Extreme Car Camping!

wintermute

wintermute

Joined
Oct 18, 2007
Messages
3,018
Got to finally spend some time outdoors this year. I went with my family, my BIL and his girlfriend to North South Lake Campground last weekend to do some car camping. The weather was supposed to be dodgy, and dodgy it was indeed! We got there Friday afternoon. It was a bit muggy and hot. Set up the tents, and went to check out the Escarpment. Around 8:00 at night the deluge began. We're talking real wrath of God stuff here. Dogs and cats living together. Mass hysteria! Solid thunderstorm from 8:30 to 10:30 with ridiculous non-stop pouring rain. With other storms and showers to follow throughout the night. As you can see from the following photos, my brother-from-another-mother and I were determined to grill burgers, and to be honest with you, they were the best burgers I've ever grilled. The family was great and didn't complain about the inclement weather. Saturday we got to do a heck of a lot of kayaking and hiked to Kaaterskill Falls. Thunderstorms throughout Saturday night. We packed up early on Sunday because we didn't want to sit around through the torrential downpours scheduled through Monday.

Knives: We kept a smorgasbord of knives on the picnic bench for communal use - my Fiddleback Nessmuk (everyone was a big fan of this one for food prep), Wetterlings hatchet, mine and my daughter's SAKs, my BIL's Leatherman, and the sweet Livesay I forgot my BIL had. I kept my RC-3 on my hip at all times. This arrangement worked out well for everyone, even the non-knifeknuts.

Views from the Escarpment...
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Camp (before the storm)...
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Me and BIL determined to keep fire going at all costs (luckily the umbrella he's holding is made of plastic)...
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Tons of rain makes for great waterfalls...
Kaaterskill Falls...
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The family, enjoying being dry...
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Cool post. We usually go to North South Lake every year. But this year we are heading to Rhode Island for the family camping trip.

Lot's of water going over the falls, nice to see that. Did you hike to North Point or Sunset Rock?

Cool to see another Long Islander posting here! :cool:
 
Nice to hear the rain didn't dampen your spirit - that waterfall looksawesome
 
I love the Ghostbusters reference! And heck yeah, burgers would be delicious if you had to fight the weather for the procurement of food. Ahhh, victory, that much sweeter. :thumbup:

Where are the knife pics? Don't hold out on us! :D
 
Wow, beautiful place. I wish that sort of terrain was here in Texas :D I had to LMAO with the cooking in the rain pic, that's the EXACT same thing that me and my BIL would have done, only we would have been struck by lightening with our luck :eek:

Glad to see everybody had a good time.

Take care, J.
 
Awesome scenery. Love that waterfall. I car camp at the farm alot so I can bring my Toys in droves. Doesnt really take anything away from my experience I love just getting outdoors if I can and doing it from a car and large tent afford me the luxury of having 100 knives;) Plus I can keep my Barrett under the pillow in case a rabid chipmunk comes to take my nuts.
 
With all of the weather comes something nice, and with this I suppose it was the waterfall. A lot of people would have left when the raining started, glad you didn't. At least there are some people left like that.
 
The umbrella pic cracks me up. When I was a Boy Scout, my troop was kinda run down. The only skill we excelled at was firemanship, and cooking, and doing the two together well was our niche. (S. Louisianna) Even in the pouring rain we could always get a good cooking fire going, and keep it going. Luckily the younger scouts were easily pressed into shielding the fire from rain using their pauncho's. Miserable task. Your head hole becomes a chimney. But the food was worth it, and we usually wound up feeding some neighboring troop also, and so were accepted regardless of our pathetic skills in other areas...
 
acv said:
Cool post. We usually go to North South Lake every year. But this year we are heading to Rhode Island for the family camping trip.

Lot's of water going over the falls, nice to see that. Did you hike to North Point or Sunset Rock?

Cool to see another Long Islander posting here! :cool:
Click to expand...

ACV, did you notice I was from LI from my stats, or from the girls wearing Islanders and Mets hats? Unfortunately we didn't hit anywhere but Kaaterskill. We were thinking that my 5 year old might be able to hit Bolder Rock and Split Rock or Sunset Rock, but the weather didn't cooperate.

Rockywolf, no knife pics. The camera wasn't too happy with all the rain and it was covered in condensation for a good part of the trip.

My BIL and me definitely were getting smoked out from tending that fire. The most amazing thing was when we were done cooking and finally gave up on it, it took a hour or two of rain to finally put it out.

I gotta admit, my girls are tough. They already want to go camping again.
 
wintermute said:
ACV, did you notice I was from LI from my stats, or from the girls wearing Islanders and Mets hats? Unfortunately we didn't hit anywhere but Kaaterskill. We were thinking that my 5 year old might be able to hit Bolder Rock and Split Rock or Sunset Rock, but the weather didn't cooperate.
Click to expand...

Yeah I saw you are from Long Island. ;)

I will most likely have to do a weekend trip up there so we can hike to sunset rock. So far all of my kids (6, 5 & 10 months) have hiked up there every year of there lives. There mom carried each of them up even before they were born. Gotta keep the streak alive....:D
 
Good stuff bro!

I've been overthere before, nice place!

You did good, not giving up on those burgers! I bet the effort made them taste that much better....
 
Cool pics - I love to see when people embrace the rain and have fun! Thanks for sharing.
 
I am constantly amused at the things posted on wss. car camping when it's raining is not what i would call a "survival" skill. nor cooking burgers in the rain. If I don't hike, I don't go. cook what you catch or kill.
 
Welcome to Bladeforums, mountain1.

I am constantly amused at the spectacle of a new member walking in here and telling the rest of us where it's at. Guess what? The new kid on the block don't get to tell the good old boys how to play the game.

We will be much more interested in what you would call a survival skill after you show us the courtesy of sharing in the positive, supportive attitude of the Wilderness & Survival Skills forum.
 
Wow, Esav considers me a Good Ol' Boy! I rock!

The survival part is getting the kids (and wife) to enjoy the whole trip. If I didn't my carcass would be in a ditch somewhere in the Catskills! ;)
 
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mountain1 said:
I am constantly amused at the things posted on wss. car camping when it's raining is not what i would call a "survival" skill. nor cooking burgers in the rain. If I don't hike, I don't go. cook what you catch or kill.
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I'm very interested to learn of your experiences.

Not sure if you've ever car camped with a family in the rain while trying to keep everyone fed and happy - that's real survival :D
 
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