The summer of 2009 was not the “great summer of camping” I was hoping it was going to be. I had such high hopes!
We went on a Memorial Day camping trip pretty close by in a park with miles upon miles of wonderful bike trails. That turned out to be a lot of fun and met some new people, but we also had to deal with a downpour of such an extreme that it broke our tarps with the weight of the water. Fun, but wet.
I had hoped to sneak away, just me and the girls for some bike camping at a campsite about 12 miles outside of Boston. We had gone there last year and it was fantastic. I had a smaller backpacking tent that would keep things light and we’d cook dinner together and it’d be fantastic. It rained the two open weekends we had available, so scratch that.
July 4th, we hauled our asses up to northern Vermont to camp near Lake Carmi and ride on the Missiquoi Bike Path (pdf). We had tons of people with us and it rained the entire weekend. Everything was drenched, and if it weren’t for the wonderful company and the one short and one long bike ride we got it, it would have been frustrating.
We also flew out to California (where I’m from) to visit family and go camping in Yosemite for two nights. That was fantastic! And as I’m writing this, I’m realizing that we actually have done quite a bit of camping, but our two big trips were just so wet.
So, here we are on the eve of our annual Cape Cod Bike Trip and the weather looks as if it’ll be fantastic. The wife will have 4 panniers, and I’ll be loading down the Xtracycle and pulling the kids in the trailer. Very exciting.
Wish me luck!
My light Lemond commuter was used on our first trip, where we drove with all of our stuff.
Last year, we were able to carry all of our stuff, and the kids were a little older. For that I brought my Panasonic city bike with front panniers.
[...] my last post, I was talking about how crazy the camping was this year. well, the craziness didn’t [...]