- Joined
- May 17, 2006
- Messages
- 450
Thought I might share a story that will either make you laugh, think I'm stupid, or both.
Last weekend I headed out on a two day trip to the Chequamegon up in northern WI. I had been there the previous weekend but only for one night and this time I wanted a little bit longer to be in the wild. This trip was also going to be the first time in a long while that I got both of my dogs out with me. They are house dogs for the most part and since I have a Camaro, I don't often take them out with me because of simple logistics.
So I got a late start on Friday night but paid it no attention since I knew where I was going and I should still get there in plenty of time to set-up for the first night.
The drive is about 2hrs from my house and I arrived in the area around 7:30pm. To my surprise, someone had setup in my spot so I now had to find a new one. The problem is, I didn't know the area that well yet as I have just started to explore it but with my GPS and decent set of maps I considered this to be a challenge more than a trip ender.
As it turns out, the roads have changed dramatically in the deeper areas since the maps were printed. Even with the GPS (older model without roads or anything) I had a tough time finding one of the spots on the map. Eventually, I did find the trail entrance and just about now the sun was going down. I still figured I was in good shape since all I had to do was hike in from there.
I pulled my car over to the side of the road and realized I wasn't quite far enough over and put the car in reverse and started a sort of parallel parking manuever to get off the main path of the dirt road. That's when things got bad.
Of all of the places in the entire area that had great terrain on the shoulder, I had to pick the one 10 foot area that had mud. Being the experienced Wisconsinite that I am, I decided that I could rock it out back and forth. (this has worked many times in the past) Well, I soon realized that was a stupid idea as I ended up burrying it even more until the frame of my car was essenitally teetering on the edge of the gravel.
So now, my car is stuck but I figured that eventually someone was bound to come by and even if they don't I had four days worth of food if I gorged myself, a week if I strectched it. So I decided to make camp right next to the road in a little clearing and work it out. This would have been totally cool except for the one variable that I haven't mentioned much. My dogs.
Like I said, they aren't really outside dogs. (my fault really) I do get them out in the woods occassionally but seldom over night. In fact only once overnight and that was in a big family sized tent when my wife and I were still together. Well, as you can imagine, since my car is stuck in mud, the car was surrounded by mud, I've got mud up to my knees and the dogs are covered in mud. Still not that big of a deal since we are out in the woods. What's a little mud ever hurt right?
So after I got my gear out and set up and got the fire going. I decided to camp under the stars since there wasn't supposed to be any rain. The big thing here, is that oen of my dogs, Tank, is afraid of the dark. I'm not really sure why but he is. Every time he caught the reflection of the moon on my Camaro's t-top he went in a crazy which in turn caused my other dog Babe to go crazy too. This went on for a couple of hours until my patience was pushed to the limit. I decided enough was enough and packed everything back up and loaded it, my muddy dogs, and my muddy self back into the car to spend the night.
So picture my huge pack, my two 100lb dogs and I all covered in mud and jammed into a little Camaro cockpit. Now, instead of Tank barking outside to the reflection of the moon he is barking inside to the occasional glowing ember of the fire pit next to the car. It also dropped down to 30 degrees that night so starting the car up every few hours was kind of needed to keep them asleep and myself from shivering to death.
Needless to say, my log book for this trip was unfavorable. One of the good ole boys rolled by around 6AM and pulled me out the whole 5 FEET that I needed in order to be back on solid road. With only about 15 minutes of actual sleep the whole night and 2 packs of smokes later, I wasn't in the mood to go camping anymore and headed home. The caked on mud inside my car was "interesting" to clean up. At this point I can laugh since I've told the story to some of my friends and they all think I am stupid for even going in the first place. (they are mostly yuppie city boys who wouldn't even fathom going out alone) Just thought I'd share it and give you all a laugh at my expense.
Garrett
Last weekend I headed out on a two day trip to the Chequamegon up in northern WI. I had been there the previous weekend but only for one night and this time I wanted a little bit longer to be in the wild. This trip was also going to be the first time in a long while that I got both of my dogs out with me. They are house dogs for the most part and since I have a Camaro, I don't often take them out with me because of simple logistics.
So I got a late start on Friday night but paid it no attention since I knew where I was going and I should still get there in plenty of time to set-up for the first night.
The drive is about 2hrs from my house and I arrived in the area around 7:30pm. To my surprise, someone had setup in my spot so I now had to find a new one. The problem is, I didn't know the area that well yet as I have just started to explore it but with my GPS and decent set of maps I considered this to be a challenge more than a trip ender.
As it turns out, the roads have changed dramatically in the deeper areas since the maps were printed. Even with the GPS (older model without roads or anything) I had a tough time finding one of the spots on the map. Eventually, I did find the trail entrance and just about now the sun was going down. I still figured I was in good shape since all I had to do was hike in from there.
I pulled my car over to the side of the road and realized I wasn't quite far enough over and put the car in reverse and started a sort of parallel parking manuever to get off the main path of the dirt road. That's when things got bad.
Of all of the places in the entire area that had great terrain on the shoulder, I had to pick the one 10 foot area that had mud. Being the experienced Wisconsinite that I am, I decided that I could rock it out back and forth. (this has worked many times in the past) Well, I soon realized that was a stupid idea as I ended up burrying it even more until the frame of my car was essenitally teetering on the edge of the gravel.
So now, my car is stuck but I figured that eventually someone was bound to come by and even if they don't I had four days worth of food if I gorged myself, a week if I strectched it. So I decided to make camp right next to the road in a little clearing and work it out. This would have been totally cool except for the one variable that I haven't mentioned much. My dogs.
Like I said, they aren't really outside dogs. (my fault really) I do get them out in the woods occassionally but seldom over night. In fact only once overnight and that was in a big family sized tent when my wife and I were still together. Well, as you can imagine, since my car is stuck in mud, the car was surrounded by mud, I've got mud up to my knees and the dogs are covered in mud. Still not that big of a deal since we are out in the woods. What's a little mud ever hurt right?
So after I got my gear out and set up and got the fire going. I decided to camp under the stars since there wasn't supposed to be any rain. The big thing here, is that oen of my dogs, Tank, is afraid of the dark. I'm not really sure why but he is. Every time he caught the reflection of the moon on my Camaro's t-top he went in a crazy which in turn caused my other dog Babe to go crazy too. This went on for a couple of hours until my patience was pushed to the limit. I decided enough was enough and packed everything back up and loaded it, my muddy dogs, and my muddy self back into the car to spend the night.
So picture my huge pack, my two 100lb dogs and I all covered in mud and jammed into a little Camaro cockpit. Now, instead of Tank barking outside to the reflection of the moon he is barking inside to the occasional glowing ember of the fire pit next to the car. It also dropped down to 30 degrees that night so starting the car up every few hours was kind of needed to keep them asleep and myself from shivering to death.
Needless to say, my log book for this trip was unfavorable. One of the good ole boys rolled by around 6AM and pulled me out the whole 5 FEET that I needed in order to be back on solid road. With only about 15 minutes of actual sleep the whole night and 2 packs of smokes later, I wasn't in the mood to go camping anymore and headed home. The caked on mud inside my car was "interesting" to clean up. At this point I can laugh since I've told the story to some of my friends and they all think I am stupid for even going in the first place. (they are mostly yuppie city boys who wouldn't even fathom going out alone) Just thought I'd share it and give you all a laugh at my expense.
Garrett
(Totally just kidding!)
