bug bites

So we went to calaveras big trees state park this weekend for some car camping. There were 8 of us: 4 dragonboat related, 2 stanford friends, and 1 coworker. I like to mix it up some when I organize these trips. I didn't find out till later that I had 3 car camping newbies. fun! We met up bright and early Sunday morning at 8am and then spent time trying to fit 8 people's worth of stuff into 2 cars. It's amazing how much stuff everyone brings - I was the luggage nazi nixing items left and right and forcing them to leave them behind. We were finally on our way at 9 and headed due east on highway 4 through stockton, angel's camp and then finally reaching our destination 3 hours later. This was the closest campground to civilization that I have ever camped at. I never lost radio receiption and 4 miles before the park we saw a round table pizza. Boy L. really really wanted to see if delivery would work to our campsite. Anyhow, we were sure we wouldn't starve.

After setting up camp, we headed out for some hiking in the early afternoon. We all had about 1 bottle's worth of water on us since we didn't have an idea about the trails and such. This park basically was a mix of sequoias and redwoods - pretty amazing. After the 1 mile nature trail that was easy and flat, I heard comments of "wow, that was easy. where's the real hiking?" I took a look at the map and saw that there was a trail up to a lookout that looked suitably hilly so we set out on that. At the same time that I looked at the trail descriptions, it also said that the trail continued after the lookout all the way to the Stanislaus river and would be quite strenuous esp. on the return but I figured we wouldn't even try to go that far so didn't think too much of it. Anyhow, a mile later we get up to the top to the lookout and made the fateful decision to continue on to the river. To quote girl L, "It's only 2.7 miles! that's not that far". Ahem. We soon discovered that it was 2.7 miles steeply downhill which was hard on the body but we kept going and going since we had gone this far already. We finally made it to the river which was quite impressive looking but it was at this point that I remembered that I hadn't put any insect repellant on so was suitably frightened of my surroundings. It was also at this point, where we turned around and started the painful and agonizing steady 2.7 mile hike up to the top. Never have we worked so hard to deserve our dinner that evening. I felt really bad for my coworker W who had been hiking so well in the beginning of this trek but toward the end of the uphill, was visibly crawling slowly up the hill. oops. Torture for the newbie camper.

I think everyone had a good time - we ate a lot of junk food and had the greasiest food I have seen in a very long time. Everyone should check their cholesterol after this trip... seriously.

I have decided John Y. (from my freshman dorm) is just that guy that everyone runs into at the randomest places. Lo and behold, I'm walking back to my campsite and he drives by in his car. Turned out he was camping there as well for the weekend. The next morning we went for a little hike before heading home and on the last leg before we reached the car, we ran into him again reading a book in the sun (without wearing sunblock!). Needless to say, we made him put some sunblock on his face despite his claims that he didn't think he would burn. tsk. The one funny comment from him to me was "I didn't know you liked the outdoors"...

So now I'm back home clean and settled and discovering large bug bites all over my shoulders. must ... not ... scratch... Maybe if I just go to sleep now, I'll resist the temptation.