Outdoors

On Monday, we headed out to Kanpolis Lake. This is a large area in Ellsworth County, Kansas. It consists of a state park with two locations, a wildlife preservation area, and various campsites and hunting grounds managed by the Army Corps of Engineers (motto: "making a website is as easy as scanning a bunch of brochures and posting the GIFs").

This was Terah's first camping experience, and the first visit to the Kanopolis area for both of us. It occured to me later that perhaps it wasn't best to take someone on their first camping trip to a place neither of us is familiar with, using gear that neither of us has really tried before... Also, we learned something about what causes raccoons to fight close to our tent...

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First, we drove around a bit to get a feel for the different areas. The ACE areas on the west shore of the lake were primitive and unimproved, perfect for tent camping, but there was also little shelter from the sun and wind, so we kept looking around. At Boldt Bluff, there was a nice shoreline area with some sand bars that Terah enjoyed. On our way over to the east shore, we went geocaching for a bit in the hunting grounds. We found a cache after quite a bit of climbing and hiking, but decided it was way too hot and sticky outside to go caching much more.

We checked out campsites at the main state park area on the east shore and the ACE Venango Park. Both had lots of compsites, including some "primitive" ones (which means "no utilities" to them). But none that were far from a roadway, and most had a flock of RVs around. (Aside: if you're going to a state park to enjoy nature, why are you bringing your satellite dish?)

So, we went to the state park on the south shore and found the Sandplum area. It too had a roadway, but nobody else was there, so we set up camp there. It was a nice location right next to the lake. A couple people dropped by the area during the evening to go fishing, but that was it.

Still, it bugs me that this entire area has no campsites away from roadways. (Camping is banned along the extensive trail system.) It is just not set up well for tent camping at all. Even the primitive sites seem designed with RVs in mind.

We had dinner (fried up some hamburger, along with apples and Terah's cookies), then watched the sunset over the lake. Beautiful.

The temperatures at night were about 50. Terah kept warm by wrapping herself up in a sleeping bag, and I was going to use an "emergency" blanket I had kept in my car trunk a few years ago. However, I discovered that the blanket was only about 4 feet long, and so I was chilly most of the night.

We purposely left our watches behind, so I have no idea what time we turned in. It's great to not even care about what time it is. So it was sometime after dark, whenever that might be.

Now here's something I learned about camping. At our campsite, like all the others in the area, there were two large trash cans. "Nice," I thought. Now I don't have to carry our trash out, and be careful to keep it from the wildlife in the meantime. We can just throw it away. I had scraped out our cooking utensils into the trash can, and a bit of leftovers went there, too. This was apparently an extremely stupid thing to do.

About 15 minutes after we turned in, there was this loud thump outside. Then some scratching and another thump. Terah wanted me to check it out, and as I turned my flashlight towards the trash cans, I saw a raccoon jump out and run off.

A little while later, it was back. Another one turned up sniffing around the cooksite (about 20 feet from our tent in the opposite direction), even though we left nothing there. They inevitably met up and there was a bunch of growling and perhaps a bit of fighting.

Pretty soon there were more thumping sounds from the trash can, followed by digging sounds (I think they were rummaging around in the can). Then some eating noises. Finally, another thump, followed by much growling and all sorts of racket. I think two raccoons wound up in the same trash can at once.

Finally they move on to other trash cans in the area and we could sleep....

Until the coyotes started their howling. They were a long ways off, but these things carry. And all the dogs in the area keep up the racket for awhile, and even a few cows got in on the act. This happened several times during the night. The basic pattern was: 1) pack of coyotes get to howling; 2) dogs from all over (both homes in the area and accompanying people in RVs) start barking and don't really stop; 3) sounds of RV doors slamming as people try to figure out what their dogs are barking at.

So that was Day 1. Stay tuned for Day 2, including our hike in the amazingly beautiful Horsethief Canyon.

Terah and I will be camping at Kanopolis State Park sometime in the next few days. When I say camping, I mean "pack the tent and gear into the backpack and hike at least a mile from any motorized vehicle or electricty." Some things we will not be doing while camping (and these are real questions people have asked us):

• Staying in a hotel


• Using any sort of RV


• Using portable TVs


• Staying in any sort of permanent structure at the park

So, yesterday I got out the camping gear. It's been several years since I've used it, and I wanted to make sure it was all in order. I set up the tent (which is lightweight and rolls up very small, great to fit in a backpack). It is looking good. (And I'm a big fan of The North Face -- their backpacking gear is great)

But there's a problem. Terah is a much more picky eater than I am. I have never bothered with a heat source at a campsite, since my camping trips tend to be short enough that I don't mind eating 1) things that last awhile like apples and carrots, 2) dried or dry things of various types, and 3) canned items that are ready to eat.

Terah is not going to go for this. So I think we will go to the Coleman factory outlet store and buy a small backpacker's burner and bring along some materials for things she likes to eat.