An Attempt at Camping...

A couple of weeks ago, Alex and I decided we wanted to go camping as the last time we camped was back in 2003! We made a run to Target where we purchased a tent, a cooler, lighters, and food. We spent last week looking for places in North Carolina where we could go for the weekend. We were hoping to go north around the Asheville area, but all the campsites were reserved and when I called to see about "first come, first serve" availability, the park ranger informed me those campsites typically fill up by Wednesday and Thursday. As we were leaving after Alex got off work Friday, we did not want to risk driving over two hours only to find out there were no campsites available. So, we decided to head to Morrow Mountain State Park. Lucky for us, they had plenty of sites available to reserve.

We drove down this past Friday and got to the campsite around 4:00pm. There were only about 3 other tents in our area, so we had most of the campsite and bathrooms to ourselves. When we arrived, we purchased some firewood from the camp hosts and then set up our tent. Once the tent was up, we started the campfire. It took a bit of trial and error, but eventually, we got our fire going! We made hotdogs and smore's and it was really relaxing just sitting by the campfire talking and watching the embers glow.

I should mention it was HOT, I'm talking temperatures around 95 degrees + humidity at 6:00pm! By 10:00pm, we were very sweaty and smokey, so we took cold showers and headed to bed. Let's just say at this point, we knew sleep was not going come easily! It was stifling in the tent with very little air flow! It was a restless night and we both woke up around 6:00am drenched in sweat! Ick.

Since we were up early, we decided to go on an early-morning hike to beat some of the heat. We settled on the Fall Mountain Trail Loop which is a 4.1 mile hike that passes by Lake Tillery and through forests and streams. It was a great way to start the morning and took us about two hours to complete.

By the time we got back to the campsite, we were again hot and sweaty and decided another night sleeping in the tent was not in our future! We ended our camping experience by starting a bonfire and roasting hotdogs for lunch before we packed up the car and drove the hour back to Charlotte. I was not disappointed to be showering and sleeping in my own bed that night! I told Alex, I was not done with camping, I just wouldn't be doing so in the middle of August! We realized the campsite north of Morrow Mountain State Park was 20 degrees cooler which made sense why its campsites were filled up and ours was basically empty! Lesson learned! I would love to go back to Morrow Mountain State Park, but we'll pick a weekend a bit later in season! ; )