I'm not a summer girl at all, but one thing I do enjoy about summer is camping. This year I had the treat of travelling to Pennsylvania to go camping with my brother and his wife. I flew into Ohio on Friday, August 12, and we drove to Pennsylvania on Saturday. By Saturday afternoon we were navigating the winding backroads enroute to our campsite (which gave me some agonizing motion-sickness in the car).
Pennsylvania is moist and humid, and the woods are lush and green- a stark contrast to Colorado's dry air and pokey pines. The afternoon heat intensified the moisture, practically making the air a heavy blanket. During the day, one can walk to the stream near camp and find crayfish, bright orange salamanders, lime-green frogs, and bumpy-skinned toads. The Pennsylvania forest is a community of life- insects, birds, amphibiens, bears, deer- all living together, uninterrupted by the campers nearby. In fact, the only direct contact I made with these creatures was being bit by mosquitoes and holding a salamander caught by my neice, Ayvah.
But, we didn't stay at camp the whole day. We ventured to the lake, where we submerged ourselves in the icy, 70-degree water. I enjoyed the feeling of the hot air on my head mixed with the goose-bump enducing chill of the water around my torso. I also got goosebumps from the peircing loudness and shock of shooting a gun for the first time. Because after we went swimming we grabbed a few pistols and went into the woods to do some target practice. The sheer silence of the Pennsylvania wood seemed to intensify the
boom of the shots- and to be honest- I was terrified of shooting a gun. But, the adrenaline rush after the fire makes it way worth it. This, mixed with the adrenaline from riding the four-wheelers afterword, was intense. Navigating the woods with our ATV's was the ULTIMATE way to experience the Pennsylvania forest.
My favorite time was twilight (just before nighttime) when everything was winding down and the air begins to cool. Everyone gathers around the fire, and we just listen to eachother and the crickets, frogs and nighttime noises. After we ate dinner- deer meat and pasta salad- we loaded up into the back of the pickups and went "deer spotting" (a nighttime ritual for my brother's wife's family). When we returned the adults stayed up to have a few beers, I stayed up a little while to play boardgames in the camper with some other teenagers, and then I went to bed by 1:00 am.
The next day we awoke to a downpour of rain, so we were forced to make the drive back home. On the way back we stopped to get icecream, and that is in one of the pictures. It was dissapointing to leave so early, but the short time I did spend camping in Pennsylvania was invigorating.
