Labor Day Canoemping! (Preparation)

Labor Day was coming....a guaranteed 3-day weekend. What did we want to do with it? A camping trip out east...Daingerfield or Caddo Lake sounded like a nice plan, since we hadn't been to either in a while. But then another idea struck...to do something we'd only done together once before -- canoemping! The Brazos River wasn't as far as Village Creek had been, and it would be a completely different type of terrain -- a wider river, cliffs, gravel, and considerably less sand....or so we hoped. I suggested this on the Wednesday before said weekend, and we were going to browse Academy for fun while mulling it over...but after 3 wrong turns and thus a very scenic route, we realized that our heads were really already in the river. The hell with it, we're going!

But first, we needed some changes to our gear. We remembered what worked well and what didn't with our first canoe camping trip. Ponchos = good...having only a basic rain cover cinched shut to hold towels and sleeping bags = bad. Our first time, we had a torrential downpour that made sure everything was soaked. We also realized we had over packed, treating it like car camping. We decided we needed to do a little homework, so we continued on to Academy.

I've said before how bad I can be when surrounded by camping gear. We did try to rein it in...honest! We managed not to blow our wad on the kayak we saw. Instead, we noted items that would be useful: a decent camp stove, individual air mats that were smaller and lighter, a waterproof bag for things we wanted to keep dry (like sleeping bags), a griddle for a cooking surface that would eliminate the need for the big mess kit (or so we thought), microfilter water bottles (that sounded promising), and shortly before we left, we saw a backpack that looked like an incredible deal - external frame pack, about 2700 cubic inches of storage, and only $40. Wow. I tried it on, and it was easy to size to me...fit well, didn't feel awkward to carry. Yeah, I needed one of these.

But we were good! We didn't buy a thing that night. Instead, the plan was to do a little research (whether microfilter bottles work well, among other things), and swing by the army-navy surplus place to see if they had anything to beat the prices we saw. If not, then I would pick up stuff based on a list we would compile during my lunch hour (yes, we'd have a gear checklist for once).

So Thursday, I compiled the checklist as best I could...it used most of two columns in a 10-point font, and even then, we were still adding things as we realized we'd need them (oh yeah, no bathrooms...put toilet paper and a camp shovel on there). According to das intarwebs, mainly backpacking sites frequented by people who go way out into the wilderness, microfilter bottles are a very good thing to have, with maybe some iodine tablets as an emergency backup. So, crazy as it may sound, 2 microfilter bottles were to be our only water supply for 3 days.

Of course, by the time I got out of work, I had an appointment to fix someone's computer later that evening, so I glanced around the army/navy place (sadly, I wasn't too impressed with their camping or backpacking equipment...it may have been rugged, but it was a bit heavy and overkill for our needs). The guy running the place was pretty friendly, though...it was like visiting the lonely kid whose only desire in the world is to personally show you every single odd item he's collected in his lifetime.

So, with an hour and a half till my client, I whipped into Academy and quickly got everything on the list as well as a few other useful goodies...good thing we'd been there the night before and decided on everything we would want. Heck, I was still early to do some work and earn a bit to help pay for the trip.

Late Thursday night finds the girls and I wandering around in Walmart. They were searching for fabric, while I gave in to a whim and bought my very first harmonica. Brandy giggled at me, while Angela took one look and said, "oh, hell no..." What? It's a camping instrument! I had never played one except for a little bit of blowing the whole thing when I was a kid, making horribly discordant music as kids often tend to do.

Friday at work could not move any slower. I swear, it felt like I had finished all my work for the day by 8:30 am and then had nothing but extra time to kill until Brandy picked me up around 6:30 that evening. To make it even more frustrating, the boss said everyone could go at about 2pm....leaving me alone in the building for over 4 hours...yup, the universe wanted to emphasize the wait.

At long last, we were on our way home, although we did stop again at Academy for "just a couple more things." Then we spent the next several hours gathering everything together, sorting out what food we would take, and getting it all packed up. I don't think I packed the backpack as well as I could have...it was a little wobbly.

Just as the packing is finished, there turns out to be a bit of drama with the roommate, so we didn't actually get to bed till well after 2am. It was hard enough to fall asleep -- we were pretty much wired...but we knew we'd need to sleep at least a little, or we'd kill ourselves the next day from fatigue.