Good thread Jerry! Best-- any of the times we head out to our favorite remote wilderness site on the lake! Every time is awesome and for each time there have been some priceless moments. Last year's priceless moment was out kayaking from the site with my daughter watching a loon family. Then sitting in the rain in the kayak watching a bald eagle that was perched in a tree by the shore line! The year before a mother moose and calf spending the afternoon at our site while a bald eagle circled above! worst-- would be a tie between the place with the power plant humming in the background that sold colored condoms in the camp store but no milk or the place in NH where golf carts zipped around and through our site at all hours, the bathroom was falling apart, and the campground looked like a trailer park with all of the seasonal campers! They all looked at us strange too because we were the transients! We left that place early! Couldn't leave the one with the power plant early because we were there to attend my cousin's wedding! Gotten lost-- I'm sure we have but I'm drawing a blank on that one right now! Honestly, I'm pretty good at reading maps and directions but my husband is not. You men might understand that he doesn't always appreciate my input in those situations! Ran out of gas-- well, I had a close call one summer when towing a boat up to Maine! Luckily, I did make it to the gas station just in time! stranded-- sort of, once when we were taking our boat out on one of our tidal rivers we packed up all of gear and got in the boat. Untied the boat at the dock and the incoming current immediately pulled the boat upriver away from the dock. Then the boat would not start! So my husband started throwing a rope to the shore to some people on the dock. The rope wouldn't reach and tide was pulling us further away. Then he finally just jumped in the river and swam to shore with the tow line. Then he pulled the boat in. We tied the boat up and he went and got the tow vehicle (at that time a van) to pull the boat out! I stayed with the boat. Then the next thing I know he was just standing next to the van and the van was running. I couldn't figure out what the problem was so I went over! HE LOCKED THE KEYS INSIDE THE VAN! He calmly told me what happened and I just lost it with hysterical laughing! I laughed so hard I fell down! This was also one of those times where I'm not sure he appreciated my input! He ended up doing something to remove a hinge on one of the back windows and then was able to open it completely. Then he lowered our screaming child through the window and sent her up front to open the door!

122) Chiggers love the sweet perfume of OFF! Wear it well at clothing openings and about the ankle. (Deer ticks are optional here but plentiful.)

I don't get it (that's no shock to those that know me). As a hobby I play electric bass and play occasionally at a local coffee house and sometimes with a full-blown band at church. Love it! I guess I'm weird ( no suprise there!) but when I camp I only want to hear "mother nature". Birds, wind, water, rain, whatever. But I don't crave music. I get enough just playing and listening at home ( that includes all the garbage I hear as the "Homies" pass by my house here in the barrio). I will never understand the need to replace the wonderful quiet of nature with what we replace it with. Just my 2 cents (usually not even worth that to most people)Let the flaming begin.

Wow, I'm glad you're okay. I had one of those hikes from h*ll. My sis and I took a vacation to New Mexico. She had hiked the Sierra's plenty when she lived there so she wanted to take me on a trail "she knew". I wasn't a hiker at the time, but we made it to the top after hours of hiking up. Once we arrived, we hung out for a little while, then headed down to ensure we'd get there before dark. Some time into the decend, dilly dallying, and not paying attention to the time, we had to pick up our pace a lot because dusk was upon us and we still had a ways to go. Moving along, somehow, we took a wrong turn and got lost. No one was around. It was getting dark now. We were running. Then came the rain so we put on our ponchos. Sis's flashlight had dead batteries, and mine were almost dead - not sure why, they were new. We expected to be down before dusk anyway. It was pouring hard, we were trying to find our way down in the dark with a very dim light, seriously wet terrain and an occasional thunder. We were running along the edge of cliffs trying to find our way out. Not good - one bad move and down you go...or one turn of the ankle and you can't walk. Somehow, we started going up again - another wrong turn. After awhile of not being able to see 2 feet in front of us, something told me to search my backpack and there I found spare batteries. I didn't remember packing spares since my other ones were new. I really thought we were sleeping on the mountain that night, in the rain. Finally we found our way. I was never so happy to see our car in the lot and get to our camp ground. Now, when I hike, I'm well prepared. That was the scariest night ever.