were taking things to the next level of family camping: backpack camping, only accessible by boat, walk-in of a mile or so to … Continue reading Primitive Beach Camping<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9M0Zg-2q","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":281,"url":"https:\/\/bitpost.com\/blog\/2008\/massive-vacation\/","url_meta":{"origin":150,"position":0},"title":"Massive Vacation!","author":"m","date":"April 29, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Knee-deep in a massive two-week vacation... done now but still can't catch up!! Some notes... Saturday: soccer Sunday: Dan and Bailey arrive from Florida, whee! Monday: Tuesday: soccer, park in the rain, bocce ball, wiffle ball, horton hears a who!, base tag, 4-of-us-against-3-computers age of empires Wednesday: museum of life\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All My Rowdy Friends"","block_context":{"text":"All My Rowdy Friends","link":"https:\/\/bitpost.com\/blog\/category\/all-my-rowdy-friends\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":154,"url":"https:\/\/bitpost.com\/blog\/2005\/getting-to-be-a-tradition\/","url_meta":{"origin":150,"position":1},"title":"Y Princesses Fall Outing","author":"m","date":"November 3, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Tomorrow is our family fall camping trip, the Gillespies are joining us - we can't wait. We are cracking down on Wesley's dominance personality. Soccer is wrapping up, tournaments in another week. The girls are staying up late to watch The Amazing Race with us. 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I did my best pirate impression and kept the girls on the run - including Sparrow (Wren), Calypso (Scarlett),\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All My Rowdy Friends"","block_context":{"text":"All My Rowdy Friends","link":"https:\/\/bitpost.com\/blog\/category\/all-my-rowdy-friends\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":109,"url":"https:\/\/bitpost.com\/blog\/2004\/the-big-events\/","url_meta":{"origin":150,"position":3},"title":"YMCA 2004 Guides and Princesses Outing","author":"m","date":"May 8, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Most of the tribe decided to caravan across the state from Raleigh to the camp, which is just shy of the coast, where the Neuse river dumps into the Atlantic Ocean. 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We didn't really have a lot of expectations;\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":307,"url":"https:\/\/bitpost.com\/blog\/2008\/soccer-in-the-rain\/","url_meta":{"origin":150,"position":5},"title":"Soccer in the rain","author":"m","date":"August 26, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Soccer practice was canceled for Reiley and Wren due to a light rain, but we decided we were going to sneak onto the wet fields and have some fun anyway. I rounded up Bella, Reiley, Wren, Olivia and Chloe for some impromptu play. 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