Fall Campout at Red Oak Lodge

This weekend was our fall camp out at Red Oak Lodge. Not long ago the Conservation Department decided to upgrade the rifle range by the cabin parking lot. This resulted in the access road to the cabin being relocated. It was a horrible mistake. They rerouted the road straight up the hill and straight down the other side. One of the requirements for using the cabin is that all one’s camping equipment must be backpacked in. With the relocation up and down the hill, it is almost impossible to carry a night’s worth of equipment. It all but killed me the last time, so this time I called and said that it had done such damage to my knees that I would like to have permission to drive my equipment in. They were surprisingly cooperative and allowed me to do so. Since I was going in anyway I took the heavy items for the other campers too. Normally you need to have a handicapped sticker and I think I will look into getting one of these.

Those who had items to be driven in stopped by our house earlier on Saturday so we were ready to go when we arrived at the parking lot. The drive in was a little bumpy but once we discovered to keep one side of the car on the ridge in the middle of the road, we stopped bottoming out. I was able to drive down almost to the cabin itself and unloading was much easier than it might have been otherwise.

We started coming to the cabin in 1974, so we have been at it 34 years now. This is the first time we have driven our equipment in.

Only John Hawn was there when we went in. The others arrived at intervals throughout the afternoon. People who attended were John and Sue Hawn and their dog Chutney, Karen and I, Lance, Cherise and the grandkids and their dog Nora. Regular attendees Bob Peterson, and Doug and Lynne came. We saw some old friends who hadn’t been there for a while, Lyle and Anne Hanson and some new people came this year, Steve and Ann Piper.

As usual, everyone brought snacks to eat during the afternoon. One of the biggest topics of conversation was Bob Peterson’s new book. For 14 years he has been researching European and American painting styles and has published a reference guide to make sense of it all. He showed the results of all this hard work.

Ben was curious about everything. The little darling needed to get out and explore, and he preferred to do so without any adult supervision. He was particularly intrigued by places that could cause him harm, the edge of the cliff for instance. But we kept our eyes on him and no harm came of it.

John and I brought pumpkins and as it started to get dark we carved jack-o’-lanterns out of them. This seems to be somewhat of a tradition these days.

One by one the attendees started to drift back to the parking lot and then to their own warm beds at home. But Hawns, Lance’s family, and us stayed for the night. It had been a beautiful day and evening was just as nice so Karen and I slept on the porch like we do whenever we can. We invited Rachel to stay with us. She accepted so we put her air mattress between ours.

We got the coffee going first thing in the morning and prepared breakfast. Lance had brought a supper of white chili that he shared with Karen and I, and in the morning we returned the favor by cooking breakfast. We had toasted English muffins with bacon and Gouda cheese.

Just before we were ready to pack up I looked around the cabin and thought there must have been much, much more than we had brought in. But it all packed up neatly and was no problem at all. We took a group shot of everyone who had braved it through the night.

Sue a twisted her ankle at some point during the weekend so she rode out with me while the others walked back. People unloaded their own equipment from our van and packed it into their own cars and off we went.